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The highest grossing Japanese movie of 1991 is Isao Takahata's Only Yesterday (Omoide Poro Poro, or more literally "Memories With Tears."), and it serves as a good summation of the year itself. Many know Only Yesterday to be one of Ghibli's best, yet it is one of the only remaining Ghibli titles not to have any American release from Disney. It's a quiet, subtle film that would not be able to attract the large audiences Miyazaki's more family friendly, and less culturally specific works.
Only Yesterday isn't alone: 1991 is full of acclaimed, yet woefully overlooked classics.
Only Yesterday is fitting in another way. The story revolves around a woman named Taeko, who is tempted to leave the corporate rat race in 1980s Japan and run off to the idyllic furusato, or hometown, where she can live in peace off of nature's bounty. It's easy to see why it would resonate with a Japanese audience in 1991, as who wouldn't want to get away? 1991 was the final year of the Japanese economic bubble, and the nation went from economic excess and overvalued assets to a period of economic malaise that has arguably never fully lifted. After the bursting of the bubble, there would never be another Wings on Honneamise, released in 1987 with a huge 800 million yen budget, or another Akira.
The cyberpunk opus of 1991 was instead Roujin Z, written by Akira's Otomo, but directed by Hiroyuki Kitakubo. Unlike the brutal phantasmagoria of Akira, Roujin Z was a social satire about the care of the elderly. Roger Ebert gave the film three stars, and spoke of the potential of anime by saying "I cannot imagine this story being told in a conventional movie. Not only would the machine be impossibly expensive and complex to create with special effects, but the social criticism would be immediately blue-penciled by Hollywood executives." The title is currently unlicensed in America.
