| Millennium Actress | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Satoshi Kon |
| Produced by | Taro Maki |
| Written by | Sadayuki Murai Satoshi Kon |
| Starring | Miyoko Shoji Mami Koyama Fumiko Orikasa Shōzō Iizuka |
| Music by | Susumu Hirasawa |
| Cinematography | Hisao Shirai |
| Editing by | Satoshi Terauchi |
| Studio | Madhouse |
| Distributed by | The Klockworx Co., Ltd Go Fish Pictures Bio Rex Distribution Manga Entertainment |
| Release date(s) | July 28, 2001 (Fantasia) September 14, 2002 (Japan) |
| Running time | 87 minutes |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
Millennium Actress (千年女優 Sennen Joyū) is a 2001 Japanese anime by director Satoshi Kon and animated by the Studio Madhouse. It tells the story of a documentary filmmaker investigating the life of an elderly actress in which reality and cinema become blurred.
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The narrative style is complex and interwoven in the style of "play within a play".
The film depicts a director, Genya Tachibana, who is working on a documentary about a famous actress, Chiyoko Fujiwara. In her old age, Chiyoko has withdrawn from public life, but Tachibana slowly draws her out. As he talks to her, the story of her life, from teenage schoolgirl to middle-aged superstar, gradually unfolds, illustrated through flashbacks interspersed with segments from her films. Her 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.
As a child in the 1930s, at the time of the fascist government, Chiyoko helps a dissident artist escape from the military. She becomes attracted to him; however, the next day he is forced to flee again. She finds that he has left behind a key to his suitcase of art supplies and she becomes an actress to travel to different lands in the hopes of finding him and returning the key. Although she never finds her lost love, she insists on continuing the search. At the end of the film, it is revealed that Chiyoko's love was executed by the Kenpeitai. Tachibana knew this, but has never been able to tell Chiyoko. As Chiyoko finishes her story, an earthquake occurs, injuring her. Tachibana takes her to the hospital, where she reveals that "it was chasing after him" that she truly loves. It is implied that she dies at the end of the movie, continuing her quest to find him in the next life.
However, this story is complicated by the fact that most of the stories from Chiyoko's life are illustrated with a scene from one of her films, rather than a true flashback, so that it is difficult to distinguish reality from fiction. In addition, Tachibana and his cameraman appear in films, and actually participate in their events in various guises. Tachibana always casts himself in her memories as her self-sacrificing protector, a role he played in real life during an accident on the set that nearly killed her.
Additional voices were provided by Mitsuru Ogata, Tomohisa Asō, Kōji Yusa, Makoto Higo, Kōichi Sakaguchi, Tomoyuki Shimura, Akiko Kimura, Tomo Saeki, Hirofumi Nojima, Ruri Asano, Hiroko Ōnaka, Yoshinori Sonobe and Yumiko Daikoku.
Following the release of Satoshi Kon's previous film Perfect Blue, Kon considered adapting the Yasutaka Tsutsui novel Paprika (1993) into his next film. However, these plans were stalled when the distribution company for Perfect Blue, Rex Entertainment, went bankrupt.[1] Millennium Actress had the same estimated budget as Perfect Blue (approximately 120,000,000 yen).[2] The screenplay was written by Sadayuki Murai,[3] who utilized a seamless connection between illusion and reality to create a "Trompe-l'œil kind of film".[4] Millennium Actress is the first Satoshi Kon film to feature Susumu Hirasawa, whom Kon was a long-time fan of, as composer.[5]
Millennium Actress was very favorably received by critics, gaining a 94% "fresh" rating at RottenTomatoes.com.[6] Los Angeles Times critic Kenneth Turan said of the film "as a rumination on the place movies have in our personal and collective subconscious, Millennium Actress fascinatingly goes where films have not often gone before".[7] 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. 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".[8]
| Source | Gross (USD) | Number of Screens | |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | $37,285 | 6 | |
| United States Opening Weekend | $18,732 | 6 | [9] |
Commercially, the film performed modestly on its US release, earning $37,285 during its 3 week release. The film was shown almost exclusively in New York and Los Angeles, and received a minimal advertising campaign from Go Fish Pictures.
Millennium Actress received the Grand Prize in the Japan Agency of Cultural Affairs Media Arts Festival, tying with Spirited Away. Additionally, it won the awards of Best Animation Film and Fantasia Ground-Breaker at the 2001 Fantasia Film Festival. It was awarded the Feature Film Award at the 8th Animation Kobe. 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. The film was nominated for four Annie Awards in 2004, including Outstanding Direction and Writing. 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 film is ranked in the Top 50 Animated Films on the Internet Movie Database.[10]
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