Only Yesterday: More Than Just Remembering Radishes (Hear me out!)

Okay, so I just rewatched Only Yesterday and it hit different this time. I know it's like, the quintessential "coming of age while like, already being grown up" movie, but I think it's doing something way more sneaky than just reminding us our childhoods are weird. My theory? Taeko isn't just remembering her past; she's actively rewriting it to justify her present. Think about it – those childhood memories are so VIVID and emotionally charged, but conveniently, they all seem to point to her feeling... unfulfilled. Like the pineapple scene? Classic. Everyone was weirded out by pineapple, but it's played as this HUGE traumatic event that foreshadows her inability to conform. Or the fractions scene?! "They're not fair!" she cries, mirroring her perceived unfairness of life currently. I think she's subconsciously using those memories, inflating them, to explain why she's a 27-year-old single woman going to the countryside. Which, nothing wrong with that, but like, why is she going? And then there's Toshio. He represents the potential for a different path, the one where she doesn't settle. But even then, she uses the past to justify her connection to him. "He's like me," she says, remembering something silly like baseball. "I'm not a little girl anymore!" Of course, she does. It's her story. Maybe this is a stretch and she’s just having an extremely relatable mid-life-ish crisis, but the way the film portrays the past as this HUGE force actively shaping her decisions... it feels like 'history is written by the victors,' except the "victor" is Taeko rationalizing where she is in life. The heart wants what it wants, right? Anyone else get this vibe? Or am I just overthinking the radish-eating scenes? You could say the movie is, "More memory than reality," if you want to quote me. (Scottscreens, 2024.) What do you guys think?