“The past isn't dead. It isn't even
past.” W. Faulkner
“Only Yesterday” is an animated
Japanese movie from Isao Takahata that explores the ways in which a
young woman's past sometimes seems more present than her present.
The film is from 1991, but it was only recently dubbed into English
and released here.
27-year-old Taeko (voiced by Daisy
Ridley) is a single gal living and working in Tokyo. Her real
passion, though, is going out to the country to work on a farm. The
film picks up with her preparing for her second “vacation” at the
farm. Meanwhile, she has frequent flashbacks to her experiences of
5th grade. (It takes a little bit to realize that we are
jumping between 2 time periods.)
You would assume that something
dramatic happened during Taeko's 5th grade year for her to
be sharing all these flashbacks with us, but, in fact, it's just the
usual 5th grade stuff. She has her first, awkward crush.
The girls learn about menstruation, and the boys tease them about it.
At home there is sibling rivalry, and Taeko's father is emotionally
distant. These seemingly quotidian events were apparently a highly
formative period in Taeko's life, and at the age of 27, she continues
to replay these memories.
In the present, Taeko arrives at the
farm, where she meets an intense, young farmer named Toshio (Dev
Patel). The two fall in love, but it is difficult for Taeko to
process the feeling without first working through some of these 5th
grade memories and sharing them with Toshio.
Does it get tiresome for Toshio,
listening to this girl prattle on about 5th grade? If so,
he doesn't show it. I, on the other hand, got a bit restless during
this 2-hour, action-free movie. Nonetheless, I can see the value of
this quiet exploration of the persistence of memory and how small
things make us who we are. Parts of the film are quite funny,
especially the bit about menstruation, which may be the best handling
of the subject since Judy Blume. All of Toshio's talk about organic
farming goes on a bit long, but there's a fascinating bit about how
safflower is used to make red cosmetics. The animated countryside is
stunning, and Daisy Ridley's voice acting is quite good.
“Only Yesterday” is as talky as
they get. It tried even the patience of a Whit Stillman fan like
myself. It's worth checking out, though, if you are into
introspection in a big way.
3 stars out of 5
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment