Only Yesterday (1991)
Confession time: I have never seen a Studio Ghibli film, although I’ve heard about them for years, and it seemed high time to change all that with Only Yesterday. Wow. This film is over thirty years old, but it’s seen a resurgence in popularity due to a new English translation made five years ago.
If anyone hasn’t seen Only Yesterday, it’s set in 1982 and is the story of Taeko, a twenty-seven year old office worker who’s due for a vacation in the country. Instead of lying around soaking up the sun, though, Taeko is going to work on a farm.
On the train Taeko’s mind drifts back to her childhood in Tokyo in the late nineteen-sixties. She remembers fighting with her sisters, getting bad grades in math, and her parents weren’t always very understanding. These flashbacks are interspersed throughout the film, many of them told to Toshio, a family friend and passionate organic farmer she meets and works with. Some recollections get pretty frank, such as Taeko experiencing puberty, particularly one scene when she gets her period for the first time.
Naturally Taeko’s time in the country stirs up new feelings in her, and she has to decide where she goes from there.
Only Yesterday looks gorgeous. The backgrounds during the flashback scenes are like watercolor paintings, which gives the film a warm and slightly unreal look, as if we’re seeing the scenes through sharktooth scrim. Even sad memories are slightly idealized.
The film is gorgeous from an acting standpoint as well, and there isn’t much meaningless filler like in some older animes when the speaking time of English dialogue doesn’t fit completely with that of the original Japanese (Much as I love Star Blazers, there are times when the characters randomly chortle or something). Only Yesterday sounds natural.
Well, I take that back. Daisy Ridley as Taeko doesn’t sound like herself because her voice is awkwardly and inexplicably pushed into an American accent. She gets by, though.
Oh, and speaking of awkward, the soundtrack features a translation of “The Rose” into Japanese. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I used to be able to play that song on the piano and I wasn’t sure how to react to this bit of indirect nostalgia in the movie.
Some Ghibli aficionados seem divided on Only Yesterday, although the general consensus is that the film is a masterful piece of work. As a newbie I’m not sure where I land yet in relation to the rest of the catalogue, but just as a film, Only Yesterday is an interesting character study about a good-hearted-though-flawed woman who’s just beginning to come to terms with her past and how that past affects her future.
One of the aspects I like about the movie is the honesty. Taeko doesn’t just claim victimhood. She’s mature enough to realize the ways she contributed to her experiences growing up and that at least a few of the people who treated her badly may have been provoked. For instance, the kid she pegged as a bully had a reason to hate her because she laughed at him.
On the other hand, though, it’s not uncommon for kids who have been treated badly themselves to lash out at others to make themselves feel better, and Taeko’s family were routinely hard on her. Taeko’s mom tries to be understanding, though, and Grandma warns the family about how spoiled the girls are, but those good moments seem few and far between. No wonder Taeko is confused.
Overall, Only Yesterday is a beautiful film and not one to be missed. I’m looking forward to seeing the other movies in the Studio Ghibli catalogue.
Only Yesterday is currently streaming on HBO Max. Rating: PG.
My grade: A-
Principal Cast: Daisy Ridley, Dev Patel, Miki Imai, Toshiro Yanagiba,
Directed by Isao Takahata
Written by Isao Takahata, David Freedman (English adaptation), Hotaru Okamoto (manga) and