Millennium ActressI feel it's safe to say that if you're reading this, you enjoy film in some capacity. We all have our preferences, our favorite directors, genres, and even favorite stars. There may even be one or two which you feel especially passionate about, and enjoy above the rest. Millennium Actress is the story of one such dedicated fan/film archivist named Genya Tachibana who is composing a documentary about his favorite film star, Chiyoko Fujiwara. Although something of a recluse, the amiable actress invites Genya and his cameraman to hear her story about how a meaningful event in her childhood set her on her fated path.
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Millennium Actress is a startlingly crisp animated film, filled with action and suspense, and realistic characters with authentic motivations. Chiyoko as a young girl is interested in the simple pleasures of childhood, and couldn't care less about the nationalist urge overtaking Japan pre-World War II. Her chance encounter with a runaway dissident sparks the first pangs of attraction in her young heart. He is a charming painter, his language filled with poetry, and he--and his elusiveness--fills Chiyoko with a feeling that possesses her going forward. The only token--at least at first--left to her from their brief time is a key. Chiyoko claims she doesn't know what it opens, although it's clear she suspects it is to his painting kit; the painter's reply that it opens "the greatest treasure" proves to be more true than he could have foreseen. When Genya presents the key to Chiyoko, her memories of her full life come flooding back, and the significance of the totem upon her development. Although Genya claims to be filming a documentary, he is such a diehard fan of her films that he--like many devotees--goes so far as to identify and insert himself into the scenes recaptured in her memory, usually in the role of an adoring fan. Director and writer Satoshi Kon was highly skilled at not only blurring the lines of the real and imagined, but also waltzing around the concept of the "fourth wall" in his films--this is especially true in Millennium Actress. Chiyoko's personal chase of her anonymous artist is mirrored in the films she is in, with key scenes projecting a young girls search for a mysterious man, her undying love in the face of impossible odds, and her relentless pursuit of the one to whom she needs to return. Tight edits and sharp cuts dissolve the distinction between her films and her own life, which makes sense, since the impetus behind her becoming an actress was solely to track this man into Manchuria.
Millennium Actress is a very self-aware movie, a film knowingly about a film about film. Genya represents the fan in us all, one who has felt a special connection with the drama and stories which have molded our lives, wittingly or unwittingly. For Genya, his obsession goes a little further when we discover his true involvement in Chiyoko's life, so his diving into roles in her cinematic memories makes all the more sense in retrospect. Chiyoko's time with Ginei Studios is marked by her skyrocketing popularity as their most popular star. Her rocky start is made more difficult as she is subjected to the jealous whims of her senior opposite, Eiko Shimao, and the lascivious advances of director Otani, two negative archetypes of the studio system in which Chiyoko is now a part. On the other side of that coin is Genya and Chiyoko, two people whose commitment to their respective involvements in the film business make them ideal representations of the best things we love about movies. Millennium Actress is a love letter to cinema, both literally and figuratively, as Genya's film is a labor of love, evidenced by his implacable devotion to Chiyoko in his work and manner, as well as the abundance of nods to easily--and not so easily--recognizable images from classic films and great filmmakers. The abundance of homages hearken back to some of Japan's most important cinematic masters, like Yasujiro Ozu and Akira Kurosawa, and even a couple of nods to Stanley Kubrick. Chiyoko herself is a composite, inspired by classic Japanese actresses Setsuko Hara and Hideko Takamine. In keeping with the rest of Satoshi Kon's films, there is a great deal of action--especially running--involving the main character; in Millennium Actress, this is especially key (pardon the pun), considering Chiyoko is practically chasing her elusive man across time and space, and even across fiction and reality. The chase is a part of her life now, and even the stars are not too far. From the onset, there is the conveyance that Chiyoko's life is tied to earthquakes; it is even jokingly said by Chiyoko's nurse that the "earth has to move" before she can meet someone new. The earthquake signifies a great transition, such as when Chiyoko was born during the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, but also when our story begins, implying that this meeting with Genya and Chiyoko will be of great importance. The events which unfold here are a revelation for our main characters, but they are also a beautiful insight into the love of film for us as the audience, a kind of paean of our devotions and passions on the screen, and how that revelation affects us.
Recommended for: Fans of stories that hearken back to golden ages of film, which tell a tale of devoted love and obsession, and a kind of innocent wonder of how far that obsession can mold one into becoming something greater than oneself.
Millennium Actress is a very self-aware movie, a film knowingly about a film about film. Genya represents the fan in us all, one who has felt a special connection with the drama and stories which have molded our lives, wittingly or unwittingly. For Genya, his obsession goes a little further when we discover his true involvement in Chiyoko's life, so his diving into roles in her cinematic memories makes all the more sense in retrospect. Chiyoko's time with Ginei Studios is marked by her skyrocketing popularity as their most popular star. Her rocky start is made more difficult as she is subjected to the jealous whims of her senior opposite, Eiko Shimao, and the lascivious advances of director Otani, two negative archetypes of the studio system in which Chiyoko is now a part. On the other side of that coin is Genya and Chiyoko, two people whose commitment to their respective involvements in the film business make them ideal representations of the best things we love about movies. Millennium Actress is a love letter to cinema, both literally and figuratively, as Genya's film is a labor of love, evidenced by his implacable devotion to Chiyoko in his work and manner, as well as the abundance of nods to easily--and not so easily--recognizable images from classic films and great filmmakers. The abundance of homages hearken back to some of Japan's most important cinematic masters, like Yasujiro Ozu and Akira Kurosawa, and even a couple of nods to Stanley Kubrick. Chiyoko herself is a composite, inspired by classic Japanese actresses Setsuko Hara and Hideko Takamine. In keeping with the rest of Satoshi Kon's films, there is a great deal of action--especially running--involving the main character; in Millennium Actress, this is especially key (pardon the pun), considering Chiyoko is practically chasing her elusive man across time and space, and even across fiction and reality. The chase is a part of her life now, and even the stars are not too far. From the onset, there is the conveyance that Chiyoko's life is tied to earthquakes; it is even jokingly said by Chiyoko's nurse that the "earth has to move" before she can meet someone new. The earthquake signifies a great transition, such as when Chiyoko was born during the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, but also when our story begins, implying that this meeting with Genya and Chiyoko will be of great importance. The events which unfold here are a revelation for our main characters, but they are also a beautiful insight into the love of film for us as the audience, a kind of paean of our devotions and passions on the screen, and how that revelation affects us.
Recommended for: Fans of stories that hearken back to golden ages of film, which tell a tale of devoted love and obsession, and a kind of innocent wonder of how far that obsession can mold one into becoming something greater than oneself.