Kon’s love for his animated diva is supreme and he plays her romantic saga for delirious world-weary sorrow. On her hospital deathbed she reflects on her life, telling Tachibana that despite never seeing the man again, she realized that the search for him was what she loved most. As she tells them the story of her life, the difference between reality and cinema becomes blurred. Yes, it helps to have a knowledge of Japanese history, culture, and cinema (even a Godzilla lookalike cameos), but even without noticing the recurring lotus-flower or crane visuals, MILLENNIUM ACTRESS works beautifully as arty drama and a bittersweet, if rather rosy, picture of obsessive first love. Avengers Confidential: Black Widow & Punisher, ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept. [5] Millennium Actress had an estimated budget of $1.2 million. Years later, Chiyoko finds the key hidden in their home and confronts her husband about it; former lead actress Eiko Shimao reveals that she stole it out of jealousy and gave it to Junichi. Take your favorite fandoms with you and never miss a beat. Now if you happen to be the type of anime hound … She is about to commit suicide, when a ghostly woman appears with a spindle wheel. Back in the present, Chiyoko asks if Tachibana doesn't mind portraying the hero, and he shakes his head. Click to manage book marks. However, the police-chief says they caught the artist, much to Chiyoko's shock. Genya, ever helpful. After she disappears, a support beam begins to fall, but Tachibana rushes in and saves Chiyoko. After she drinks it, she realizes that she was tricked, and the ghostly woman says that she will spend many years suffering in the flames of eternal love. It tells the story of a documentary filmmaker investigating the life of an elderly actress in which reality and cinema become blurred. Then, Chiyoko discovers the key, hidden on a set, and Eiko confronts her. Then, the apparition of the elderly woman appears in Chiyoko's reflection and she runs off, leaving the key behind. Chiyoko decides to get started before the next one. Get this from a library! A TV interviewer and his cameraman meet a former actress and travel through her memories and career. The next morning, the man is found, and he is forced to flee, again. When Ginei Studios shuts down, filmmaker Genya Tachibana and his assistant are tasked with interviewing its reclusive star, Chiyoko Fujiwara, who had retired from the spotlight 30 years prior. She finds a painting and sees the man walking away from her. [15] In February 2004, Cinefantastique listed the anime as one of the "10 Essential Animations", stating that the it "represents a new maturity for anime, one where the technical achievements of 40 years are finally put at the full service of an emotionally rich story."[16]. Tachibana arrives and bails Chiyoko out with a lot of money. His intention was to have the two films as sister films. Millennium Actress ’s story far exceeds the boundaries of just a plot, Millennium Actress ’s true genius lies in the meta-story. [7] Millennium Actress is the first Satoshi Kon film to feature Susumu Hirasawa, whom Kon was a long-time fan of, as composer.[8]. The 2001 film, Millennium Actress (千年女優, Sennen Joyū), directed by Satoshi Kon, uses distinctly Japanese elements to defy convention and create an animated work that fits within the umbrella of “Japan Gross National Cool” while inverting the concept of mukokuseki. The two engage in a fight and Eiko's men have the upper hand till Tachibana arrives, playing as a traveling swordsman. Cast: Miyoko Shôji, Mami Koyama, Fumiko Orikasa, Shouzou Iizuka, Masaya Onosaka, Shouko Tsuda, Masatane Tsukayma, Kôichi Yamadera Director: Satoshi Kon Screenwriter: Satoshi Kon, Sadayuki Murai Distributor: Go Fish Running Time: 87 … IMDb Plot Summary: In a rare interview, a reclusive actress recounts her life in cinema in post-war Japan. Genya Tachibana is a director who is seeking her out in order to produce a documentary on her life. Millennium Actress received the Grand Prize in the Japan Agency of Cultural Affairs Media Arts Festival,[17] tying with Spirited Away. Synopsis Satoshi Kon Double Feature! As a teenager, she was given the key by an artist and political dissident opposing the Sino-Japanese War. Chiyoko collapses and at that moment, an earthquake strikes, and Tachibana shields her from falling debris. Once she arrives, she spots the man getting onto a train and goes after it, but she slips and doesn't make it. In the present, the elderly Chiyoko has collapsed and Tachibana thinks she should get some rest and continue to next day. The meaning of all this is explained by the same spirit when it says: I hate you more than I can bear, and I love you more than I can bear. That is very sad thing! She finds her shop, completely destroyed, and looks around the rubble for something. This movie is another work of Satoshi Kon. Thematically different from the likes of Perfect Blue and Paranoia Agent, Millennium Actress is no less impressive and is a shining example of how animation can be as much art as entertainment. Synopsis. He informs that he is a marshal and he will accompany her return home. The movie took home the prestigious Ofuji Noburo Award at the 2002 Mainichi Film Awards, and was honored with the Orient Express Award at the 2001 Festival de Cine de Sitges in Spain. Millennium actress. It is a pleasure to flow seamlessly from one film to the next. As Chiyoko begins, the film becomes a surreal story within a story wherein events from Chiyoko's life are interwoven with scenes from films she has appeared in, while Tachibana and Ida appear within them as documentary filmmakers. As such, it reflects a postmodern sensibility about using art to blend truth and fiction. The story opens with a documentary filmmaker, Genya Tachibana, watching his favorite actress, Chiyoko Fujiwara, in her last movie, a space epic. Millennium Actress is one of those multi-layered work of animation that will move if you only see the surface, but further analyze everything holds a greater meaning. He tells Tachibana, who was working as a studio assistant at the time, that the artist was tortured and killed after his arrest. It was also promoted by its studio as a contender for the 2003 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, but it was not nominated. The back of the box summary is that Millennium Actress is about Genya Tachibana, a documentary filmmaker, and his cameraman Kyoji Ida, who interviews retired actress Chiyoko Fujiwara about her life and illustrious career in Japanese cinema. When producing Millennium Actress, Kon created a unique combination of both his memories and his imagination, striving to make Millennium Actress and Perfect Blue two different interpretations of the same concept; a story told from two different perspectives. Synopsis Millennium Actress Plot Summary: From critically acclaimed director Kon Satoshi (Perfect Blue), comes the award-winning masterpiece, Millennium Actress. Millennium Actress Synopsis. Loosely based on the lives of actresses Setsuko Hara and Hideko Takamine,[3] it tells the story of two documentary filmmakers investigating the life of a retired acting legend. Today, what I want to recommend to you guys is Millennium Actress (千年女優/Sennen Joyu). Summary. MILLENNIUM ACTRESS is a unique piece of Japanese animation that splices together fantasy, drama, and history. Lead Actors: Miyoko Shōji, Mami Koyama, Fumiko Orikasa, Shōzō Iizuka. Summary: Master animation director Satoshi Kon spins this mystery about a documentary filmmaker and a legendary actress. Is it history, a life story, a love story, or a film about films? Millennium Actress was favorably received by critics, gaining a 93% "fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes. The meaning of all this is explained by the same spirit when it says: I hate you more than I can bear, and I love you more than I can bear. After the bombings, Chiyoko returns to her home-town, discovering that it also has been bombed. In anime masterpiece MILLENNIUM ACTRESS filmmakers probe the memories of a reclusive former star. Millennium Actress is a wonderfully crafted story about a fateful encounter of a young girl and how it shaped the rest of her life. In the 1950's, it was the peak of Chiyoko's acting career, and she continued in hopes of finding the man. It tells the story of a documentary filmmaker investigating the life of an elderly actress in which reality and cinema become blurred. IMDb Plot Summary: In a rare interview, a reclusive actress recounts her life in cinema in post-war Japan. The probable truth is that it is all of these things. Chiyoko is taken to the hospital and the two men follow behind. Suddenly, the train is attacked by bandits and Chiyoko escapes. Millennium Actress was the last of Satoshi Kon’s movies I watched, and once more he brings something unique to anime, yet still marked by his signature. [9] In Perfect Blue, the gaze is depicted as a negative, patriarchal one, but in Millennium Actress is projected in a more positive light, allowing Chiyoko to retain her identity untainted. With Millennium Actress, Satoshi Kon set out to make a film that has the storyline play out inside and outside of the films of the actress’s career. However, these plans were stalled when the distribution company for Perfect Blue, Rex Entertainment, went bankrupt. Kyoji, Tachibana's cameraman, asks him why they are going to her place, and he replies that Chiyoko withdrew from the public at the height of her career. It’s modern day Japanese animation at its best […] It's animated, but it's human and will touch the soul of anyone who has loved deeply". It is outwardly audacious and seemingly gorgeous in nature. Synopsis Documentary filmmaker Genya Tachibana has tracked down the legendary actress Chiyoko Fujiwara, who mysteriously vanished at the height of her career. Movie Title: Millennium Actress (千年女優 Sennen Joyū) Year: 2001. The latest anime to be pushed onto the American public is Satoshi Kon's Millennium Actress. Director: Satoshi Kon. Occasionally you’ll come across a film where a plot summary cannot even scratch the surface of what it contains. Her quest continues for decades and Chiyoko becomes famous, acting in films ranging from jidaigeki to kaiju. The scene changes to Kyoto in the Edo period, with Chiyoko as a geisha, begging for mercy from Eiko, also a geisha. The scene changes to a kingdom under attack and Chiyoko portrays as a princess. When they meet, Tachibana gives Chiyoko a key he believes she lost at the studio, prompting her to reflect on her life. When the legendary Ginei Studios shuts down, filmmaker Genya Tachibana and his assistant are tasked with interviewing its reclusive star, Chiyoko … Don’t miss your chance to see this classic anime film remastered on the big screen – in both subtitled and a re-done version of the English dub. We have lost a great director of anime! Chiyoko's life spans the tumultuous period surrounding World War II, while her characters in movies span a time period from the Sengoku period to a futuristic space age. She explains that ever since Chiyoko went into the acting business, Eiko wanted to get rid of her. It was awarded the Feature Film Award at the 8th Animation Kobe. Chiyoko, however, wants to finish it quickly and continues her story. Tachibana realizes that this made Chiyoko go into the acting business, in hopes of finding the man. Chiyoko is about to run off, when Eiko catches her, slaps her across the face for wanting to risk her life to save someone, and they rush back into the shelter. And Kon’s love for the medium, like Chiyoko’s eternal search, has no boundaries. Another cellmate explains that Eiko fell in love with a man and offered money to him, but he ran off with another woman, so Eiko went into a rage and murdered him and his lover. Tachibana takes it for safe-keeping and promises to give it back to her someday. Then, the police-chief arrives and asks Chiyoko if she saw a rebel, but he recognizes her and threatens to harm her. Tachibana delivers a key to her, and it causes her to reflect on her career; as she's telling the story, Tachibana and his long-suffering cameraman are drawn in. Television interviewer Genya Tachibana and his cameraman Kyoji Ida prepare for a retrospective interview with Chiyoko Fujiwara, the studio's best known star, who thirty years prior retired from acting and became a recluse. Overview of Millennium Actress, 2001, directed by Satoshi Kon, with Miyoko Shoji, Mami Koyama, Fumiko Orikasa, at Turner Classic Movies Chiyoko figures that the artist may be in Hokkaido and she takes all means of transportation, but there are obstacles in the way, and she finds a way around them. Indeed, Millennium Actress is very much a love poem to cinema itself. It is based on the life of Setsuko Hara. The dub has only ever been released in the United Kingdom, while releases in the United States were subtitle-only. Movie Title: Millennium Actress (千年女優 Sennen Joyū) Year: 2001. For context, Millennium Actress is the story of a bankrupt film studio that commissions a director, named Genya Tachibana, and his cameraman, Kyōji Ida, to interview legendary actress Chiyoko Fujiwara as a last-minute attempt to archive their history. Chiyoko hears about this from an employee, who helped him escape, and she sees that the man left the key to his suitcase behind and she rushes to the train station. The young Tachibana interrupts and says there is a visitor for Chiyoko; the now elderly police chief. - Regards, Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl, Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold: The Fafnir Knight, Berserk: Millennium Falcon Hen Seima Senki no Shō, Zeta Gundam A New Translation: Heirs to the Stars, Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie: Rebellion, Crayon Shin-chan: The Storm Called: The Battle of the Warring States, Detective Conan: Strategy Above the Depths, Zeta Gundam: A New Translation - Heirs to the Stars, Japan Media Arts Award for Animation of the Year, Crayon Shin-chan: Fierceness That Invites Storm! ... Summary Details The probable truth is that it … Millennium Actress (千年女優, Sennen Joyū) is a 2001 Japanese animated drama film co-written and directed by Satoshi Kon and produced by Madhouse. The scene changes to the moon, where Chiyoko rushes to the top of a hill. A movie studio is being torn down. Lead Actors: Miyoko Shōji, Mami Koyama, Fumiko Orikasa, Shōzō Iizuka. 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