Millennium Actress

I love this movie...everything about it...the animation, the characters, the story and the way it’s told are brilliant. There are times that it’s funny, sweet, dramatic, touching and just plain endearing. The animation itself looks similar to that of Spirited Away.

I don’t want to reveal too much detail about the story...it’s better to be seen with fresh eyes. But here’s a quick synopsis...A movie studio (Ginei Studios’) is being torn down and a local reporter (Tachibana)...along with his camera man...are doing a documentary on Ginei Studios’ biggest star....Miss Fujiwara Chiyoko. She has lived as a recluse for many years (and is now in her 70’s), but has granted them an interview. It’s clear Tachibana has a great respect and admiration for Miss Fujiwara...he gives her a small gift which brings back alot of old memories to her.

One of the greatest strengths about this movie is how it told. As Miss Fujiwara tells her life story and why she became an actress....we see Tachibana and his camera man in the background as if witnessing her past first hand. Eventually Tachibana imagines himself actually participating in the past scenes of her life...scenes of reality and scenes from her movies. The only criticism I can say is that sometimes the scenes are intertwined so smoothly it’s sometimes hard to tell which were from a movie and what really happened to her in real life and at what time period....which could be a bit confusing...but it didn’t take my enjoyment away from the movie. During her story we’re always brought back to the present and continue to follow Miss Fujiwara life’s journey. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie quite done this way before. There are plenty of movies that flash back to the past....but until this movie, not one that intertwined the past and present so endearingly. We eventually see why Tachibana has such a great interest in Miss Fujiwara...no, it isn’t a love story between the two...more in the vein of people who touch your life or who are touched by you, whether you know it or not.

I wish some live action movies (I’m thinking the romantic comedies I was so disappointed in this past year) took the same care to write such rich characters as this....as well as telling a good story in an interesting way. If anyone gets the chance to see this gem, I highly recommend it.

Has anyone else seen it and what did you think of it?

Nice review, Annie. I take it no one else has seen this one, because there aren’t any replies yet. I’ve just begun my anime love affair, so I’m glad that you pointed this one out to me. I’m not really into the massive action ones, or the kung fu monster mashing ones either; stories like this are what do it for me.

I also like how you personalize your review. You let me know why it moved you and what it is exactly that makes you love a movie. We are very similar. I’ll reply again once I get a copy and see it for myself.

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Thank you dearheart.~

I'll be very interested to hear your opinion of this movie once you see it.

Great review Annie… and I hope we can expect more from you… … I haven’t seen this but it sounds like something I would like… so… guess what… my list is now 3 miles long…

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I concur with the general consensus tha your review, Annie, is great.

I've not seen this particular Anime, and it doesn't look like the sort I would normally watch. I prefer my Anime with a dose of action and/or meca fighting. I guess I'm the opposite to Lordy on that. However I have watched and enjoyed many an Anime that concentrates on character and plot as well. For instance the marvel of 'Wings of Honnemaise' and 'Spirited Away'. Romance isn't really my thing, but I am prepared to give most films a go. If I get a hold of it I shall watch 'Millenium Actress', to give it a chance, and because you have written such a wonderful review on it Annie.

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saw it a couple summers ago on the big screen in n.y., and thanks for bringing it up, aniko. what a great movie this is.

if tokyo godfathers lives up to satoshi kon's first two movies i hope people will start thinking twice about mindlessly touting oshii as the brightest star of 'mature anime'.

aniko, i suggest you try and track down a copy of isao takahata's 'only yesterday' or yoshifumi kondo's 'whispers of the heart'. i think you'd get a lot out of either of these judging from your review of 'millenium actress'.

Thanks Caity.

Rev...thank you for your kind words. I really appreciate it. I'll have to look for 'Wings of Honnemaise'. Thanks for the recommendation

linespalsy...I'm really glad you liked this movie and I need to thank you. I picked up this movie because I remember seeing it listed on one of your many interesting lists. I'll have to look for 'only yesterday' and 'whispers of the heart'. Thank you for the suggestions.

By the way have you seen Tokyo Godfathers yet? I saw it last week and I'd love to hear what you thought of it.



Again...thanks everyone for reading my review and for your nice comments.

Great review Annie, I am not a fan of Anime, but I defiantly added this to my must see list, thanks again.

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i saw tokyo godfathers last weekend and liked it about as much as both 'perfect blue' and 'millennium actress', if not a little better than those earlier two. i like how satoshi kon is continuing to explore different things to do with the narrator's perception in each of his films. perfect blue was a nice twist on the 'thriller/slasher' genre that messed around with the typical 'villian/victim' formula in unexpected [though not entirely sensical] ways, then 'millennium actress' had the narrators as simultaneously swept up in the story they are documenting, and this newest one now has three narrators who's differences in perception of a few significant and insignificant events form the whole of the story, sort of rashomon-esque.

i also like how kon is reaching outside of the narrow pool of ideas that most anime stick to and aiming at a broader audience, though i would prefer something a little more singular to the medium [while at the same time original]. 'godfathers' certainly isnt the next 'akira' for me, but it's still a really solid film that people should see whether or not they are anime fans.

a notable scene for me waw when the three main characters were combing the city for the proper angle to view their photograph from.

Thanks for your opinion linespalsy...your comments and views are interesting (as always) and I greatly appreciate them.

I loved the warm and fuzzy feel of 3 Godfathers eventhough many tough issues came into play. Satoshi Kon is a wonderful storyteller.

I still haven't seen Perfect Blue...or Akira for that matter. I need to keep my eyes open for them. I haven't noticed them at the local blockbuster ot library.

I'm sorry to say that this summer I went back and rewatched this movie and was pretty disappionted by it. The storytelling, as Aniko's covers nicely, is interesting and pretty novel for an anime, and the subject is atypical. Both of these are cause for some celebration. But on my second viewing a couple large gripes (and some smaller ones) came up that I couldnt ignore.

The first one is mostly personal, I thought the tone of the movie was a bit too sweet. For a movie to be this saccharine it's got to justify itself with something pretty deep and toy with my expectations a lot for me to forgive it. There is some clever stuff here and I know that the whole thing is supposed to play off of the area between the heroin's tragic life and the roles she plays. This is nice but it just wasnt enough for me. Perfect Blue and Tokyo Godfathers worked better because they at least had some perversity. By contrast, Millennium Actress skimmed a little too close to fluffy Cinema Paradiso territory for me to accept it, it was just too sweet.

My second gripe is technical, I found some glaring flaws in the narrative mechanism of the 'classic' movies within this movie. They were there for two reasons. One was that they played off of the main character's 'tragic heroin' role in the rest of the movie; but they were also (ironically) there to give some broader historic scope to the lives of the characters, that these were the stories which defined them and the major events that they lived through. But the movies themselves were false, unconvincing, especially if you've seen the original movies that they were supposed to reference. They got some of the basics right; the costumes, the sets etc. but totally botched the more nuanced stuff. For example, you would never see the kind of jerky, hand-held camerawork they used in the 'ninja movie' segments in an actual period-drama from the 40s. The technique is supposed to emulate live-action cinema and that's why it's there, but it's wholely a tool of anime of the late-nineties (Cowboy Bebop is a good example), which sort of ruins the effect. This may seem like a very minor flaw to pick out, but much of the film rests on its ability to transport the audience to one world, but instead it transports us simply to the conventional world of modern anime, so it fails for me.

I still think Millennium Actress is an okay movie, but I can no longer recomend it as a highpoint of the medium.

I saw this movie several months ago and enjoyed it ok, but it didn't send me. My main issue with it was that I felt it needed a live actress to pull off the complex emotions that the script attempts to tackle. It's just more than can be done with animation. It's lovely, charming to a certain extent, but I felt the absence of reality to a distracting degree.

Great review though, Annie. I love hearing why others enjoyed something.
Linepalsy, great analysis of why you didn't like it.
This thread is some good stuff.

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Very cool review Annie!! Didn;t know you were doing them

I loved Perfect Blue, another film by the same person, so I will give this a try...Although I don't figure you would like Perfect Blue much, as it is quite disturbing...

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