Scraps: “Only Yesterday”

Director: Isao Takahata

  • Mellow, understated but very poignant.
  • Feels very simple but with a quivering sincerity that still feels very relevant.
  • Looks at urban life with a sense of apathy, but not hatred – while it faces quiet rural life with empathy, romanticism but also caution.
  • Beautiful animation, naturally. The contrast of the fuzzy, vignetted watercolors in the flashbacks and the crisp, vibrant colors from the present time work wonderfully.
  • The narrative maintains a sense of struggle without having a villain or antagonist that is a person, but instead it’s this ever present sense of dissatisfaction and anxieties that can’t easily be resolved.

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