Only Yesterday

This lesser known Studio Ghibli feature is a real heartbreaker, a wistful, lyrical film about a young woman escaping the city and taking stock of her life at 27. Visiting relatives in the countryside, Taeko (voiced by Daisy Ridley in the English-language version) is enthusiastic about helping out on the farm, but she’s also preoccupied with memories of her childhood: the first stirrings of romance, the onset of puberty, and the frustrations of math and boys. Switching delicately between past and present, the film ponders what becomes of youthful expectations as we become adults, and more importantly, what can be revived.

From Academy Award®-nominated director Isao Takahata (The Tale of The Princess Kaguya; Grave of the Fireflies) and general producer Hayao Miyazaki, Only Yesterday is a masterpiece of time and tone, rich with humor and stirring emotion, and beautifully animated by one of the world’s most revered animation studios.

Our matinee family-friendly shows will feature the English-language version, all ages welcome. Evening screenings will play in Japanese with English subtitles.

It’s both an important part of Ghibli’s history and a gem in its own right.

Village Voice

A highly sensitive and empathetic consideration of the situation of women in Japanese society-but it’s also a breathtaking work of art.

Glenn Kenny, Rogerebert.com

Only Yesterday’s ecological message is both passionate and complex… In tying together these various psychological, ecological, economic, and sociopolitical resonances in a film about a young woman’s journey toward romantic fulfillment, Takahata creates a work that transcends its generic and cultural trappings to say something vitally basic about the transience of life’s small disappointments and redemptions.

Oleg Ivanov, Slant

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