Isao Takahata (Pom Poko, Grave of the Fireflies) directs another classic, making you wish that Miyazaki had allowed him (and Yoshifumi Kondo) more time in the director's chair.
Like 'Whisper of the Heart', this is a very low key and sedately paced film. Actually it's so unhurried that many will have a problem with that, and I admit it took me several weeks to toss it over before I decided that this was ultimately a great virtue, not a fault.
Taeko is 27 years old, an office worker in Tokyo, but since she was a child she dreamed of visiting the Japanese countryside, so as an adult she starts taking her vacations as a farm worker.
The film is split into two time frames. Takeo in the present day, and a 10 year old Taeko, whose substantial segments are presented in sort of watercoloured tones, subtly reminding you that they're flashbacks.
As a child, her attempts to visit the countryside are frustrated by her family, and we see plenty of detail of her earlier life, such that for the first half of the film, the present time segment seem to be the incongruous ones. This gradually changes over the course of the film until they come to dominate, but Taeko's 10 year-old self follows the 27 year old Taeko as a sort of benign hallucination/memory as she travels into the countryside to pick safflower.
When Taeko gets there she is picked up from the train station by Toshio, a young organic farmer, who drives a tiny Japanese version of a Fiat Bambino and who has the endearing habit (and this is the sort of directorial touch that I love) of putting on the hand-brake every time they stop, even where it's dead flat.
As time goes by Taeko is forced into deciding what she really wants to do with her life. At present she is still drifting at age 27.
'Only Yesterday' has almost no action at all. Instead it is filled with shades, nuances, memories and subtleties. It is slow, if you compare it with the average Miyazaki epic, but this is ultimately what helps make it great. It's relaxed pace, rural vistas, attention to detail and to the emotions of the characters.
Disney own the rights to this in the US, but are apparently sitting on them, claiming it is 'too mature' and has 'no market'. Well, if they didn't want to release it... *sigh* Perhaps the scene which may give them some problems is the fairly long one set in Takeo's past where the girls in the school are having their first periods, and the boys alternately tease them about it, and recoil in terror because they think it's contagious. This is done perfectly naturally, truthfully and hilariously and without a hint of bad taste, but something tells me that if songs about raccoon testicles are going to get left out of Disney versions, this scene is going to really throw them for a loop.
'Only Yesterday' is a great film and belongs up there with Ghibli's best. Even though you may find the pace a little slow the first time around, the story will stay with you, it's beauty gradually sinking in.
Oh, one other thing. I've often criticised Miyazaki for not knowing how to end his films. Takahata knows. Boy, does he know. Don't turn off during the closing titles - the ending is truly great.
Hats off to Takahata again.
/ 3 reviews)
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