Taeko, 27, takes a moment away from her job in the city to go out and experience the Japanese countryside and help harvest Safflower fields. Along the way, memories of her childhood follow her, flashing before her eyes as they they were only yesterday. She meets Toshio, who shows her the way of life and mentality of a farmer and together they share in thoughts of both past and future.
A mixed adult and child cast makes it more accessible to older audiences.
Lovely visual presentation that really sells rural Japan.
Very relaxed story, lacking in an overarching plotline or tension.
This one stands out a bit from the previous films that Ghibli produced; It doesn't really fall into any of the styles we've seen so far, one of the reasons being that while Miyazaki was a producer it was ultimately made by Takahata.
The film follows two stories at once, one being adult Taeko and the other being 10 year-old Taeko, so this movie was a good deal easier to relate to than the others that followed.
I feel like one half of this movie was about Taeko growing up and figuring out what she wants and the other half is just looking at the pretty rural life. I've always found Asian countrysides attractive so I was pleasantly entertained to see so much of it. I actually learned how they made safflower dye, so that's cool. My favourite part about it though was the 'lifestyle' for lack of a better word; It really manages to capture the feeling of being somewhere peaceful and a little foreign. I myself have wondered sometimes what it would be like to just stay in the places I've visited instead of having to go back home, (which isn't unreasonable now that I think about it) though I suppose that's a rather personal take and maybe not something everyone can relate to.
However, as I make my way through movies like My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, and now this one, I find myself getting a little tired of these 'pointless' plots. It's a fun movie, but I feel like two hours is a little long for what is basically fictional nostalgia and drawings of nature and agriculture, so I can't in good conscience leave it with all five stars. In a way, it reminds me of the pineapple scene in this very movie, where young Taeko ends up having to eat an entire pineapple and it only gets harder the more of it she eats. Actually the pineapple probably wasn't very good but I think it gets the point across.
Overall, it's much like the aforementioned titles; Watch it lightly and preferably with kids. This one will probably be a little more pleasant for an older audience compared to the others, but it falls into the same kind of chill aesthetic.
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