tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post3149440121805608842..comments2024-03-24T20:15:00.996-04:00Comments on Critic After Dark: Omohide poro poro (Only Yesterday, Isao Takahata, 1991)Noel Verahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05904212081036547668noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-31696176895859730792020-09-26T05:12:32.893-04:002020-09-26T05:12:32.893-04:00[A different anonymous to the previous anonymous p...[A different anonymous to the previous anonymous poster ...]<br /><br />... but I wanted to add something else about the ending. To me (and perhaps my interpretation is wrong here) but the start of the credits is one of the truly great fakeouts in cinema. Taeko's goodbyes are cruelly cut short by the old, balding passenger rudely pushing past her to make the train -- anything she could have said, or might have said at the end is lost. That random passenger is a horrible jarring note of reality, his radio blaring inane music, spoiling the mood; when I saw this the first time I was filled with the pathos of how <i>much</i> I wanted Taeko not to leave this way, with all her growing feelings left unsaid.<br /><br />Takeo can't stand the random passenger either, gets up from the seat she's initially chosen as the credits start to role and the closing theme song starts to play ... and then the animation frame <i>freezes</i> as she walks away, back to us, for <i>five full seconds</i>. Everything says "fade to black" at this point; the viewer is resigned at her loss, possibly consoling themselves with the thought that at least Taeko will be returning to visit again in winter.<br /><br />What happens next breaks my heart every time I watch it (and even when I think of it). I love everything about the sequence, most especially the slow reveal of timid 10yo Taeko after all of her classmates have appeared from the seats around her -- always the shy one, always the one who didn't fit in. The courage of Takahata to ever so slowly bring little Taeko-chan around to her older self, in three separate shots, takes my breath away. By that point, anyone who isn't onside with young Taeko must surely have a heart of stone. And Takahata still isn't finished -- he insists that older Taeko process her thoughts for several seconds more, seemingly oblivious (and what an extraordinary held shot that is) before finally acting.<br /><br />And it all makes so much sense within the arc of the film. After all, Taeko-chan has appeared with her older self once before, near the start of the film, when 27yo Taeko is sitting gazing wistfully out her night train window with her back to us. Young Taeko puts her head out of the closest sleeping compartment curtains, looks at her older self in the distance -- but then turns and sees us, the viewers, and draws right back out of sight. (Perhaps the most understated fourth-wall break ever.) The credits, in bringing young and old Taeko together, not only give all of Taeko's reminiscences meaning, but they also resolve the promise from this early scene.<br /><br />The two Taekos were always going to meet; there had to be a resolving of the memories from 1966 in the world of 1982, completing the personal transformation that Taeko tells us (again on the night train) that she feels is coming. But Takahata's genius is to make us wait until it's almost (almost!) too late.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-2021170607798605832017-10-20T10:41:18.458-04:002017-10-20T10:41:18.458-04:00Glad to have provided closure!Glad to have provided closure!Noel Verahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05904212081036547668noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-57947871718276509862017-09-29T08:15:18.510-04:002017-09-29T08:15:18.510-04:00Hi Noel. You have done a great job with your write...Hi Noel. You have done a great job with your write-up here about the film. As much as I loved the film, I loved your narrative connecting the missing pieces. I happen to have watched it today and after finishing the movie, I felt a void because somewhere we all have lost our truest self in the process of growing up and conforming to societal norms. But apart from this personal feeling, I was not able to fathom the deepest meaning of Taeko 82 remembering the guy who was mean to her but your explanation just made so sense and I got a closure with the Taeko 66 character. I look forward to reading more of your narratives :)Richanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-50147429635125193902016-01-18T02:05:02.297-05:002016-01-18T02:05:02.297-05:00Tenk yew!Tenk yew!Noel Verahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05904212081036547668noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-19090729846415372352016-01-17T16:31:26.838-05:002016-01-17T16:31:26.838-05:00I just watched the film and Google search led me t...I just watched the film and Google search led me to your review. What an insightful piece. Thank you.iamlizahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05133318739044013493noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-6862325350451531242013-09-12T20:02:13.198-04:002013-09-12T20:02:13.198-04:00He's different from Miyazaki, the way a sculpt...He's different from Miyazaki, the way a sculptor is different from a surgeon. Noel Verahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05904212081036547668noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-33384518019691669672013-09-10T13:48:38.409-04:002013-09-10T13:48:38.409-04:00I weep uncontrollably when the child vanishes in t...I weep uncontrollably when the child vanishes in the end. Mr. Takahata hit a deeper place in me than any other director, with any other film.Doyu Shoninhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00148504542232844586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-81966595107206490652013-08-28T20:16:30.003-04:002013-08-28T20:16:30.003-04:00"Either way it'd still be a masterpiece&q..."Either way it'd still be a masterpiece"<br /><br />No argument thereNoel Verahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05904212081036547668noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-58200601304360121382013-08-28T16:18:04.781-04:002013-08-28T16:18:04.781-04:00Yes, I wasn't saying you were wrong either, ju...Yes, I wasn't saying you were wrong either, just giving my take on it. Honestly my post was more a way to rant a bit about the film, because it's so hard to talk about it anywhere due to how unknown it is.<br /><br />I don't always prefer "happy endings" but I thought it was earned by the characters and the director in <i>Omohide</i>.<br />I think I can see where you're coming from, your take on it would perhaps make the film more plainly realistic (which it is for most of its run). Either way it'd still be a masterpiece.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-68479006347254379232013-08-28T10:43:31.031-04:002013-08-28T10:43:31.031-04:00Plus I did raise the possibility this post-credit ...Plus I did raise the possibility this post-credit resolution only takes place in Taeko's mind. Not saying you're wrong, but there's more than one way to take the scene, and I like that ambiguity. You don't get that kind of multiple interpretative levels in Pixar.Noel Verahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05904212081036547668noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-61568850121721354622013-08-28T10:32:03.627-04:002013-08-28T10:32:03.627-04:00Oh, I don't think it's a cop-out, or senti...Oh, I don't think it's a cop-out, or sentimental at all; I think it's beautifully done. <br /><br />That said, it does happen after the credits, and what happens before can be--not necessarily so--considered a coherent whole, the resolution left hanging. Strictly my taste, but I love it like that. Noel Verahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05904212081036547668noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-66309426190456732012013-08-27T22:27:31.202-04:002013-08-27T22:27:31.202-04:00I really liked the review, but I have to say I don...I really liked the review, but I have to say I don't agree at all with your interpretation of the ending. Or rather, I can't bring myself to agree with it as I think that part is what gives the film such thematic weight and closure. <br /><br />Memories not only shape who we are, how we act, they can also have a direct effect in our current lives. Taeko's introspection and contemplation of her past throughout the movie is the catalyst that pushes her to make a life-changing decision at the end; and to me it's not overly sentimental, nor a cop-out. How could I call it a cop-out when it's one of the most natural and satisfying instances of character development I've ever seen?<br />It's even more poignant when you process the visual metaphor: her past self is what guides her to a better path in life. That sharp, honest and even slightly selfish girl (as you well said in your post) gives the adult Taeko the little push (or rather guidance, see how gently she forces her) that was missing to finally break away of the dull conforming she had become accustomed to. The last stare she gives in the film (the very last shot, I think) is haunting precisely because this time it's the child looking at the adult.<br /><br />I have read some people saying that the film didn't 'hit' them until that last scene, that they didn't even realize how much was going on until that happens. That's the subtle power of the scene, and of <i>Omohide</i> as a whole. Because, for all the bitter-sweetness of Taeko's childhood and the decay of her current situation, the final message is still a positive one. It tells us that coming of age never stops, that we can still change for the better, and that this change can come from within. We just have to sit back and reflect.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-24709517747646729142012-01-22T05:30:28.329-05:002012-01-22T05:30:28.329-05:00I don't get a lot of comments in this blog, an...I don't get a lot of comments in this blog, and yours is easily the most perceptive and well-written I've read to date. Thank <i>you</i> for posting it.Noel Verahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05904212081036547668noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-56885495806727057142012-01-21T22:43:19.401-05:002012-01-21T22:43:19.401-05:00This is a very special film for me, and a film I&#...This is a very special film for me, and a film I'd grappled with for almost 10 years before finally embracing it wholeheartedly. <br /><br />Some background: I first came across this film in my early 20s, and like the child you mentioned in your essay, I found the '66 Taeko scenes to be the highlight of the film, while the '82 Taeko scenes to be be "filler" material. As such, I found Only Yesterday amusing, but not something I intended to revisit later on.<br /><br />Flash forward a few years--now 26 years old and for some reason, the film had remained in my mind all those years despite my initial lukewarm-at-best reaction to it. I gave it another viewing and this time I liked it considerably better than initially, but I still felt like I was missing something crucial. The difference now was that I felt the fault lay with me--I was not grasping that one crucial thing that really drove the film. I could sense the greatness now, and saw the skill and craftsmanship, but I just couldn't find that important light switch. <br /><br />I re-watched the film a few more times for the next 2 years, each time getting that much closer to finding what exactly kept bringing me back to it time and time again. Eventually, I reached a point where I found all the pieces, but I just needed that one thread tying everything together.<br /><br />Around 2008 or so, I came across your essay here, and then it finally clicked together. All those scenes of '82 Taeko trying just a bit too hard to please, all those scenes of '66 Taeko getting her free spirit stamped...everything came together for me. And it was devastating. It finally dawned on me how quietly heartbreaking Only Yesterday actually was, to see how these little seemingly innocuous vignettes slowly chipped away at '66 Taeko and ultimately ending up with the very lost woman we see in 1982.<br /><br />Now that the film is finally touring North America through the Ghibli retrospectives, it's interesting trying to guage critical and audience opinions on it, the majority of which so far tend to mirror my initial lukewarm response to it. I try my best now to encourage others to consider further interpretations, with your essay now in my mind as an idea springboard.<br /><br />Anyway, this was a long comment for a pretty old blog post, but I just wanted to thank you for giving me that little push I needed to embrace it. It truly is a layered gem of a film, and one of the very, very, select few I've changed my opinion on so drastically.LLJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-31996901005017370462009-12-20T03:42:53.381-05:002009-12-20T03:42:53.381-05:00Thanks! I do think Takahata's a master, and th...Thanks! I do think Takahata's a master, and this is an underrated masterwork.Noel Verahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05904212081036547668noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-82963283405151329192009-12-19T20:14:28.957-05:002009-12-19T20:14:28.957-05:00That was an excellent discussion of one of my favo...That was an excellent discussion of one of my favorite films.<br /><br />Outstanding.Mikehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15398931203483061703noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-66384591078515346152007-06-17T22:35:00.000-04:002007-06-17T22:35:00.000-04:00Thanks. Actually I have a number of films I want t...Thanks. Actually I have a number of films I want to submit articles on to IMDb. Hopefully soon.Noel Verahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05904212081036547668noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-84112963693943449792007-06-17T19:57:00.000-04:002007-06-17T19:57:00.000-04:00This is a really terrific essay on Omohide Poro Po...This is a really terrific essay on Omohide Poro Poro! Great work! I'll be sure to make mention of it in the Ghibli blog. Have you considered linking the post to Internet Movie Database? You'd add it to their External Links section, which would help add more exposure to this great film.Daniel Thomas MacInneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01406180871529775448noreply@blogger.com