Cinephile Sundays: 1966: Only Yesterday


Sunday, December 4, 2016 - 3:00pm
Collins Cinema

Isao Takahata’s Only Yesterday follows unmarried 27-year-old Taeko on a train ride from her native city of Tokyo to the countryside for a visit with her relatives. She reminisces on her childhood: struggling through puberty with a strict father, facing mean girls, and experiencing romance for the first time. Upon meeting a young farmer named Toshio at the station, Taeko flashes between the past and the present, contemplating the arc of her life and wondering if she has been true to the dreams of her childhood self. Only Yesterday portrays the striving role of women in society in the eighties against a beautifully animated setting. Humorous and poignant, Rolling Stone has called the film “the kind of artistry that crosses borders of language and culture”. It has celebrated it’s 25th anniversary with the North American release, boasting rising Star Wars: The Force Awakens actress Daisy Ridley as the voice of Taeko and Slumdog Millionaire and Skins star Dev Patel as Toshio.

Though Isao Takahata graduated from Tokyo University with a degree in French Literature, he has come to be known as one of the greatest directors of anime. Upon entering the film industry just for fun while looking for work as a university student, Takahata became enthralled by Italian neorealism, Jacque Prévert, and French New Wave films. His work is set mostly in realistic environments with expressionistic overtones, as is evident in Only Yesterday. Rolling Stone commends Takahata for entering “the mind of one woman and her ten-year-old self with supreme delicacy”. He has won numerous awards at international film festivals, multiple Tokyo Anime awards, and has been nominated for Best Animated Feature Film of the Year at the Academy Awards.