Only Yesterday (1991)

Only Yesterday (1991)

A quiet drama about nostalgia

The Very Best

8.0

Movie

Japan
Japanese
Animation, Drama, Romance
1991
ISAO TAKAHATA
Chie Kitagawa, Ichirō Nagai, Issey Takahashi
119 min

What it's about

On a trip to the countryside to pick safflowers, a young Japanese woman recalls her life when she was ten years old.

The take

This beautiful, realistic, and nostalgic anime movie about childhood is one that almost anyone can relate to. Set in the year of 1982, twenty-seven-year-old Taeko Okajima is traveling to the countryside by train. Along her journey, she gets flashbacks of her childhood: mostly in elementary school, stealing glances at a boy, and navigating puberty. The movie goes back and forth between past and present, easily making one long for sun-filled summers of yesteryear and silly jokes between playfriends. As well as telling a story about Taeko's past, Only Yesterday also tells a story about her present, and the combined realism of the plotline with the beautiful animation grips you and doesn’t let go. Only Yesterday truly feels like home.

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