Movie: ‘Only Yesterday’ (Takahato Isao)

Introduced by Jeff Purdue Only Yesterday has been a long sought after holy grail film for many years since it is the only Ghibli film never to get a DVD release in the US. And that’s too bad, because it’s one of the best. The story features a 27 year old woman, Taeko, who is about to leave for vacation (unusually, to work on a farm), which prompts her to remember incidents from when she was 11 and wanting to go on vacation. The film continues to blend incidents from 27 year old Taeko and 11 year old Taeko leading to a richly developed conclusion. The film was based on a manga that only dealt with incidents in the 11 year old Taeko’s life, meaning that the other storyline and how the two intersect were created by director Takahata resulting in a remarkable film. Don’t miss this one!