Only Yesterday (1991)

IMDb plot summary: A twenty-seven-year-old office worker travels to the countryside while reminiscing about her childhood in Tokyo.

Directed by Isao Takahata. Stars Miki Imai, Toshirô Yanagiba, and Yoko Honna.

Only Yesterday is an anime film by Studio Ghibli that takes place in two different time periods. In the present, we have a mid-twenties woman going to work on a farm in the country for the summer and making connections with the people there. Then, alongside that, we see flashbacks of her 5th grade self figuring out romantic relationships, disapproving parents, academic struggles, and volatile relationships with siblings. The movie this reminded me a little bit of (although of course this one came much earlier) was Mirai. That one is more fantastical, but both feature young people drawing on their memories and imagination to help them process a new situation they are in. I really like the framing that this character has of bringing her fifth grade self along on this journey. Seeing her reflect on the person she was and the struggle she had and how it impacts who she is now, whether in a positive or negative light, is really lovely. This one feels like it's full of small impactful moments that I only managed to catch a fraction of while watching the film. It definitely feels like it would hold up to multiple viewings, with different layers of character and theme being revealed each time. But even for just a first watch, it was a very moving story.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Only Yesterday (1991)

📊 Ranked #521/4048 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 87

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