It’s official: GKIDS has acquired the rights to Studio Ghibli’s animated gem Only Yesterday, which will now get its first theatrical release in North America.
Directed by Isao Takahata, the English language version will also bring together a starry line-up for voiceover work, including Dev Patel, Ashley Eckstein, Alison Fernandez and Star Wars: The Force Awakens‘ Daisy Ridley.
Here’s the official logline:
“It’s 1982, and Taeko is 27 years old, unmarried, and has lived her whole life in Tokyo. While traveling by train to visit family in the country, memories flood back of her as a schoolgirl in 1966, and she starts to question whether she has been true to herself.”
First released in 1991, Studio Ghibli’s Only Yesterday was perhaps unfairly overlooked when it made its bow. That’s largely because studio luminaries Joe Hisaishi and Hayao Miyazaki weren’t involved in the animated feature, though it has been compared to other slice-of-life dramas from the company’s prestigious archives, including Whisper of the Heart and The Wind Rises. Expect dream sequences aplenty, then, though Takahata’s film is decidedly more realistic than your typical Miyazaki outing.
Only Yesterday will make its English-language debut in North America on January 1 at the New York City’s IFC Center. Thereafter, GKIDS has planned to roll out the animated feature nationwide on February 26.
