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Review: Millenium Actress
by Kit

Sunday, September 14, 2003

A masterful collection of in-story vignettes that ultimately leads to one of the most well crafted anime features in recent memory.

Title - Millenium Actress
Creators - Blue Collar Productions
Directed by Satoshi Kon
U.S Distribution - Dreamworks
Released - Japan, 2001 / U.S, 2003
Length - Approx. 87 minutes

High quality anime that appeals to crowds older than 13 years old is hard to come by these days. Lets face it, anime and manga are almost exclusively targetted towards young teens and pre-pubescent children. Sure, once in a while great, well crafted, anime films arrive on U.S shores, but for every Spirited Away we have a Card Captor Sakura to put anime back in its proverbial (marketed) place.

The reality of it all is that anime tends to avoid taking on serious, less comical themes. In fact, I doubt many anime fans have seen an anime that didn't involve giant mechs battling it out, or comedic stories with slight sexual overtones.

Fortunately, Dreamworks had the genius to bring over Millenium Actress from the mind of Satoshi Kon (Perfect Blue). It's the story of a celebrated Japanee actress named Chiyoko who left the limelight of fame and fortune at the height of her acting career. Near the twilight of her life two men visit Chiyoko in the hopes of creating a documentary of her short-lived but highly successful career. One of the men, seems to have (an almost unhealthy) obsession with Chiyoko, and although it is comedic, it's not poorly done or corny in any way.

The man on the right shows his affection for Chiyoko throughout the film.

Visually, Millenium Actress features beautiful art direction, and a flavorful soundtrack. Through the aesthetics, the movie is able to present its story beautifully.

The movie adopts a very unique style of story telling by incorporating the memories of Chiyoko's life into a sort of vignette style of progression. Important moments in her life are told in this style. The men creating the documentary get so caught up in Chiyoko's retelling of her life story that they themselves sometimes get lost in her story as if they were actually there. It's an entertaining way of seeing Chiyoko's life, and quite effective as a way of showing the viewer who exactly this woman was, and to some extent, still is.

As an actress, Chiyoko took on a variety of roles.

Throughout the progression of the story, the movie sticks to a few "key" themes. Chiyoko's life is portrayed as one of both great sadness and joy, the film which effectively portrays these moments, seems to ask the viewer; Is life a journey to be enjoyed or a destination to be found? Is seeing life as one wants it to be better than one seeing life as it truly is? At the end of the story, these questions are ultimately left to the viewer, a question most people who get sucked into the story take away with them as soon as they exit the theatre.

The movie itself is dripping with symbolism. From a simple key that unlocks "what is most important" to intermittent earthquakes which disrupt Chiyoko's story telling, it almost becomes a game to find out what each symbol implies and ultimately what its purpose in the overall story is. As an aside, a special prize goes to the reader which turns in the best (to be judged by staff) deciphering of the earthquake theme in the movie. This one symbol had about half a dozen different interpretations among staff.

Although points of the movie are poignant, Millenium Actress is an anime that doesn't seek to incite emotion, but rather questions, and thought about the themes which it presents. It is a rather deep story, that most viewers won't completely absorb after the first viewing. But after some recollection and thought, many will agree that the points the movie presents are eerily applicable to our own lives in many ways.

Millenium Actress debuted in theatres this week, although in a very limited release. That means, for most of you who don't live near a major city, it will be hard for you to see it until the movie hits DVD. Fortunately, Dreamworks informed us that the DVD is scheduled for release on October 28th from Dreamworks Home Entertainment for only $19.99.

Millenium Actress is a wonderful movie that all anime fans should see regardless of age. It's whimsical, yet enjoyable, and will really engage viewers on a deeper level than is to be expected from most anime films released now days. Millenium Actress is deserving of our unreserved accolades.

--- Kit

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