Millennium Actress (Sennen joyû) (2001)

92% of critics liked it
(51 reviews)
87% of users liked it
(11,505 ratings)

Chiyoko Fujiwara was once a major movie star who dominated the Japanese cinema world. Thirty years ago, she abruptly disappeared from the screen and from public view. One of her greatest admirers, Genya Tachibana, is a documentary filmmaker who has traveled to the isolated mountain lodge where she… More Chiyoko Fujiwara was once a major movie star who dominated the Japanese cinema world. Thirty years ago, she abruptly disappeared from the screen and from public view. One of her greatest admirers, Genya Tachibana, is a documentary filmmaker who has traveled to the isolated mountain lodge where she makes her home to interview her. There, he presents her with an old key, and as if the key had opened a door to her memories, Chiyoko starts telling the story of her life, interweaving moments from her past and future and passing through the boundary between reality and the movies that had made up so much of her life.As her story unfolds, Chiyoko seems to transcend time and space, traveling freely through the corridors of fictional movies and reality. Chiyoko was born when the Great Earthquake hit Tokyo in 1923, as war is looming in Imperial Japan. At a very young age, she is discovered as an actress, and soon becomes one of Japan's most popular stars. Over the course of her career, her movies and her roles encompass all the epochs of Japanese history, bringing her and her audience back more than five hundred years, and then moving chronologically through the centuries to the present and beyond. Chiyoko's first major role finds her in the Warring States Period of the 15th and 16th centuries, where we see her as a princess in a burning castle tower. Her movies swiftly carry her into the Edo Period (1603 - 1868), when the Shogun ruled the country. In one moment, she is portraying a ninja fighting against samurais, but another role transforms her into an innocent local girl who confronts a group of elite samurai guards. She runs away, only to find herself being arrested in a scene set against the backdrop of Japan's Meiji Period (1868 - 1912), at the dawn of a new era when the power of the Emperor was restored. Chiyoko escapes, but in her next movie, we find her in the pre-World War II and war-torn decades of the Showa Period (1912 - 1945). As Chiyoko chronicles her life and career, we come to learn that not only was Chiyoko an icon of the Japanese cinema, but her roles also represented feminine icons of Japanese history.Through each role and in every era, Chiyoko has only one wish-to see her first love, an injured artist and painter she had helped escape from government authorities as a girl. Chiyoko risks everything to hide the mysterious stranger in her storage house. Before she can learn his identity and mission, however, he leaves her...but not before he presents her with the all-important key. From that moment on, she determinedly keeps running-in real life, and in her movies-believing that they will meet again and she will learn the true meaning of the key.As her identity changes with each movie role, so does that of her true love. Yet Chiyoko keeps running after him through the passages of time. Wherever she goes, she also must battle her enemies: a man with a scar and a rival actress, both of whom continue to change their appearances according to the time periods and settings of the movies that make up Chiyoko's life.The two filmmakers, Genya Tachibana and his cameraman Kyoji Ida, become so immersed in Chiyoko's story that they are amazed to find themselves actually witnessing the events as she describes them. To the astonishment of his cameraman, Tachibana is not only present, but has become a character in her movies, appearing to rescue her whenever she is in danger. Chiyoko keeps running through the centuries in pursuit of the "love of her life," as if she had lived for 1000 years. In what appears to be her final role, seemingly in the future, she rockets to the moon, leaving us to wonder what adventures await her there. -- © Go Fish Pictures

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Rating, Runtime: PG, 1 hr. 27 min.
Directed By: Satoshi Kon
Written By: Sadayuki Murai, Satoshi Kon
Genres: Drama, Animation, Romance

In Theaters: Jan 1, 2001 Wide
On DVD: Oct 28, 2003
Studio: Go Fish Pictures

Critic Reviews

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News
This somewhat surreal animé import is unlikely to earn the same mainstream recognition as last year's Spirited Away, but it's certainly worth a look.
Jane Sumner, Dallas Morning News
Anime has never been my cup of oolong. Or it wasn't until Satoshi Kon's bold, time-traveling sophomore feature, Millennium Actress.
Bob Campbell, Newark Star-Ledger
This is a screen trip that actually takes you someplace -- out of the world, around the world and straight to the heart of the world.
Daphne Gordon, Toronto Star
Disguises itself as a romance, but it's really a loving homage to Japanese history, as well as a comment on the nature of filmmaking and films.
G. Allen Johnson, San Francisco Chronicle
It is a lovely Valentine to the golden age of Japanese filmmaking and an era of gentler, deeper feelings.
Megan Lehmann, New York Post
The animation in Millennium Actress ... and Chiyoko's wistful suffering is made achingly real.
Charles Cassady, Common Sense Media
Arty Japanese animated drama is too complex for little ones.
Ken Hanke, Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)
A winning combination of humor, emotional resonance and striking, indelible imagery.
Tim Brayton, Antagony & Ecstasy
Insofar as the movie recreates Japanese film history, it's as a means of exploring history more generally.
Nick Schager, Lessons of Darkness
The finest anime film I've ever seen.
Brian Mckay, eFilmCritic.com
Paints a vivid portrait, blending pathos and unrequited love with a rich collage of Japanese history
Walter Chaw, Film Freak Central
Like Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress is about living with ghosts, but where the one is all shadow, Millennium Actress is all alight.
Jeffrey Chen, Window to the Movies
The movie's outer spectacle works better than its story.
Sharon Mizota, PopMatters
Millennium Actress is smart and complex and beautifully constructed.
Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine
The grays and muted colors of Satoshi Kon's unique visual style are elegantly preserved on this DreamWorks Home Entertainment DVD.
Marc Savlov, Austin Chronicle
Millennium Actress has more layers to it than the proverbial onion, but Kon's sure hand keeps things moving right along.
Christopher Null, Filmcritic.com
Fails in one critical component: We are never made to care about the main character.
Jeff Shannon, Seattle Times
Given its complex array of fact, fiction, location, character and atmosphere, Millennium Actress is almost unimaginable in any other medium.
Sean Axmaker, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
... Japan has always been more open to the possibilities of the medium to tell sophisticated, mature stories; and this is both, in the best sense of the definition.
Frank Swietek, One Guy's Opinion
Unusual but woozily fascinating...if Kon's picture may not be a model of narrative coherence, it offers as compensation a large number of magical moments.

Read all 21 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Keiko A

Oh Millennium Actress is one of my all time favourite movies it's just because of how creative and brilliant it is. To see one woman's major struggle throw out Meany eras of her life. A movie studio is being torn down. TV interviewer Genya Tachibana has tracked down its… More
Oh Millennium Actress is one of my all time favourite movies it's just because of how creative and brilliant it is. To see one woman's major struggle throw out Meany eras of her life. A movie studio is being torn down. 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. 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. The key was given to her as a teenager by a painter and revolutionary that she helped to escape the police. She becomes an actress because it will make it possible to track him down, and she spends the next several decades acting out that search in various genres and eras. 90% for story sometimes it can be slow but overall it's the only negative thing about the movie. 100% for dubbing and acting I guess. 100% for animation quality 100% for characters I loved all of them well of course the lead is my favourite. 100% for everything else. I liked the music, settings and it juts goes on and on All I can say is watch it its worth it Keiko's score 95-100
Kylie B

A rather endearing storyline, but the transition between her life and her films in the narrative was a little too smooth for me.
_kelly .

visually stunning, but also something to emotionally connect with
Drew S

It is absolutely ludicrous to compare this in any way to Perfect Blue, even though they were both directed by Satoshi Kon. Millennium Actress needs no psych-thriller to stand as a good movie, and establishes itself as a romance masterpiece in its own right. Its vivid and unique… More
It is absolutely ludicrous to compare this in any way to Perfect Blue, even though they were both directed by Satoshi Kon. Millennium Actress needs no psych-thriller to stand as a good movie, and establishes itself as a romance masterpiece in its own right. Its vivid and unique presentation allow it to incorporate all sorts of elements: romance, comedy, drama, fantasy, catastrophe, space travel and even some ninja action. The movie is consistently gripping and very intriguing. Okay, so I lied a little. Millennium Actress does bear a bit of similarity to Perfect Blue in the story telling field, colored by their non-linear plot exposition. It is constructed in an intricately sequential way. They both employ alternate realities, though Millennium Actress demonstrates many more of these quasi-worlds. It may be a romance, one of the most insufferable and difficult genres of anime, but it is a romance that spans so many different epochs and locales that it becomes something far more fantastical. This romance that Chiyoko pursues is something wild and free, and the adventures she endures in seeking it are both exciting and heartbreaking as well. Her time-traveling exploration, narrated deftly by ways of the movie she was starring in at that moment, keeps the pursuit absolutely fresh and interesting. Millenium Actress simply would not have worked any other way, and its execution was powerful and unique. It only receives an 8, however, for an ending that may leave some viewers feeling gypped. I personally found the ending tolerable, but felt that it could have concluded in many better ways. Chiyoko is an extremely likeable heroine. I found myself rooting for her as she searched with unmatched tenacity; the viewer actually wants her to find her mysterious love. She may have only known this person for one day, but in a life as hollow and lonely as hers, one where she constantly fears unfulfillment, she needs this kind of thing to fill her emptiness. This is scarcely a romance of love, so much as a romance of necessity, but nevertheless Chiyoko's ambition is one that endears itself to the viewer very quickly. She's also a very good actress, as she communicates several diverse parts throughout her movie career: a ninja princess, 50's housewife, and astronaut, just to name a few. Chiyoko aside, the cameraman and director also are vivid characters, especially the cameraman. In each era, he always comes to her rescue as another character of the movie, which is a charming recurrence. In fact, this reappearance is applicable to several of the movie's characters, which allows the viewer to clearly grasp each character's motives and personality. Chiyoko's love himself remains mysteriously faceless, which only adds to his mystique. Characters are conceivably Millenium Actress's strongest aspect. Yet another work of art by Satoshi Kon, Millenium Actress is an exotic, romantic and exciting romp through many different locales that all bear one thing in common: the love-lorn Chiyoko Fujiwara and her search for the man who gave her a key. The adventure she undergoes is a wild and remarkable one, uniquely painted by its vivid storytelling and powerful characterization.
Sanjaya &

Even though many people compare this to Hayao's Spirited Away, I thought Spirited Away is more greater than this movie... I was kinda of boring watching this movie... I really don't get the plot so well... Yet, I pretty confused too with the story... I didn't now is the… More
Even though many people compare this to Hayao's Spirited Away, I thought Spirited Away is more greater than this movie... I was kinda of boring watching this movie... I really don't get the plot so well... Yet, I pretty confused too with the story... I didn't now is the story a flashback or not... For me, it's far to becoming a great movie that many people might to like it...
Curt C

I don't think this paragraph has enough space to say all of the great things I want to say about this film. Instead, I'll politely suggest you watch this with no preconceived notions, other than the knowledge that you will experience something that will touch your soul.… More
I don't think this paragraph has enough space to say all of the great things I want to say about this film. Instead, I'll politely suggest you watch this with no preconceived notions, other than the knowledge that you will experience something that will touch your soul. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the reason I watch movies.
Brett W

The animation in Satoshi Kon's Millennium Actress is absolutely exquisite, as it is with most of his films. And the surreal interweaving of an actresses' life story with the roles she played is also a visual treat. One problem I have with the film, though, is in the crux of… More
The animation in Satoshi Kon's Millennium Actress is absolutely exquisite, as it is with most of his films. And the surreal interweaving of an actresses' life story with the roles she played is also a visual treat. One problem I have with the film, though, is in the crux of the plot, which I thought was too melodramatic to sustain the overall story; Miyoko's bizarre obsession with returning a key to a man she met only in passing as a child. Of course it's meant to also be symbolic of the course that her life took, but this symbolic search doesn't lead anywhere meaningful when we see her at the end of her life. She simply recognizes the pursuit as some sort of motivating factor for existence. What was she running from, or to? What did she really want? Except for a mother who objected to her profession there was nothing that she was necessarily fighting against, or aspiring to become. So, when she finally flies off in her spaceship ala 2001, it just gives the impression of a storytelling dead-end, or cop-out...and not a satisfying conclusion to a woman's life-long search.
Marion R

The fantastical elements in the animation were so surreal. The story itself was quite simple. Really interesting.