On this movie's list of release dates, it says that it was released on January 6, 2012 in New York and again on May 19, 2012 at the Seattle International Film Festival. Is it finally getting an American release? Is Disney behind it?
shareNo, that's GKids, the new U.S. theatrical distributor of Studio Ghibli's back catalog. Only Yesterday has made a couple of film festival appearances and is currently going around as part of a Studio Ghibli retrospective.
Disney still has the video rights to Only Yesterday but this new split in licensing perhaps could make it easier for a third party to get access to the film. I assume Ghibli and Disney's former relationship was a hard exclusive contract - maybe now Buena Vista (Disney) will have more leeway in subletting the two films they've shown no interest in.
But even if that's true, whoever wants to release it will still have to wait for the film's Blu-ray release in Japan as Disney in the U.S. and Studio Canal in the E.U. currently do (well, they could port the old DVD transfer but that would be a bit underwhelming after so many years; better to wait for the Blu-ray.)
There's currently a traveling Ghibli show that has been showing up across the country. It's currently in Chicago, and that's how I saw 'Only Yesterday.' There's another film that's never been released in the US (a made-for-TV film Ghibli did called 'Ocean Waves') that is also playing the festival circuit.
"Thanks, guys." "So long, partner."
- Toy Story 3 (9/10)
It's too bad I didn't realize this sooner. I was living in Seattle when it played there!
share