Only Yesterday
Dir: Isao Takahata
1991
****
Studio Ghibli's fifth official film and Isao Takahata's second as director, Only Yesterday is like a Studio Ghibli version of a Yasujirô Ozu film. However, it's never at the top of people's favorite Ghibli list even though most fans like it, but following classics such as Castle in the Sky, Grave of the Fireflies, My Neighbour Totoro and Kiki's delivery Service, it was a very different direction for the studio to take. Although Grave of the Fireflies was a serious film, there was a otherworldly feel about it, while Only Yesterday is real with no fantasy element whatsoever. The animation is beautifully detailed to reflect the story's maturity, there is no Cat Bus, talking animals or mythical beings here, this is quite serious but mostly reflective. It is also incredibly nostalgic and somewhat melancholy, which I think is the reason for its appeal. Our protagonist is an unmarried 27 year old women wanting to escape the City, it is Ozu to the core although it is based on the manga of the same name by Hotaru Okamoto and Yuko Tone. The story intertwines with irrelevant childhood memories and present day philosophical daydreams, it gets a little dull toward the middle of the story and some of the childhood memories are hardly the sort of thing a 27 year old would be worrying about but the pace, the excellent animation and the wonderful ending certainly make up for it. An animated Ozu essentially and every bit as lovely as that sounds. Ghibli at their most sober and uplifting.