Video Backlog: "Only Yesterday (Omohide Poro Poro)"

Publisher: Buena Vista Japan
Format: Region 2 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English and Japanese Subtitles
Length: 119 minutes
Production Date: 1991
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

Story Outline: 1982, Tokyo. Office worker Taeko takes 10 days leave to visit the family of her sister in-law in rural Yamagata. During the trip there she begins to reminisce about the time she was 10 years old in 1966. She remembers the school, her friends and class mates, her family and TV shows on at the time and the trials and tribulations she went through as a child. She also remembers the first summer she went to Yamagata. Taeko is working on the farm picking Safflowers and is picked up at the train station by a young farmer named Toshio. The two of them find themselves being drawn together, but Taeko is confronted by the idea that she should leave her job in Tokyo and live together with Toshio.

Mini Review: Believe it not, I don’t own all the Ghibli DVDs that have been released. I was buying them as them came out in Japan, but somehow I lost a bit of interest and there were competing anime DVDs being released in the US. But with the US anime industry in the doldrums big time, I’m catching up. I got this film as part of a fansub trade with a now defunct Australian anime club some 12 or so years ago, but I never played it at the club I ran for about a year and a half. I did give it to another local club to play. I think about a quarter of the audience left before the end. Not a great look for a Ghibli film. Isao Takahata makes some odd films really. I mean this could have easily been shot as a live action film. It’s strange to think what the target audience would be for this movie. I think kids would be bored with it and would people in their late 30’s and early 40’s want to see an animated film like this? It’s based on a manga reminiscing about the late 1960’s, but the modern day (1982) elements are Takahata’s creation.

That’s where the problems lie in the film. Initially the flashbacks are a little distracting and there is not transition that makes the audience know it’s a flashback. The second problem is the fact there seems to be no real indicators that the present day is 1982. It’s quite plausible that it could be modern day (1991) Japan. I’m unsure why Takahata chose this time period, as the character could be 37 rather than 27 and I think it would still work. However by the 25th minute mark, I was hooked. Especially with the stories of the 1966 Taeko. The way the children acted was really quite natural and very amusing. I think just about everyone has gone through similar experiences as Taeko. Her family was also very natural. I was especially taken with her father. Very stoic, very 1960’s Japanese salaryman father. Didn’t speak a lot but his word was it. It was final.

Some of the Takahata stuff was bit silly. The farmers and their work were sort of portrayed as some kind of utopic world (I’m assuming an influence from Takahata’s socialist student collage days here). Sometimes I found it a bit creepy with all those smiling farmers! And somehow I doubt there would be a big organic farming industry in 1982 Japan. Taeko’s 27 year old character design made her look old beyond her years. This part of the move really felt like disillusioned-salarywoman-makes-tree-change, but I managed to go along with the flow. But the core in this part of the film is Taeko and Toshio’s rather platonic and slow moving relationship. And isn’t Toshio just a fantastic character? This is another oddity in Ghibli’s catalogue along with “Ocean Waves (I Can Hear the Sea)”. But that one is probably more commercial than this. Still there’s enough Ghibli magic here (despite being a slice of life story) to sink a ship. A lovely and fantastically nostalgic film. Keep watching until the credits finish though. 8.5 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: 20 months (it's much easier this way than listing the number of discs).