Known for his remarkable visual style, Kon seamlessly blends fantasy and reality into an exciting epic adventure of fate and destiny. His intention was to have the two films as sister films. She offers Chiyoko tea and informs her that it will help her get into the next world. We've looked at the work of Satoshi Kon's work previously on the channel but really focused on the darker sides. Along the way Millennium Actress treats us to a number of parodies of film classics. This film is one of them. Tachiban explains to Kyoji about the time the elderly police chief visited Chiyoko and informs that the artist was tortured to death, without Chiyoko's knowledge. IMDb Plot Summary: In a rare interview, a reclusive actress recounts her life in cinema in post-war Japan. I love his worldview so much! As she tells them the story of her life, the difference between reality and cinema becomes blurred.[4]. The next morning, the man is found, and he is forced to flee, again. He has made Paprika and more. 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. She runs after the man while going through a long tunnel, but then the scene changes to that of the Tokyo bombing during World War II. B ehold Millennium Actress, Satoshi Kon’s anime answer to Mulholland Drive.This radical work by the director of Perfect Blue mainlines into a cosmic crawlspace between reality and fantasy from which it never leaves. 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. When he presents her with a key she had lost and thought was gone forever, the filmmaker could not have imagined that it would not only unlock the long-held secrets of Chiyoko’s life… but also his own. 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. Loosely based on the lives of actresses Setsuko Hara and Hideko Takamine, it tells the story of two documentary filmmakers investigating the life of a retired acting legend. She loudly exclaims that she will continue to look for him. The latest anime to be pushed onto the American public is Satoshi Kon's Millennium Actress. She helped him escape from the authorities and after his departure, decided to become a film actress in the hope that he would recognize and find her. 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. Kon’s love for his animated diva is supreme and he plays her romantic saga for delirious world-weary sorrow. Known for his remarkable visual style, Kon seamlessly blends fantasy and reality into an exciting epic adventure of fate and destiny. It tells the story of a documentary filmmaker investigating the life of an elderly actress in which reality and cinema become blurred. [11] The movie was previously licensed by DreamWorks' arthouse and foreign movie publishing company Go Fish Pictures. As a teenager, she was given the key by an artist and political dissident opposing the Sino-Japanese War. Unfortunately, he has passed away in 2010. ... Review of Millennium Actress Sep 5, 2003. TV interviewer Genya Tachibana has tracked down its most famous star, Chiyoko Fujiwara, who has been a recluse since she left acting some 30 years ago. The latest anime to be pushed onto the American public is Satoshi Kon's Millennium Actress. Millennium Actress Millennium Actress (千年女優 Sennen Joyū) is a 2001 Japanese anime by director Satoshi Kon and animated by the Studio Madhouse. Additionally, it won the awards of Best Animation Film and Fantasia Ground-Breaker at the 2001 Fantasia Film Festival. She takes out the picture that survived the bombing and replies that she realized she wasn't the young girl the artist would remember. Di Gi Charat Theater - Leave it to Piyoko! Millennium Actress is distinctly Japanese, and can never be completely understood on a universal level by all because of the bits of Japanese history that are incorporated into the story. She rushes to the jail-house to discover that several rebels of the government escaped and she continues to look. Chiyoko takes the upper hand, threatening to kill Eiko if she doesn't tell her where her lover is. It is then, that both Tachibana and Kyoji are drawn into her memories. At the end of the film, it is revealed that Chiyoko's love had already been caught and tortured to death by the military. Millennium Actress is something that can easily be called great. It is a pleasure to flow seamlessly from one film to the next. Get this from a library! The film was theatrically re-released in its original Japanese version on August 13, 2019 with a brand new English dub on August 19, 2019. In her first movie, she meets the bitter Eiko Shimao and the handsome director's son, Junichi Otaki. 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 Battle of the Warring States, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Millennium_Actress&oldid=999326411, Articles with dead external links from December 2017, Articles with permanently dead external links, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles containing Japanese-language text, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 9 January 2021, at 16:47. Millennium Actress received the Grand Prize in the Japan Agency of Cultural Affairs Media Arts Festival,[17] tying with Spirited Away. Writers: Satoshi Kon, Sadayuki Murai. He wants her to star in a movie for the soldiers that are fighting in China, but her mother refuses to let her do it, although Chiyoko has other ideas. Millennium Actress was favorably received by critics, gaining a 93% "fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes. Take your favorite fandoms with you and never miss a beat. [1] The screenplay was written by Sadayuki Murai,[6] who used a seamless connection between illusion and reality to create a "Trompe-l'œil kind of film". Then, Chiyoko discovers the key, hidden on a set, and Eiko confronts her. 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. 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. Then, Japan fell into fascism and the military took over the country. The young Tachibana shields her from falling debris and she thanks him. Chiyoko is caught by the police-chief and is thrown in jail, along with Eiko. Synopsis. Millennium Actress. Tachibana … Documentary filmmaker Genya Tachibana has tracked down the legendary actress Chiyoko Fujiwara, who mysteriously vanished at the height of her career. Little Chiyoko lived in an extremely strict Japanese family in pre-war times. 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. It turns out that Eiko took it out of jealousy. Satoshi Kon Wiki is a FANDOM TV Community. The viewer is put in a unique position of deciphering what is real, what is an act, and the path of the love story. Then, a minor aftershock interrupts. [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]. 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. Eiko informs her that he is in Kyoto and she disappears in a cloud of smoke. The dub has only ever been released in the United Kingdom, while releases in the United States were subtitle-only. She rushes to the palace, where she finds a man's body on the throne and she begins to cry. Is it history, a life story, a love story, or a film about films? While on the set of another movie, Eiko says that there's a fortune teller that can help her locate the man she is desperate to find. 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. Anime Actress 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". Now if you happen to be the type of anime hound … The elderly Chiyoko says from that day, she withdrew from the acting business and went into hiding. [14] Kevin M. Williams of the Chicago Tribune gave the movie 4 stars and put his feelings for the film this way: "A piece of cinematic art. She is about to commit suicide, when a ghostly woman appears with a spindle wheel. Plot Summary "Although she never finds her lost love, she insists on continuing the search. When Chiyoko was in middle school, a movie director of Ginei Studios noticed her and decided to call her in, along with her mother. Indeed, Millennium Actress is very much a love poem to cinema itself. Synopsis Documentary filmmaker Genya Tachibana has tracked down the legendary actress Chiyoko Fujiwara, who mysteriously vanished at the height of her career. It was awarded the Feature Film Award at the 8th Animation Kobe. It tells the story of a documentary filmmaker investigating the life of an elderly actress in which reality and cinema become blurred. 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. 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. Millennium Actress is a mesmerizing breakneck puzzle that is fascinating to watch as its scope blooms. After she disappears, a support beam begins to fall, but Tachibana rushes in and saves Chiyoko. As Chiyoko finishes her story, an earthquake occurs, injuring her. She explains that ever since Chiyoko went into the acting business, Eiko wanted to get rid of her. At the hospital, Tachibana and Kyoji receive the news that Chiyoko's time on this earth is about to end. Once they arrive at Chiyoko's residence, Tachibana blushes as soon as Chiyoko enters, who is now elderly and frail. In Summary 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. However, the police-chief says they caught the artist, much to Chiyoko's shock. Synopsis Millennium Actress Plot Summary: From critically acclaimed director Kon Satoshi (Perfect Blue), comes the award-winning masterpiece, Millennium Actress. Chiyoko leaves and runs into a man, who is fleeing from police. The scene changes to a kingdom under attack and Chiyoko portrays as a princess. The key was given to her as a teenager by … She then dies and the scene changes to a young Chiyoko in a space shuttle, ready to take off. Once it leaves the moon, Chiyoko declares that she will continue to find the man she loves in the next world. MILLENNIUM ACTRESS is a unique piece of Japanese animation that splices together fantasy, drama, and history. It is outwardly audacious and seemingly gorgeous in nature. Chiyoko explains that she was born during the Great Kanto earthquake in 1923 and her father was killed. She finds her shop, completely destroyed, and looks around the rubble for something. Before leaving, an earthquake interrupts Tachibana, who is watching one of Chiyoko's movies. 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. [10] The film also presents various references to Japanese history, including the Edo period and Manchukuo, and gives it a nostalgic aesthetic. Chiyoko is taken to the hospital and the two men follow behind. The two engage in a fight and Eiko's men have the upper hand till Tachibana arrives, playing as a traveling swordsman. Tachibana Genya is a director of a small-time production studio. She finds a painting and sees the man walking away from her. Then, the police-chief arrives and asks Chiyoko if she saw a rebel, but he recognizes her and threatens to harm her. - 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! 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 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. Why I Think This Is A Classic. 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. Eiko punishes Chiyoko for leaving the okiya and for visiting a prisoner about to be executed and orders a handyman, Tachibana in disguise to look after Chiyoko. Back in the present, Chiyoko asks if Tachibana doesn't mind portraying the hero, and he shakes his head. Director Genya Tachibana is working on a documentary about a famous actress Chiyoko Fujiwara. Tachibana takes it for safe-keeping and promises to give it back to her someday. Ginei Studios, a prestigious but bankrupt film studio, goes out of business. The story references Japanese films including, "Setsuko Hara: The diva who left Japan wanting a lot more", "Satoshi Kon's Otaku: The Dangers of Technological Fantasy |", "Eleven Arts to Screen Satoshi Kon's Millennium Actress Anime Film in U.S. in August with New English Dub", "IMDb Sennen joyû (2001) - Box office / business", "The Americanization of Anime: 10 Essential Animations", Legend of the Galactic Heroes: My Conquest is the Sea of Stars, Cardcaptor Sakura Movie 2: The Sealed Card, Jubei-chan: The Secret of the Lovely Eyepatch, Jubei-chan: The Counter Attack of Siberia Yagyu, Space Pirate Captain Herlock: The Endless Odyssey. Master animation director Satoshi Kon spins this mystery about a documentary filmmaker and a legendary actress. Genya, ever helpful. Genya Tachibana is a director who is seeking her out in order to produce a documentary on her life. 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