However, I doubt if “Memories” will ever get a release in the US market, because it is so deeply Japanese. It’s filled with references to popular culture in Japan over the past 30 years, and runs at an amazingly relaxed pace.

It’s the story of a late 20’s office worker in Tokyo who decides to take her vacation in the country working on a farm. It’s because of her childhood memories of the country that she keeps being drawn back to it. I don’t want to lay out the plot to you, because it’s not really a plot-driven film. The heroine travels on a train, and as she goes she keeps thinking about a particular time in her childhood, and the film goes from the present to the past as it unfolds.

The sequences set in the present are done in that clear and detailed style Miyazaki’s films are famed for, while the sequences set in the past are done in a faded watercolor style, with both having very different color palettes.

The film is also set with very evocative music like all of Miyazaki’s, but very different from all of Joe Hisashi’s other film work.

This film is somewhat hard to locate, but well worth the trouble. It’s beautifully done, with the same young female heroine as in all of Miyazaki’s films. I don’t think that Disney will be able to make a translation version for the Western market as has been done with the rest of the films - it’s just too damn Japanese for us. I sure don’t claim to understand even a tenth of the pop culture references made in the film, but it’s still one that brings me back to see it again and again. The ending always makes me smile for hours afterwards. The film is warm, slow, personal and very different from the fantasy/action/saga stories that Miyazaki is known for. It’s actually unlike any other Japanese animated film I can think of - the closest would probably be “Whispers of the Heart”, but much more personal.

Again, I think it’s his best work to date.