Though I am always a little hesitant about awarding such high marks to anything, this movie was one of the most riveting and unique anime experiences I have had. Millennium Actress is easily the sleeper-hit of modern Anime. The scene changes to Kyoto in the Edo period, with Chiyoko as a geisha, begging for mercy from Eiko, also a geisha. Back in the present, Chiyoko asks if Tachibana doesn't mind portraying the hero, and he shakes his head. 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. The screenplay was written by Sadayuki Murai, who used a seamless connection between illusion and reality to create a "Trompe-l'œil kind of film". [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. 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. Regardless, she agrees and events take a turn for the worse. Known for his remarkable visual style, Kon seamlessly blends fantasy and reality into an exciting epic adventure of fate and destiny. 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. Memories (also Otomo Katsuhiro's Memories) is a 1995 Japanese animated science fiction anthology film with Katsuhiro Otomo as executive producer, and based on three of his manga short stories. At the hospital, Tachibana and Kyoji receive the news that Chiyoko's time on this earth is about to end. Millennium Actress is something that can easily be called great. Millennium: Christ will return at the end of the great tribulation to institute a thousand-year rule from a holy city (the New Jerusalem). It's said that she only ever really saw acting as a job, and promptly quit after Ozu died. Following the 10th anniversary of Satoshi Kon's passing, now is an apt time to acknowledge the influence of … It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Millennium Actress". Anyway, the show follows the journey of four wolves, Kiba, Tsume, Hige and Toboe, and their journey to find “Paradise”. They apologize for asking too much about her, but Chiyoko says she enjoyed every moment of it and thanks them for seeking her out. 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. She explains that ever since Chiyoko went into the acting business, Eiko wanted to get rid of her. Satoshi Kon Wiki is a FANDOM TV Community. A brief sketch of the positions advocated should prove helpful. 07/20/2019 – Dr. STONE Anime’s Main English Dub Cast Revealed. She then falls in love with him. Tachibana realizes that this made Chiyoko go into the acting business, in hopes of finding the man. The protagonist of Millennium Actress certainly shares an overlap with Setsuko Hara, who always had a mystique thanks to her early retirement from acting, and her infamously reclusive life ever since. In her first movie, she meets the bitter Eiko Shimao and the handsome director's son, Junichi Otaki. After the bombings, Chiyoko returns to her home-town, discovering that it also has been bombed. Or all of the above. Chiyoko leaves and runs into a man, who is fleeing from police. However, during the filming of a science-fiction movie, an earthquake strikes and Chiyoko is almost killed. That search for the long lost love is the only thing that keeps one young. Mima was a pop idol, worshipped by the masses until fashion dictated otherwise. Millennium Actress is available in the UK by itself or in a box set with Perfect Blue. Reminiscent of several popular science fiction films, she’s the resolute hero, determined on exploring the cosmos alone, on her own terms. 07/24/2019 – Eleven Arts Reveals Millennium Actress Film’s New English Dub Cast. On a technical level, it is clear to me why it is lauded as an animated masterpiece. 2001’s Millennium Actress opens with shots of a determined female astronaut breaking free of Earth’s gravitational possession. In the present, an earthquake strikes during the interview, upsetting Chiyoko's fragile health. 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. Yet her zealous passion for this quest is what ultimately keeps her young, even at death. 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. She orders him to leave, but he offers her a letter from the artist and it mentions Hokkaido. The features in either are limited to the US theatrical trailer and an interesting yet fun “Making of…” feature in Japanese. The two engage in a fight and Eiko's men have the upper hand till Tachibana arrives, playing as a traveling swordsman. Perfect Blue is the first film directed by Satoshi Kon, an animated psychological thriller often compared to the suspense-ridden works of Alfred Hitchcock.