This is probably my favorite animated film of all -- and now it looks even more beautiful than ever (thanks to the Japnese DVD release). This is a story of a 20-something "office lady" who is vaguely dissatisfied with what she sees as increasingly pointless life in the big city. As she visits the rural family of her sister's husband for a working vacation, she also revisits her fifth grade self. (The contemporary scenes are done in a fairly realistic fashion, the flashbacks have a lovely pastel look -- that would later be used even more extensively in "Our Neighbors, the Yamadas"). This film does not draw upon cartoons for its background, but on the films of Ozu and Naruse. The intelligence and sublety of the characterization is extraordinary. This also has a very appealing use of Hungarian folk music (the favored music of our heroine's young farmer friend). If you've never before sobbed tears of joy over closing credits before, you will here. (It never fails for me -- at about 7 times and counting). While Takahata's "Grave of the Fireflies" may have a more timely (and harrowing) tale to tell, I think this understated little story is even more beautiful and effective.

Back in 1996, the Disney Corporation bought the rights to distribute the films of Japan's Studio Ghibli. This is one of the big reasons that Ghibli films have now become widely available and loved in the West. However, in the case of the film "Only Yesterday", Disney had a bit of a conundrum. According to IMDb.com, Disney didn't want to distribute this film because of its references to menstruation...and Ghibli was unwilling to have their films altered in any way (apart from translating them into English and other languages). While this reason seems a bit silly, since Only Yesterday is not a film even intended for kids, I also wonder if perhaps there was another reason the film wasn't available until now. It just doesn't play like a typical animated film and probably isn't an easy sell except for those who really, really love anime. I am not saying it's a bad film but it probably has a smaller audience than Ghibli crowd pleasers such as "Spirited Away", "My Neighbor Totoro" or "Howl's Moving Castle". Thanks to GKIDS, who has now obtained rights to release this film, you can find it on DVD...and it's available through Netflix starting this month.

While many folks seem to assume that Hayao Miyazaki made every film for Studio Ghibli, he actually has not. In this case, he's one of the producers and Isao Takahata actually directed this project. The film is based on a manga (a print version) and plays in many ways like one of my favorite animes based on a serialized manga..."Azumanga Daioh". Like this other anime, the story is very episodic and does not play like a typical film. Instead of a typical story, this film is just a collection of snippets-- recollections of a 27 year old woman as she thinks back to her life when she was 11, back in 1966. This style clearly will leave many confused and probably disappointed...though anime lovers probably will be more forgiving for its meandering plot. And, meander it clearly does...covering such oddly diverse subjects such as her poor grades in math, the importance of conformity, a dirty and poor student she couldn't forget as well as learning about menstruation in sex education class. If you had to find a theme for all this, it would probably be about what it's like to be different and to be living in a society that strongly values and enforces conformity. A real crowd-pleasing plot, probably not. However, it is a quality production throughout, with excellent animation as well as a very enjoyable English language cast, though for you purists out there, the DVD also includes the original Japanese language track as well.

For me this is one of Studio Ghibli's more realistic films, and it is also one of the more beautiful ones too. Not to mention underrated, in my opinion. It isn't a favourite, but I still admire it hugely and think it is very re-watchable. The story is well structured, and has a real sense of realism about it. As said, there is no visible magic or fairytale like characters, the magic is in the story and in how it is told. It is also quite a nostalgic story too I feel. The animation is very good, and the music is lovely. The dialogue is respectable enough, and the characters are immensely likable and never fail to engage. And as usual the voice work I have no qualms with. Overall, very beautiful film. 9/10 Bethany Cox