Only Yesterday, Isao Takahata, Studio Ghibli,

Only Yesterday is a Japanese animation directed and written by Isao Takahata. It is based on the manga of the same name by Hotaru Okamoto and Yuko Tone. It was released in 1991. It is another of Takahata’s experiments. It is written as a realistic adult drama. The film looks at the life of 27-year-old Taeko. It follows her life as it is now and looks back through her memories of her childhood dreams and hopes. Is her life living up to them? She is still single and stuck in her job in Tokyo. She decides to take a trip into the countryside and visit the family of the elder brother of her brother-in-law. She helps out during the safflower harvest.

The longer she stays in the countryside the less she wants to go back to her job in Tokyo. She starts wrestling with issues of her life now (career, love) whilst feeling nostalgic for her childhood. There is a lure of the countryside often portrayed in Studio Ghibli films, always beautifully conceived. This is reinforced by the folk based music used in the film. Interestingly this was the highest grossing Japanese film in 1991 for the domestic market.