ONLY YESTERDAY

Japan, 1991, 118 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Isao Takahata.

Only Yesterday is a film of 1991, rereleased in 2016. It can be seen in its original Japanese version or in an English-dubbed version, with Daisy Ridley (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) and Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire, The Man Who Knew Infinity).

This film comes from the celebrated Japanese animation studio, Studio Ghiblil. The present director made the very striking Grave of the Fireflies film in 1988. Many of the films were directed by the head of the studio, Hayai Miyazaki who won an Oscar for Spirited Away.

Ordinarily, the films from Studio Ghibli lead the audience into a fantasy world. This is not the case here. Rather, for 1991 it was a comparatively contemporary story, the main setting in 1986, with flashbacks to childhood sequences in 1966.

The central character is Taeka, a young working woman who decides to go back to the country and to work on a farm. The scenes of her childhood show her as one of three sisters, the youngest, with a rather stern father who does not want her to become an actress, even though she had only one line in the school play but did some histrionic variations on the line. The girls at school are going on a holiday but she is able to go only with her grandmother to a spa where she enjoys the baths.

There is a funny scene from 1966 where the family buys a pineapple but has no idea how to cut it open or to eat it – and, when they do, they dislike it, finding it rather bitter compared with the sweet tinned pineapple they were used to. Pineapples were not available in Japan like this in 1966.

The young woman really enjoys working in the country, in the fields, the exhilaration. There is a young man from the family where she is staying, who has been disappointed in not being able to study at the University, his father wanting him to work on the farm where he has become an expert. The two communicate, and an attraction forms between them. The young woman is rather resistant, especially when the grandmother of the house begins some matchmaking.

The young girl leaves but gets off the train and begins writing in the cafe, deciding to return – and a payoff for the audience with a happy ending.

The animation style of Studio Ghibli is quite distinctive, wash-colour, facial features really suggested rather than given in detail, beautiful scenic backgrounds. This is the case here – in a film which many consider one of the best to have come from Studio Ghibli.

1. A 1990s film from Studio Ghibli? A 2016 re-release? Style of animation, humans, human features, actions? Landscapes? The humane stories from the studio?

2. Impact for a Japanese audience, world audience? Memories of the 1960s and 1980s? Nostalgia? The changes in Japanese society?

3. 1966, 1986? Comparisons, changes, influences?

4. The humorous sequence of the puzzle about the pineapple, cutting it open, the family not liking it, bitter taste, compared with the canned
pineapple? Pineapples not available to families in 1966?

5. Taeka, her age, 27, the work, on leave, a desire to go to the country, the journey, the affinity with the countryside, memories of her childhood, work on the farm, with the family?

6. Taeka as little, her family, her sisters, a tough-minded father, a supportive mother, the scenes at the table, hopes, her father’s criticism? The children and the prospective holiday, the holiday destination, with her grandmother, her admiration for the baths? Boys, liking and disliking? Play? The offer of the play? Performance and her one line and adding the drama? Her father’s reaction? Taeka’s sensitivity to the other girl, acceptance?

7. The only boy, hatred, not shaking, spitting? The interpretation?

8. Toshio, in himself, the past, his work on the farm, disappointment in not going to the University? Admiration, his father, work, nature, helping, creativity and being together with Taeka? The crops, the work, the old people, the sister, sharing?

9. Discussions about marriage and prospects? The grandmother and her match-making, the reaction of the other members of the family?

10. Taeka upset, going for the walk in the rain, talking to Toshio?

11. Leaving, the secret, the train ride, the children – her getting out of the train, writing, the return?

12. The interconnection between past and present, the influences? Taeka and her decision, her future with Toshio? On the farm?

13. The playing of The Rose as the climax of the film and over the final credits?