Only Yesterday (Analysis)

Hello buddies, with the desire to continue the series of analysis or reviews of the films of the Ghibli studio I write this post. Today is the turn of Only Yesterday, which honestly is one of my favorites, so let's start.

Young and adult taeko

The film shows us a film that revolves around Taeko Okaijima, the protagonist, who appears to us as a 27-year-old single girl who has lived all her life in Tokyo and works for a company in the Japanese city. This circumstance, that of not being married, is not very rare in the Japanese society of 1982, but the older people that are shown to us are still old fashioned and do not finish seeing that singleness with very good eyes.

It is through these memories that we are shown a different image of Taeko, a girl who points high in her illusions and that, as we came to know later, she could have become a professional actress. And this is also how we concluded that Taeko is a character that hides his dissatisfaction and existential vacuum under a layer of prejudices, traditions and expectations. That conflict between the way he would really like to lead his life and what he ended up doing according to his education and what is expected of her, becomes the raison d'être of this film. There is, without going any further, a tone of bitter and disrespectful sincerity when he talks about that girl in his class who always approved of mathematics, because he did what he was told.

Young Taeko

As in previous films we must recognize that the graphic quality of this animation is amazing, and surprising to see how a production of almost twenty years ago can have that level. Every time you see a work by Ghibli you can not skimp on praise on this subject.

We're in what is probably the best director's movie. He may be reproached for any excess of exposure here and there that may result in intentional messages, but that does not mean that "Recuerdos del ayer" is an excellent film, a personal and reflective story full of nostalgia that continues to be another example of the great talent and craftsmanship of that other genius - not as recognized as Hayao Miyazaki - of the essential studio Ghibli.

Rubén Conde

Adult Taeko
Source of images: Own