Only Yesterday

Friday night I gave myself a little time off and watched the film "Only Yesterday."

http://www.madman.com.au/studioghibli/yesterday.html

It is an animated film produced by Studio Ghibli. Although not directed by Hayao Miyazaki, the film was still very entertaining and simple in its soulful approach. It takes the viewer on a trip to the countryside and imagines the landscape through the lens of a somewhat jaded city girl (27 and not sure what to do with her life). Much of the film dealt with flashbacks of her childhood as her memories of "only yesterday" come alive. In the end of the film, a wonderful sequence appears where the past and the present temporarily come together in magical surrealism. And the ending is surprisingly romantic for an animation.

Watching this film made me yearn to work on a farm somewhere, planting, harvesting, growing. Coarse, physical labor in the sun, exercising, being free from mental, academic and pedantic exertions, working closely with nature, breathing fresh fragrant air. Being free from enclosed spaces, indoor fluorescent lighting, car exhaust fumes, honking people, mad drivers, exams, books to study, applications to do. The film offered a temporary escape from my current existence and created in me a simple yearning for the great outdoors.

While I know better than to jet off to the countryside in search of this idyllic existence, I am happy that a film was able to temporarily transport me out of reality and into a virtual one.