So many of the studio’s movies are about moving forward (“My Neighbor Totoro,” “Spirited Away” and “Kiki’s Delivery Service” are explicitly concerned with moving to new places), whereas Takahata’s introspective drama instead deals with looking back.
Whereas “Ponyo” appeals most to preschoolers, “Only Yesterday” stands apart as the most adult of Studio Ghibli’s films. It’s not dark or difficult in the slightest, but rather, a film about nostalgia and those half-forgotten links to our past, rekindled by 27-year-old Taeko’s trip to the small town where her sister now lives. So many of the studio’s movies are about moving forward (“My Neighbor Totoro,” “Spirited Away” and “Kiki’s Delivery Service” are explicitly concerned with moving to new places), whereas Takahata’s introspective drama instead deals with looking back. Unmarried Taeko works in Tokyo but is frustrated with her life there, and so goes “home,” where she meets Toshio, who offers to drive her around the area, unlocking memories of her childhood that play as a kind of parallel narrative. The movie might easily have been made in live action, and yet, animation lends the material a kind of timelessness, allowing audiences to lose — or perhaps find — themselves in the character’s reminiscences. It’s a melancholy but moving film and one that appears to end one way, only to reverse the outcome under the closing credits. Stay though till the very end, or you’ll miss this subtle gem’s final emotional swell.