Only Yesterday (movie)

The ending theme song "Ai ha Hana, Kimi ha Sono Tane" is a translated version of "The Rose," written and composed by Amanda McBroom and performed by Bette Midler for the 1979 movie of the same title.

Wasn't released in the USA publicly until 13 years after it was originally released in Japan. While a domestic home video release wasn't made until 11 years later.

Wasn't dub in English until 25 years after it was released in Japan.

The film was previously owned by the Walt Disney Company as part of its deal with Studio Ghibli to distribute a majority of their films for domestic U.S. home video release. The Disney executives later decided that they could not release the film on DVD or any format. Their stated reason was because the film contained references to menstruation and they can't alter or avoid the mentioning of the subject. As listed in a clause in Ghibli's distribution contract it prohibited Disney from altering the scene or removing the references. This issue was finally dropped when GKids obtain distribution rights to the film.

The scenes in the film portraying Taeko as an adult did not originate from the original manga, they were exclusively created for this movie. The adult scenes gave the entire film a plot and connected the original vignettes as recollections of her childhood, making it a cohesive whole.

This film is regarded as a pioneering achievement in Japanese animation because the muscular movements of the characters when talking or smiling, particularly in the present-day sequences (with the adult Taeko), were rendered with what was then considered unparalleled realism.

It was a surprise box office smash when first released in Japan; it was the highest grossing domestic film in 1991 grossing ¥1.87 billion.

In the movie, the young Taeko marvels at eating a pineapple. In Japan during this period (circa 1966) imported fresh fruit was expensive and uncommon. Most Japanese had only eaten canned pineapple and had never seen a whole fresh pineapple before.

In June 1990, about a year before this film's release, director Isao Takahata took 17 members of his staff on a research trip to a rural area in Yamagata prefecture similar to the place where many of the film's present-day (1982) scenes are set. There the staff consulted with a farmer named Inoue, who taught them about harvesting safflowers, as the film's heroine, Taeko, does in the narrative. The staff videotaped their journey so that they would be able to re-create accurately in animation both the fields of safflowers and the natural beauty of the region in general. One artist on Takahata's staff was taught by Inoue how to pick safflowers with her bare hands, and for a year afterwards she would draw nothing that didn't look like a safflower, even if she was trying to draw something mechanical, like a car.

The film was part of the movement of progressive anime films that explored subjects traditional thought to be beyond the scope of animated films. It was unique in that it was realistic drama written to appeal to adult women. It was wildly successful in attracting a large adult audience of both genders.

A chalk drawing of Tetsujin 28(a.k.a. Gigantor in America) can be seen next to the Love Love Umbrella chalk drawing.

The pan pipe song that plays during the car ride is called "Cantec de nunta" which in Romanian means "Wedding Song".

At one point in the movie, two characters were seen touching the tips of each others index fingers which then forms the image of the poster for "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial". Ironically this movie was distributed by Universal(the original distributor of E.T.) 25 years after its release in Japan through its GKids company.