A Look at Isao Takahata’s Unknown Classic
Ghibli Month — Chapter 6: Only Yesterday
Director — Isao Takahata
Year of Release — 1991
Language — English
How Many Times Watched? — 1 time
Rating — ★★★★★
This is a Must Watch. Reflect on your life in this touching and surprisingly unknown classic.
Isao Takahata must not understand what a children’s movie is. Following up his heartbreaking Grave of the Fireflies comes another film not for the faint of the heart. While nowhere near as bleak and harrowing as his Studio Ghibli debut (and lot less dead children), Only Yesterday tells an equally emotional story. If anything, it may be even more compelling, though you’re less likely to cry. I would even go so far as to say it’s better.
Only Yesterday follows Taeko, a 27-year-old girl on a trip to the countryside for some reflective time away from her Tokyo lifestyle. However, she realises that she mentally brought along her fifth-grade self, a 10-year-old girl with a heart full of dreams, in the form of dreamy flashbacks. Through her reminiscing and time in the countryside, she is able to better realise who she is and where she is headed.
There’s something so poignant, so poetic, about this film. Long, drawn-out flashbacks can often feel disjointed and ruin the flow of the movie, yet somehow, Only Yesterday made them feel lyrical as if in a constant melodic back and forth between the past and the present, flowing like the tide. It’s natural and, in a certain sense, soothing. You feel as if you are personally growing with Taeko as her past melds with her present.
This wouldn’t work without strong and precise direction, in this case, art direction. Takahata implements a very distinct style for each of the time periods. 1982 looks crisp and what you would expect from Studio Ghibli at this point. There are lush backgrounds and expressive characters. They also recorded the dialogue prior to doing the animation to better show the expressions on the characters (an abnormality in Japanese animation). They even add more lines to the face to get deeper expressions.
In contrast, 1966 is rather washed-out and plain looking. The edges of the frame begin to fade away, almost blending into the canvas it seems to be painted on. It looks dreamy and almost otherworldly. With these scenes, they animated first then recorded the dialogue after, the more traditional method. They also left out the extra lines on character’s faces, making them (slightly) less expressive.
The differences between the two styles help to make the lyrical style of the film work well. They make the flashbacks feel like a dream that fades in and out of Taeko’s mind, mimicking the fading, washed-out backgrounds. While both time periods look brilliant and breathtakingly beautiful in their own right, I found myself more drawn to the 1966 style. Though considered to be more traditionally animated, it felt like something I had never seen before. The backgrounds are noticeable but not distracting, letting you sit with the characters and feel everything they’re feeling. At first, it feels lazy to only use basic leading lines and various shades of white as the background, but as you keep watching it is clear that only Takahata could pull this off.
Only Yesterday makes me feel a way that I don’t think I’m able to feel yet, but not in a way that I don’t understand. I am honored to be able to watch this, to be let into Taeko’s life, to feel her pains and joys and normalcy so deeply. I feel refreshed yet contemplative and melancholic, a way very few films have made me feel. I’m excited to see more from Isao Takahata. He is the unsung hero of Studio Ghibli, and his work deserves a wider audience.
Watch out Kiki’s Delivery Service. You have some competition.
Author’s note: I purposefully kept this very brief and stayed away from any plot points in the film. This is a film that deserves your complete attention as you sit with Taeko as she goes about her life. Please watch this film ASAP.
