Omohide poro poro/Only Yesterday (1991)

A few days ago, I read that director Isao Takahata died.  Takahata co-founded Studio Ghibli along with Hayao Miyazaki.  The article pointed out something that I hadn’t considered before: Miyazaki tended to direct more fantastical movies whereas Takahata tended to direct more realistic ones.

In fact, Only Yesterday seems like something The Hallmark Channel might air, even if only on a superficial level.  The movie is about a woman living in a big city with a comfortable job.  She goes on vacation to a small town, where she finds that small-city life isn’t so bad.  The events of the movie force her to confront who she really is.  She even meets a potential love interest that she spends most of the movie not being overtly interested in romantically.

Taeko is actually visiting her brother-in-law’s family.  She wants to get away for a while, but has no real plans of staying there permanently.  She’s just trying to get away from city life by helping out with a safflower harvest.  While there, a lot of memories from her childhood resurface.  She has no idea why.

The movie is a little unusual in that it doesn’t seem to be aimed at children.  Taeko seems like a normal young girl.  She has trouble with fractions.  She’s maybe a little awkward around boys.  She even stresses out at being one of the few children not going on vacation for the summer.

The unusual part comes in that the movie deals with puberty and the onset of menstruation.  It’s mentioned as something that a young girl would be concerned about.  It’s not really explained in graphic detail, but it is something for parents to be aware of.  From what I’ve read, that’s what kept Disney from releasing it in America.  (GKIDS had to be the one to distribute it here.)

I didn’t really feel uncomfortable with the references.  The story focused on Taeko and her trip, for the most part.  It seems to be about her coming to terms with her life choices.  She’s used to big-city life, but is it really what she wants?  She’s single, but doesn’t seem set against a relationship.  (She does resist a little when people bring up dating.)

I would say that the movie is more for adults.  It should be safe for those 13 and above, but there might be some uncomfortable questions due to talk of puberty and dating.  It’s nothing that would scar a child, but you might want to be prepared to answer questions on basic reproduction.


IMDb page

Miss Hokusai (2015)

Stories tend to have a well-defined structure.  You set up all of the relevant details first.  Then, something happens to set the action in motion.  Stuff happens.  Usually it’s tense stuff, even in comedies.  Eventually, there’s a resolution where everything comes together.  This isn’t always the case, though.  It can be difficult to have a movie without a well-defined plot, although it’s been done.  Even with A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence, there were many small, interrelated stories.  It was almost like a lot of short movies that had been strung together.

Miss Hokusai takes a similar approach.  The movie shows a young woman, O-Ei, and her father, Tetsuzo.  Both are painters; he’s established while she’s learning under him.  Both have worked on commissions, but she still has some learning to do before she’s at her father’s level.  The movie takes place over several months.  Scenes don’t seem to follow a single narrative.

For instance, O-Ei visits her sister, O-Nao, several times.  O-Nao is a girl who was born blind and sent to live with nuns.  Each visit, the sisters might visit a bridge or get something to eat or drink.  They talk of visiting their father, but Tetsuzo seems to want to keep his distance, which O-Ei seems to respect.  There are also several of Tetsuzo’s students coming and going.  In one scene, Tetsuzo, O-Ei and a student visit a brothel where they witness a woman having an out-of-body experience.

Father and daughter seem to compliment each other.  O-Ei is more outgoing where Tetsuzo seems more introverted.  Tetsuzo is more experienced, whereas O-Ei is still learning.  Throughout, Tetsuzo does work and O-Ei gets better.  She even has a commission of her own.  However, several aspects of her work, like erotic art, are said to need improvement. 

It’s difficult to review a movie like this.  It seems almost like the outtakes from another movie.  It’s as if there was enough material to make a coherent movie.  I could almost see this being part of a larger story.  Part of this may stem from the fact that the movie is based on a manga.  From what I’ve read, this is actually part of a larger story.  (The manga was based on the life of a real father/daughter team.)

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  Anime and manga to rely as much on the visual aspect as it does on the script, and this movie does well with the visuals.  (I would hope so, as it’s about two artists.)  The lack of a clear antagonist didn’t bother me at all.  It was interesting just to watch the story go by.

Even though it’s anime, the movie did get a PG-13 rating.  Most of it seems to stem from the erotic art and trips to the brothel.  This is one of those cases where the rating seems appropriate.  I don’t think there would be anything too uncomfortable for teenagers and above.  (A little awkward for a few moments, maybe, but not uncomfortable.)  There is one scene where someone is sexually aggressive towards O-Ei and she relents.  It only lasted for one scene and didn’t seem to have an impact on the rest of the movie.

Overall, I’d recommend watching it.  However, this  is one of those movies where Netflix leaves me wanting.  I was able to watch the movie in Japanese with English subtitles.  (This doesn’t bother me, so I didn’t really try to mess around with settings.)  The thing I don’t like is not having special features.  This is a case where I’d want to know more about the movie and its background.  IMDb will only get you so far.  (Wikipedia did have some information on the real people that served as the basis for Tetsuzo and O-Ei, but still…)  If you have a good source of information on the history behind this movie, please let me know.

IMDb page