Only Yesterday

I don’t quite know why I’d never watched this movie before – I’ve watched pretty much every Ghibli film, and I thought I had seen this – but I was reminded of it recently because they’re planning a new western release for it with new English voice acting (the film originally came out in 1991). I watched it with subtitles (which is how I watch any foreign film), and was absolutely delighted to no end by it. I love how it jumps from present to past, and both periods are equally entertaining. Takahata’s movies are usually more “real” than Miyazaki’s output, and here, you can really appreciate the issues that the main character is dealing with (they all felt real and grounded to me, at least). It also made for a beautiful time slip trip back to Japan for me.