*SPOILER ALERT*
Ok, It might just be me, but I think this moive had one of the greatest endings ever. I mean the whole ending scene in which she is running with ther past self and all her past friends. I just felt that it was an amazingly beautiful scene. Plus, I loved this movie.
"Laugh and the whole world laughs with you. Weep, and you weep alone."
No, it's not just you. We could start a club
"People who love with passion the ending of Omohide Poro Poro"
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102587/usercomments?start=1
http://imdb.com/title/tt0102587/board/thread/17244734?d=21827284#21827284
http://www.hjg.com.ar/blog2/n61.html?pm=1#post20050813223800
http://www.epinions.com/mvie-review-2BD0-D6498F3-3928AE92-prod5
http://home.teleport.com/~mteller/jun05.htm#Only
http://community.livejournal.com/pareview/9321.html
and so on...
Hahahahah. I guess it isn't just me, is it?
"Laugh and the whole world laughs with you. Weep, and you weep alone."
well you can add another to the list..i usually never cry, at all. but watching this surprise ending had me tearing up from the start. phenomenal work by takahata :)
shareHaha, I'm a guy, and I loved this movie, and I too cried at the ending! Glad to hear I'm not the only one. It really took me by surprise to be honest.
I thought it was a great movie (although maybe a little slow paced for some people?), and I could relate to how she was thinking back to her childhood. Although it was from a girl's perspective, and in another country, I was amazed at how close it was to my own upbringing (well, most of the things that happened in school at least).
I was a bit disappointed at first with the ending when the credits started to roll, it felt felt unfinished, but then it went on and was so perfect. I suddenly felt tears pressing through. Amazing :)
I think a few of the great endings for a movie are the ending to "Grave of the Fireflies" and the ending to "Spirited Away".
shareI just watched this off my Ghibli bazillion movies box set for the first time about 5 minutes ago.
I have the HK set, some disney dub which i do not mind, one with English dub done in Japan and a bunch subed. I watched this subed and i have to say this HK subbing
is attrocious, and takes away from the movie a bit.
Then i got to the end and... was transported by the best movie ending i have ever seen. Amazing. Simple, breathtaking, everything a movie should be.
I kind of think he should stick to dramas, as i was not impressed by Pom Poko.
Michael
[deleted]
I totally agree with you I got goosebumps when seeing this ending I think it has so much meaning.
The perfect way to leave your past behind ...seeing to the future
I love it
Add another member to the club. This is my favorite ending from all the films I've seen.
shareabsolutely fantastic ending, and coming just as the credits start to roll it arrives like an unexpected gift.
an english translation of the music is also used in the the film napoleon dynamite (but to very different effect).
Just finished watching this and all i can really say is " WOW!" what a prefect ending to a sweet and very touching film.I teared up on more than one scence not out of saddness,but of joy remembering things from my childhood.
sharei to want to join this club, the ending was just beatiful, no matter how many anime i watch they always keep suprising me
"At least you weren't eaten by a grue!"
I'm glad i'm not the only one. It really sent the hairs on my arms up. Terrific the way in which she lets go of her child self.
share...She doesn't "let go of her child self" as you argue. That would suck. On the contrary, she takes her child self to adulthood, and imports to it all the good qualities of childhood, like for example following your heart and not worry too much about contaminated whatifs.
Watch it closely (I've already watched it 10+ times and I still can't have enough of it):
Taeko sits in an empty train carriage. The carriage suddenly fills up with children. Then Child Taeko timidly appears from the seat behind, and shakes Woman Taeko's arm. With this encouragement Taeko stands up and decides to go back.
*The children cheer in approval*
All the way through Child Taeko leads the Woman, until the end, where she pulls her again from the arm, to meet Toshio. Even then, a miscief from another child throws Toshio to Taeko's arms. And in the end, the image of Child Taeko changes, in such a way that it leaves the viewer with the feeling that the child grew up.
It is ****this**** that makes "Only Yesterday" the best film ever made: Growing up is not about giving up the child's ways, as common so-called "wisdom" claims, but about cultivating them.
WOW! I watched it for the 1st time on Sunday (today's Friday, 5 days later). I can't stop thinking about it! I look forward to going home in the evening to watch it again and again!
Although it's all Heavenly, I particularly like it when child Taeko takes herself from the arm. Isao Katahata is God!
I had a few comments and I thought this thread seemed appropriately close to the topic I wanted to address. Yes, the ending was beautifully played (and would have been almost as effective had it been a live-action movie). I am a fan of Ghibli animation films, but this type of drama (with a heartwarming, tear-inducing ending) is NOT atypical in modern Japanese cinema, it's only slightly less typical presented as animation (since in the US we associate animation only with cutesy children's movies, and our typical view of Japanese animation is fighting robots, mind blowing sci-fi, or mutant tranforming monsters). And as if to prove my point, Disney won't translate Only Yesterday for US release because of mature themes. Nothing in this film really (even the ecstatic "flying") would have prevented it to be have been shot live-action, I think, but the difficulty of wrangling that many child-actors and extras, and getting adequate performances from them might have been why telling the story with animation might have been the most feasible method. I loved the ending, but I must also comment that variations of this image are almost borderline cliche in romance-drama/romantic comedy... the train leaving/the train coming back... the idea of vehicles or conveyances (like life paths) going opposite directions (cars, elevators, boats, trains, planes etc)... lover's possibly not meeting again (music swells...) ...ah, they meet. Cue tears.
shareI agree, but it wasn't wholly the romantic get-together that made it effective. What did it for me was the children from her memories, dragging her off the train and playfully stopping the bus, holding the love umbrella over their heads, and chasing the car as they drove off. Without the kids, it would have been quite trite. As it is though, I'd say it is one of the best endings I've seen in a film, animation or otherwise.
shareit wasn't wholly the romantic get-together that made it effective. What did it for me was the children from her memories, dragging her off the train and playfully stopping the bus, holding the love umbrella over their heads, and chasing the car as they drove off. Without the kids, it would have been quite trite.
the film seemed to go about the adult remembering the child, now the situation takes a turn, it's the child who looks at the adult, and in some motherly way - care, love, wonder and worry. As if her (child) "presence" during the whole adult events was destined to guide her (adult), someway. And it indeed made me wonder, about the child that I was a long time ago, looking at me now...
I agree! It was the proper conclusion to the tone of this movie and I was taken a back at first that it kept going on when the credits rolled yet it was insanely clever and suited the film nonetheless.
shareYes. The ending took me completely by surprise. It would have worked just fine without that twist - no one would have died; no one would have been left miserable - so when Taeko decides to take a risk and follow her heart, it is very touching. The fact that the most important turn of events in the whole film happens during the closing credits, mirrors the fact that Taeko could so easily have missed her chance of happiness. She had already said goodbye and was on her way home to her cat.
The extraordinary thing is that there is nothing extraordinary about Taeko. She is so ordinary that I found myself totally identifying with her - despite my maleness, my Englishness, my aptitude for mathematics, and the fact that I grew up in the country and have no ambition to go and live on a farm. I really have nothing in common with Taeko except my ordinariness, and my still-not-completely-dead hope for happiness.
The other extraordinary thing in this film is the animation of the faces. Faces and body language. I've never seen animation that is so realistic. Not photo-realistic; more realistic than that. Like the way an anatomy book shows more detail than a photograph can. I saw a version in Japanese with English subtitles. To dub this film would be absurd. The characters are Japanese, they speak Japanese, and such care has been taken to show how each syllable is formed by the facial muscles, that I'm not sure it could be dubbed. I hope no one tries.
I am not an anime fan, but this film is exceptional. It tells a great story with three dimensional characters and the end blew me away - especially as I thought the film had ended.
shareBrilliant ending. Suprising, emotional and beautifully done. Add me to the club ;)
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http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2474017/
Yes. The ending took me completely by surprise. It would have worked just fine without that twist - no one would have died; no one would have been left miserable - so when Taeko decides to take a risk and follow her heart, it is very touching.
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Well, it actually depends on whether you "agree/accept" Taeko's decision (& what you interpret Taeko's decision to be), but I.... LOVED it.
I found myself quietly rooting for the guy after he subtly "mentioned" seeing her before-- he was so UN-pushy with girls that it's no wonder the grandma got anxious.
I agree, the ending was PERFECT!
shareYou can watch it on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpekvYoOcW8&feature=related
i must be the only one who didnt like the ending. the rest of the film was great, i loved the scenes such as her trying to divide fractions, but i absolutely hated the ending. it felt unnatural and forced, sort of fairytale like. it was already developed that she at the end realised that she only superficially liked the idea of living in the countryside, so why go back to a cliched ending after that? a much much better ending would be where she actually talks to the old man who made it on the train instead of just ignoring him.
shareThe ending made me cry. And I am a 41-year-old man.
The point of the ending was her choice: To follow her "adult" brain or to follow her "child" heart. She couldn't make a rational decision because if she did, she would end up back in the city.
Her "adult brain" wasn't her own. It was brainwashed into her through nonsense such as
"this child is not normal" (maths test)
"let's stick to the script" (school play)
"marry the first bum who propose because you're 28"
"you cannot act on a play because the outside world is full of evil"
etc, etc, etc...
As for what's "rational"... I believe it's what makes everyone happy, isn't it?
In sort, the child was a lot more mature, and also a lot more capable of being happy. And this is exactly what the ending highlights: Taeko regains her oppressed childhood wisdom, and with it the control of her life.
As for "she didn't like the idea of living in the countryside"... where did you get that from, because she hesitated? It was a life-changing decision, do you take life-changing decisions without hesitation?
--a much much better ending would be where she actually talks to the old man who made it on the train instead of just ignoring him.--
That's stupid... Why would she talk to the old man? They had no connection, and he was unimportant to the plot.
Also, it was never developed that she only superficially liked the countryside, and I cant figure how you came up with that assumption. The only time she seems dissatisfied is when the old couple ask her to marry the young man, and she runs out. I haven't seen it in awhile, but from memory she is angry at herself because she feels like a fraud or a poser, claiming to love the country life without actually being a part of it, which only adds to her reasoning for staying at the end. Not to mention that everything that happens in her childhood is leading her to where she ends up. Like another poster said, she learnt to follow her child heart instead of her adult brain, although that may be a bit too much of a sum up.
You should probably avoid these sort of films, because they seemingly go right over your head...
Just watched it on Film4, the ending was fantastic, completely agree with the OP.
I caught the tail end of this on Film4 as well and there's something about this film that I can't stop thinking about it.
I saw the credits without knowing much about the story and I just couldn't stop crying! The lyrics were beguiling - they just take your defences away.
I loved it when the children tripped Toshio so he sorted of tumbled into her arms. Or maybe he landed on his knees, somebody could clarify 'cause I'm not quite sure.
shareI definitely agree that it is one of the best endings ever...Definitely alot better than the ending to Oldboy :P
shareI hadn't watched the film after she got onto the train and I thought that was the end which was gutting, it wasn't until I saw this post and was shocked that people liked it that I realised I had finished watching it too soon and saw it..does make you fill up doesn't it.
share