X
- 2003
- PG
- Eleven Arts
- 1 h 27 m
- 2003
- PG
- Eleven Arts
- 1 h 27 m
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)
Directed By: Satoshi Kon, Kô Matsuo
Written By: Sadayuki Murai, Satoshi Kon
- 2003
- PG
- Eleven Arts
- 1 h 27 m
- 2003
- PG
- Eleven Arts
- 1 h 27 m
Millennium Actress
70
7.5
Where to Watch
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)
Directed By: Satoshi Kon, Kô Matsuo
Written By: Sadayuki Murai, Satoshi Kon
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 15 Critic Reviews
70
87% Positive
13 Reviews
13 Reviews
13% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 15 Critic Reviews
70
87% Positive
13 Reviews
13 Reviews
13% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
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.
To watch Millennium Actress is to witness one cinematic medium celebrating another, an expression of movie love that is wonderfully eccentric and deeply affecting.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 40 User Ratings
7.5
75% Positive
30 Ratings
30 Ratings
15% Mixed
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
10% Negative
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 40 User Ratings
7.5
75% Positive
30 Ratings
30 Ratings
15% Mixed
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
10% Negative
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
This is one of these examples that cinema is a reflection of moments in life. The tour-de-force story in the life of an actress is immersive as magnetic, grabbing the viewer's full attention.
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It's interesting to watch this and the video game episode of Paranoia Agent back to back, and see how Satoshi Kon adapted the ideas of this film into a different medium.
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Although we never feel any true connection to the enigmatic actress, there's no denying the inventiveness of Kon's homage to the possibilities of cinema.
The movie's narrative can be taxingly ornate, but there's something beautiful about its metaphorical conflation of politics and glamour, the real and the fictional.
Past and present, reality and fiction blend seamlessly into each other in Satoshi Kon's dream-like animated drama.
Millennium Actress is a quest for beauty and truth that is as wonderful to look at as it is gruelling to contemplate.
Flashbacks integrate with scenes from her films, and it becomes difficult to discern between the two -- cinema is equated with memory. Unfortunately, the trippy disorientation ultimately devolves into outright confusion.
Ever wondered why does a well-told love story always work in every movie regardless of its genre? Be it a shoot-'em-up actioner, a swashbuckling fantasy, an alien-invasion sci-fi or a cowboy western, nothing can prove a constraint to the power of love in cinema. For love thrives in cinema. It has the ability to ground the most wild and fanciful stories in reality because it evokes emotion in such a way the viewer comes to identify with the characters and invest in the story readily. Satoshi Kon captures that notion here to perfection, blurring the logical line between reality and fiction, forcing us to completely rely on what we feel as we're letting the movie wash over us.
"The Key" is a catalyst that opened the flood-gates of memories of the eponymous actress, letting these memories rush out in flashback scenes the two documentarians interviewing Chiyoko are literally pulled into them. The cheekily innovative way of making them intervene in her quasi-fictional stories added a sense of meta and light relief that imbued the film with much needed breeziness. In addition, that made us pry to Chiyoko's both inner and outer feelings throughout her cinematic and love-pursuing journey. That said, Millennium Actress perhaps runs too short to make a lasting impact on me, and the frenetic pace doesn't help either. I'm sure, however, that a rewatch can make me pump my rating up.
"I can't remember!
Not even his face!
I loved him so much.
Now I can't remember his face!"
The story moulds the agonizing feelings of longing in memory vessels that would preserve love so long as youthfulness lasts. But youthfulness withers, allowing memories to fade away. Here comes the struggle that's even harder than the life-time seeking of love: the struggle of desperately trying to hold onto memories of lost love while your aging mind failing you. That's when you even fail to lament your most precious loss! The story here takes a huge metaphysical leap to emphasize the immortality of love and cinema.
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This is an intriguing anime film. Its not so much a film aimed at young kids and I liked the plot concept of travelling through different times in a persons life, to see what they saw and witness events first hand. I thought the old fashioned, video game type music played at times was somehow endearing - it has quite a strong sense of nostalgia. It's not as great as Tokyo Godfathers (it features the same director) but its certainly worth a watch regardless if your into anime films and so I would recommend it, yes.
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Production Company
Bandai Visual Company,
Chiyoko Commitee,
Genco,
Kadokawa Shoten Publishing Co.,
Madhouse,
WOWOW
Release Date Sep 12, 2003
Duration 1 h 27 m
Rating PG
Awards
Annie Awards
• 4 Nominations
Fantasia Film Festival
• 2 Wins & 2 Nominations
Tokyo Anime Award
• 2 Wins & 2 Nominations
