Only Yesterday (1991)

Only Yesterday (1991) — a quietly powerful, character-driven animated drama from director Isao Takahata — follows 27-year-old Taeko, a Tokyo office worker who takes a break from city life to help a farming family harvest safflowers in the countryside. As she works and lives among the fields, Taeko drifts back into vivid memories of her childhood in Tokyo, and the film alternates between her present-day experiences and warm, intimate flashbacks that slowly reveal how those earlier moments shaped her hopes, regrets, and sense of self. If you watch this film you’ll experience a gentle, contemplative pace that favors observation and interior life over plot twists. The animation favors realistic, understated visuals and pastoral landscapes rather than fantasy; domestic scenes and small gestures carry much of the emotional weight. Expect frequent shifts between adult Taeko’s thoughtful, sometimes wry perspective and the frank, candid voice of her younger self, creating a layered portrait of memory, identity, and the tension between personal desire and social expectation. Emotionally, the film is bittersweet and quietly resonant: there are moments of tenderness, awkward humor, melancholy and small epiphanies rather than melodrama. Themes include nostalgia, the shaping power of childhood, the compromises women face in society, and the search for authenticity in everyday life. The countryside sequences convey tactile sensory pleasures — the heat of summer fields, simple meals, the rhythm of rural labor — while the Tokyo flashbacks capture the awkwardness and freedom of youth. Only Yesterday is well suited to viewers who enjoy reflective, slice-of-life stories, mature character studies, and animation that explores grown-up concerns. It’s less about plot surprises and more about introspection and emotional honesty, leaving you with a lingering sense of bittersweet clarity about who we were, who we’ve become, and the small moments that define us.

Actors: Miki Imai, Toshirô Yanagiba, Yoko Honna

Director: Isao Takahata

Runtime: 118 min

Genres: Animation, Drama, Romance

7.2 /10 90 /100 7.6 /10 7.9 /10