Monday, February 25, 2019

Romancefest 2019: Only Yesterday

Directed by Isao Takahata
Produced by Toshio Suzuki
Starring Daisy Ridley, Dev Patel and Alison Fernandez
Japan, 1991

A young woman reflects on her childhood as she takes a vacation from work in the big city to travel to the country and help with the safflower harvest in this Japanese cartoon. She was in 5th grade in 1966, and her memories of that year come flooding back and are intercut with her vacation in the country as she is nostalgic about some things and regretful about others.

About halfway through this movie I suddenly realized that while it is romantic in the sense that it romanticizes the country life, the scenery, the harvest and some of the main character’s memories, there is really no core romantic relationship. So, I began to wonder if I had been watching the film under false pretenses. But then it all came together at the very end (during the end credits, even). The movie’s slow and while the scenery is beautiful and the attention to detail is astounding, some sections dwelling on the safflower harvest get to be just a little too much. But, that’s the way the movie was meant to be – meditative and mindful.

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