Millennium Actress
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Movie Reviews of Millennium Actress
Movie Review: A different way to tell a story
Summary: 5 Stars
This is something I haven't seen in a long time: a basically different kind of narrative. Chiyoko was an actress, many years ago. Now, after she's been in retirement for decades, a former co-worker (Genya) interviews her about her life, her career, and the one mysterious strand that connects all the pieces together.
The story is told in scenes from her earlier life, mostly in fragments of the movies Chiyoko has made. Occasional cuts back to the present interview keep the story anchored, but the cinematic flashbacks really carry the narrative.
The unique aspect was that Genya and his camera-man find themselves transported into each flashback. When a scene from a remembered movie shows fire, they feel the heat. When another scene shows an attack by archers, the camera-man's sleeve is pinned to the wall. At first, the two are ghostlike observers, unable to interact with the scene. Gradually, however, Genya is pulled into the action; he now takes part in the movie-memory.
Saying more would be saying too much. There are many surprises in this movie, and I want you to enjoy them the way I did.
This anime meets very high technical standards, but competent animation is easy to find. The story and the style of the story-telling really carry this movie. There are layers to unravel, making this much more complex and nuanced than most animation. This almost never happens to me: as soon as the movie ended, I wanted to see it again.
My partner and I rented this movie. Just a few minutes in, we realized we should have bought it.
Movie Review: One word...Masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
It's really sad when one thinks that the incredible director that was Kon Satoshi only made 4 films and 1 TV anime. Of his films(Perfect Blue, Tokyo Godfathers, Paprika and Millennium Actress) Millennium Actress is easily his best. The movie is about an actress named Fujiwara Chiyoko who at one point in her life was a very prolific actress but disappeared from movies never to be heard from again.
Many years later Tachibana Genya finally tracks her down and gets a interview. Genya also happens to be Chiyoko's biggest fan and cherishes this moment. As she tells him the story of her life both Genya and his Cameraman find themselves reliving her life in person. To them it becomes more then a story.
Throughout the movie the viewer sees why Chiyoko got into movies and how no matter the movie she was doing her character seemed to be part of herself. There are times when the memories and movies begin to blur and the viewer is left wondering if what just happened was one of her movies or one of her memories or perhaps both.
Now I'm not a professional reviewer so I won't go deeper into the plot or it's complexity and the messages it has. What I can tell you is that it's one incredible film everyone should see. After the death of Kon Satoshi it seems to be a perfect way to put yourself at peace with it.(if you happen to know what his death means to alot of people like myself) In many ways Kon's career mirrored Chiyoko's.
Movie Review: Praise for the Actress
Summary: 5 Stars
Millennium Actress is the first Satoshi Kon film that I've seen, and I have to say I was deeply impressed. If you, like me are picky about the Anime you watch I highly recommend this film.
We meet Chioyoko Fujiwara(the actress) as an elderly woman and travel bakwards into her past as she gives an extreemly rare enterview to enamored journalist Genya Tachibana, who has also come to return to Chioyoko a most precious object.
The viewer is submersed in Chioyoko's memories. we witness the chance meeting in her girlhood that would drive her future. We watch as she is "Discovered" and begins her career Hoping that as she travels from location to location she will be reunited with the mysterious stranger who has touched her heart, and return to him the treassured key that he left in her keeping.
For Chioyoko acting is a means to an end, but the longing in her soul is relflected by the films she chooses. A career filled with haunting romantic dramas mix with her memories of unrequited love. It becomes clear that Chioyoko can no longer distinguish between the two. The ending is sad but touching and made all the more heart renching beause of the knowledge that Tachibana has carried for decades.
I"ve heard this film called depressing. it's very sad that's true but as the credits rolled I found myself uplifed by the sheer beauty of this film.
Movie Review: Beautiful
Summary: 5 Stars
*SPOILER ALERT!!!*:
It can get a bit confusing, honestly. From meeting a strange guy in her teen years, she made it her life to look for him the rest of her life to give him an item he'd misplaced. Because of this, she chose to become an actress for that alone.
I loved the style of the movie! Although it would confuse a few people with how it seemed as if her search started all the way in the period surrounding World War II and such, I felt it was truly a story of love and how far a dedicated woman is willing to chase the love of her life just the for sake of returning an object and seeing his face again.
The scenes where Genya and his cameraman appeared as her saviors in each flashback, had me laughing at how she appreciated his help, but continued to move on dangerous paths without the intention of ever stopping.
The movie overall was tear-jerking to me and the ending really told me that love can be seen, but getting to it for the touch is the hardest part. I give this movie 5 stars for the sake that it was just too lovely and I couldn't stop watching it for a minute.
Please, if you ever do get the chance, find this movie and watch it. To be honest, I recommend it in it's original form. No dubs, only subs! :D
*~`Rockie`~*
([..]) You can find my original review at that blog. Thank you for reading. ^^
Movie Review: The Citizen Kane of anime
Summary: 5 Stars
Narratively and emotionally complex, Millennium Actress is nevertheless wonderfully accessible - a supreme example of how an artist can harness the qualities made available through film and animation and make something beautiful and meaningful out them.
The story is simple and at the same time ambitious. A documentary filmmaker interviews the legendary Japanese actress Chiyoko Fujiwara. Now a 70 year old lady, Chiyoko's career has nevertheless spanned a millennium from period drama to science-fiction drama - but it's a single incident from her childhood that serves as a common thread through all her films and is also the key (literally as well as figuratively) inspiration that makes those performances so great.
The animation then is fully put to the service of the story, Chiyoko's real-life and the documentary filmmakers all coming together into the landscape of her filmmaking career, the animation fluidly blending between them all, serving to add subtle emotional resonances - and sometimes not quite so subtle it must be admitted, but perfectly in tune nonetheless with the dramatic nature of the subject. In this way, Millennium Actress becomes a tribute not only to Japanese cinema, but to the nature of cinema as a whole, to the necessity of drama and the creation of fiction to make lives all the more vivid and meaningful. Magnificent.