When a single 27-year-old Tokyo girl visits her relatives in the countryside, and as the train travels through the night, memories flood back of her younger years: the first immature stirrings of romance, the onset of puberty, and the frustrations of math and boys.
The animation isn't showy, but it's beautiful, providing clear delineations between Taeko's past and present. The attention to detail is fantastic. But the story is what sets the film apart.
The story of a young woman who moves back and forth between childhood memories and the dilemmas of her current life, "Only Yesterday" is a realistic, personal story made universal in a delicate way.
