Only Yesterday (1991)

Netflix confused me by stating the year of release as 2016. Turns out it was never dubbed in English or distributed in the West until the 25th anniversary. I find this strange, because the story isn't half as foreign to us as in many animes that reached the U.S. faster.

The setting alternates between the mid-'60s and early '80s as 27-year-old Taeko (Daisy Ridley) reminisces about her fifth-grade self (Allison Fernandez). She presently takes a "vacation" doing farmwork with a sister's in-laws, hard-pressed to say what about it reminds her of that particular year of her life. It wasn't especially good or bad, but the various episodes get her dwelling on what could have been -- and what may yet be. Farmhand Toshio (Dev Patel) starts to look promising....

The Green Knight (2021)

I enjoyed reading about Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in college, tho I've been a mite fuzzy on events in the middle. With the general praise for this adaptation, I went to a theater on a whim. Had I known that A24 was involved, I would have been more apprehensive.

An Ent-like horseman (Ralph Ineson) rides up to the Round Table with a challenge: Whoever strikes him gets to keep his nifty axe but has to show up at his Green Chapel a year later for recompense. Gawain (Dev Patel), nephew of King Arthur (Sean Harris), wants to make a name for himself at last, so he decapitates the Green Knight, only to find that such a mystical figure doesn't die that easily. As the rather literal deadline approaches, Gawain heads out for no other reason than a thirst for honor....

I Lost My Body (2019)

The announcement of Academy Award nominations was the first I'd heard of this Netflix-adopted feature. I didn't bother to learn much about it in advance. The title told me to expect drama, and I knew it was foreign if not French.

Oddly enough, the "I" of the title refers to an entity incapable of verbal communication: a severed right hand that has mysteriously taken on a life of its own. (This isn't a backstory for the Addams Family's Thing; the skin's too dark.) Retaining more than just muscle memory, it sneaks out of a lab fridge in search of the rest of its body, a young man named Naoufel (Dev Patel in the English dubbing). Scattered throughout the movie are flashbacks in the life of Naoufel, the early ones appearing in black and white, often with a camera focus on his hand.

Lion (2016)

Why did I wait this long to see a rather popular, uncontroversial Academy Best Picture nominee? Mainly because the plot summary sounded like all I needed to know. It's even been adapted into a TV commercial, so how much more could we get from a nearly two-hour movie? Still, six Oscar nods, even without wins, are nothing to sneeze at, and this was the most tempting option on my streaming list at the moment.

The true story begins in a little-known Indian town in 1986, with a family poor enough to make some desperately risky choices. Such risks lead to five-year-old Saroo (Sunny Pawar) waking on a train far from his family. Knowing way too little information to return, he ends up in an orphanage and is then adopted by a Tasmanian couple (Nicole Kidman and David Wenham). Only more than halfway through the film do we come to the unique aspect: After two decades, someone gives Saroo (now played by Dev Patel) the idea to use Google Earth until he recognizes his hometown.