Only Yesterday

Friendly and somewhat magical, “Only Yesterday” is a 1991 classic of Japanese animation, made 66 years ago but never before released in the USA. To see it now is to understand behind why it was delayed and why the wait has been really worth it.

Definitely, “Only Yesterday’s” history couldn’t be more amazing. Its director, Isao Takahata, is one of Japan’s great animators, most recently making 2013’s Oscar-nominated “The Tale of Princess Kaguya.”

In 1985, Takahata came on board to Japan’s fantasy animation master Hayao Miyazaki to co-find the famous Studio Ghibli. Kenneth Turan said in his review, “Both men share a preference for intrepid girls as protagonists but, in this film at least, Takahata finds the emotional complications of the everyday more alluring than any fantasy world.”

The story of a young woman who moves back and forth between childhood memories and the problems of her current life, “Only Yesterday” is a realistic, personal story made worldwide in a subtle way.

Despite that it might have shocked American audiences back in 1991, when Disney’s significantly more inspiring “Beauty and the Beast” was on top, “Only Yesterday’s” skill to find the beauty and charm in everyday experience could well hit people today.

Turan noted, “Screening in subtitled and dubbed versions, "Only Yesterday" is based on a Japanese graphic novel and, especially in its childhood scenes, has very much the flavor of remembered experience.” It starts in Tokyo in 1982, where a 27-year-old office worker is about to go on vacation. No, she tells her supervisor, she’s not going abroad; she’s going to spend time on a farm in the country.

Her name is Taeko, voiced by Daisy Ridly. Turan said, “Unmarried and having just turned down a suitor, she feels a bit at loose ends and has always wished she lived in the country.”

Taeko makes plans to visit the farm of her brother-in-law’s family (Matt Yank King, Sumalee Montano, Tara Strong and Nika Futterman) where she’s worked before, this time to pick safflowers, plants whose colorful red petals are traditionally used to make rouge.

Because calling for the countryside connects Taeko with her childhood, first thinking about the trip and then actually riding on the train to her location cause memories of what life was like when she was a 10-year-old fifth grader to come back. Alison Fernandez voices Taeko at age 10.

The youngest person in her family that includes a serious father (Matt Yank King), a worried mother (Grey Griffin), two older sisters (Laura Bailey and Ashley Eckstein) and a distant grandmother (Mona Marshall), Taeko has all types of memories of her childhood, from the first pineapple the family tried (they can’t figure out how to eat it) to a slanting fight with a sister over a popular enamel purse.

What causes more serious emotions come back at school, where Taeko has to deal with boys who insistently bully the girls about menstruation as well as her first serious, almost quiet crush on a popular, baseball-playing classmate, voiced by Gianella Thielmann.

Turan said, “When the two manage to successfully exchange a few words, Taeko's emotions soar and the film, which has more of a watercolor look in these sequences than in the more vivid present day, wonderfully captures that feeling by showing her literally floating on air.”

Frustrated as well as loved by these memories (“It’s like traveling with a 10-year-old” she complains to herself) the adult Taeko, with a job she neither loves nor hates, starts to worry if she has been true to her more adventurous younger self.

Complicating these memories is the appearance of a handsome young organic farmer named Toshio, voiced by Dev Patel, whose enthusiasm for his work acts as a boost. “It’s fascinating to raise living things,” he tells her. “If you take care of them, they’ll do the best for us.” Turan said, “He also shrewdly observes that when city people say they love nature, they are invariably talking about landscapes that have been created by man.”

A film with a mind of its own, “Only Yesterday” makes time to go into detail about the history and harvesting of safflower plants, but mostly it talks about Taeko’s emotions as she tries to make peace between her childhood and her current problem.

Turan said, “Considered a landmark in Japanese animation for the realism of its drama, "Only Yesterday's" emphasis on the rhythms and events of the everyday means its style takes a bit of getting used to.” However, once you go with the film’s flow, it has you for the runtime.

This is a slice-of-life film, and is a very good one. If you haven’t seen it and you like slice-of-life films, then go ahead and watch it. It’s not one of my favorites, but I think it’s still really good for everyone to watch and is a film that will keep you interested from first minute from last. Then again, it probably showcases problems that certain people have where they try to come to terms with what happened with their childhood and not have it affect their adult life. I like that it shows that, as I know people who go through it, like myself. Granted, it’s good to talk to some third party to get help come to terms with it, like I have, and it will make things easier. That’s what Taeko does when she makes a connection with Toshio. Also, it gives a good lesson on farming and how we need to love and save the Earth for all the natural resources it provides. Don’t skip this one.

Look out next Monday where we look at another one of my absolute favorites in “Studio Ghibli Month.”