Only Yesterday

I really had no idea animation could be so touching and moving. A young woman on her way to the countryside to help out with some farm chores keeps getting flashbacks of her 10 year old, 5th grade self. That may sound boring, but instead I was riveted from beginning until the heart warming finish, enjoying her memories along the way. We all carry around with us such kind of memories-having trouble with a particular subject in school, flirting with members of the opposite sex, being teased by classmates or older siblings, misbehaving and being severely punished, not getting something we really wanted and on and on. While she was having her flashbacks, I was having mine, making it all a very personal experience. Her life has been shaped by her memories, and now she is guided by them as she comes face to face with a momentous, potentially life-altering decision. Even if she was only an animated character, I got so bound up in the story that I desperately hoped for her to make the right choice. Sometimes I even forgot that I was watching an animated movie.