Metascore

Generally favorable reviews - based on 15 Critics What's this?

User Score

Universal acclaim- based on 12 Ratings

  • Starring: Miyoko ShĂ´ji
  • Summary: In this unique epic adventure, the lines between the past and the present, and truth and fiction, are blurred when a documentary filmmaker fulfills his quest to find the legendary actress Chiyoko Fujiwara, and learn why she mysteriously vanished at the height of her brilliant career. (Go Fish Pictures) Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 15
  2. Negative: 0 out of 15
  1. Reviewed by: Kevin M. Williams
    100
    Fabulous for many reasons. Most important, this movie is Chiyoko's story, not an anime adventure. It's animated, but it's human and will touch the soul of anyone who has loved deeply.
  2. Millennium Actress fascinatingly goes where films have not often gone before.
  3. 80
    Satoshi innovates not by pushing off into more extreme realms of adolescent fantasy, but by using all the resources of animation to tell complex dramatic stories, resources that in his hands seem almost limitless.
  4. Reviewed by: Derek Elley
    50
    Contains some brilliant invention between duller stretches.

See all 15 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 2
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 2
  3. Negative: 0 out of 2
  1. Riren
    9
    Millennium Actress is lost on all cultures outside of Japan's. It's deep and meaningful tapestry of Asian film history is beautiful, but also outside the frame of reference for all but the most informed foreign movie goers. That said, its sentimentality and original execution are inspiring. There may be no tribute to American film that rivals what this does for its homeland. And despite its language barrier, despite the culture barrier, despite it being animated, it will touch you. It's fairly easy to tell when the "real world" and "film world" change off, except when it's intentional. I can't imagine anyone who couldn't understand that part of the movie, and hope to goodness I never become such a person. This one goes down as not just one of the greatest animated drama, not just one of the greatest anime, but truly as a great film. Expand

See all 2 User Reviews

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