RE-RELEASE THOUGHTS - 'Only Yesterday'

For international fans of Studio Ghibli, this really is the end. But what a fine note to go out on.

Even if it weren't for the segments that bluntly deal with menstruation at an early age, it's conceivable that Disney would have hesitated to give Only Yesterday a U.S. release just for its plaintive, slice-of-life tone. But fantasy elements or not, GKids now has Ghibli's back all the way, and Isao Takahata's 1991 feature has rightly earned a PG-rating: kids can take it.

Based on Omoide Poro Poro by Hotaru Okamoto and Yuko Tone, Only Yesterday tells of Taeko, a twenty-something Tokyo-based office employee on a ten-day vacation at a countryside farm with very distant relatives. En route, she begins to relive her up-and-down life in fifth grade, recalling everything from her frustrations with dividing fractions to her shot-down stage aspirations.

Though the fully-realized character designs are closer to Miyazaki than the sketchier quality of Kaguya and the Yamadas, the white vignette through which we view Taeko's childhood and the decided interest in episodic misadventures over a three-act plot line are all Takahata's trademarks. There's even something unusually natural about the way older Taeko's cheeks stick out when she smiles (I was able to catch a showing of the original Japanese version for which Takahata broke tradition and recorded the present-day dialogue prior to animation, thus giving the dialogue a chance to inform the visuals, rather than vice-versa).

The episodic storytelling occasionally clashes with Western expectations of follow-through, beginning with the abrupt closure of young Taeko's first crush and ending with the strangely late introduction of an unkempt boy she once picked on at school. But the satisfactions, ranging from Katsu Hoshi's sweet score to the small-scale beauty of dew beads reflecting the countryside sunrise, dwarf any caveats. Here is an admirably gentle story that milks drama out of everyday situations, and says it's okay to be late to the work-out-your-life party.