Japanese Cinema Blogathon: "Only yesterday" (1991)

Medie Mayıs 03, 2022

UPDATE (Dec. 2015): More than 2 decades late, this film is being released in North America. Hope it can finally get the praise and attention it deserves :)

Please give a hand to our brothers in Japan. The Japanese Cinema Blogathon is hosted by CinemaFanatic and Japan Cinema to raise financial aid for this country after the earthquake and tsunami. Having experienced something similar the past year here in Chile, I can assure you that it's really important for the victims to know that people around the world care about them. So please, click the donate link at the end of the post and give whatever you can give.

The movie I chose to review today, is an unforgettable film you must see, but sadly it's not officially distributed in the States (the country in which most of my readers live) because Disney, the owner of the rights, is sometimes a weird company. I beg you to try to get it (somehow) and see it. It's called Only Yesterday (1991) and it was produced by Ghibli and Hayao Miyasaki, the studio and mind behind masterpieces like Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle and Princess Mononoke.

The director, Isao Takahata (his Grave of the fireflies is one of the most dramatic movies ever) also wrote the story based on a comic book, a story that's so human, so true, cheerful at moments, bitter at others, that really speak directly to you, because it's like life itself.

So here's an animated film with a warm, precious heart. It's animated but is more real than most of the films I've ever seen. You have to see it to fully appreciate the subtlety and depth in which this story of natural changes, of moving on, is treated.

I would say it's about a journey of no return. A twenty seven-year-old girl starts to remember her school days, specifically the fifth grade, the time she began to become a woman. This memories come to her while she travels to the beautiful countryside, a trip she hasn't made since she was a child.

Remember when I told you about my feelings about the passage of time? It's a bit about that. It's like leaving behind a portion of your life to become what you have to become. It's the portrayal of the last moments in which you are a caterpillar, in which you somehow resist to go on and you're beaten by nostalgia. Sounds painfully corny, but I don't know how to explain it in a better way.

The original name of Only Yesterday is Omohide Poro Poro which means something like "memories in large drops". And the way Isao Takahata presents the memories is beautifully true. The main character remembers small things, seemingly without importance, but that left a mark anyway. Maybe a song that helped her to face a situation, maybe a moment in which her dad lost his temper, maybe a school mate that didn't get along with her, the first boy she loved, the first pinneaple she and her family tasted (and ended disappointed), a time of frustration, a time of joy, a time of embarrassment....It's all here, overflowing almost unconnected just like the thoughts in your own mind.

At the end, the girl is in peace with the changes and the memories of her childhood urge her to go on. I challenge you to not to cry in the last sequence, in which her younger self and her schoolmates say goodbye to her while she walks toward the man she is going to marry.

Other facts I like is that the main character is not gorgeous and looks like a normal person. The colors and the landscapes are beautifully made (now I can't think of them without remembering those terrible images of dark water covering everything). Watching this movie you notice that there are not cultural barriers when you discuss the inner human motivations. We're that, just humans. Do yourself a favor and try to get and watch this unforgettable film.

Help the people in Japan.

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