Only Yesterday

With the imminent birth of our first daughter, we didn't get to go back hometown during CNY. So, we ended up catching up on movies instead :)

A really memorable one we watched was a Japanese anime called "Omohide Poro Poro", or "Only Yesterday". It was a really moving tale of a 27 year old lady reflecting on her life through flashbacks to the time when she was a 10 year old girl. Through those reflections she began to understand herself again, and provided her with a context to understand the choices she faces in adulthood.


Apart from the moving story, the movie itself was also gorgeous to behold, not in the Pixar kind of way, but sort of like looking at a beautiful watercolour painting.

It's hard to describe the feelings that the movie evoked, but suffice to say it really made my holiday.

And the ending. What an ending it was. When the credits started to appear, I thought I was gonna get one of those ambiguous endings, but instead a Japanese version of the song "The Rose" started, and what followed was magical. You can see it on Youtube here, but be warned, without watching the whole movie, you might not understand it.

While hunting for the lyrics for "The Rose", I was dismayed to find out that Westlife did a cover of it last year, and quite a number of other singers have done covers of it as well. But no matter, to really appreciate the song, get hold of the original Bette Midler version :)

The Rose

Some say love it is a river
that drowns the tender reed
Some say love it is a razor
that leaves your soul to bleed

Some say love it is a hunger
an endless aching need
I say love it is a flower
and you it's only seed

It's the heart afraid of breaking
that never learns to dance
It's the dream afraid of waking that never takes the chance
It's the one who won't be taken
who cannot seem to give
and the soul afraid of dying that never learns to live

When the night has been too lonely
and the road has been too long
and you think that love is only
for the lucky and the strong
Just remember in the winter far beneath the bitter snows
lies the seed
that with the sun's love
in the spring
becomes the rose