Kelly WandMillenium Actress
August 29th 2006 05:22
With Millennium Actress, director Satoshi Kon (Hint: Also responsible for the brilliant Tokyo Godfathers) brings us a tale that just comes so far out of left field that, if it were live action, you’d probably be looking at a Lynch or a Cronenberg. Basically, Genya Tachibana is a TV producer obsessed with an aging actress named Chiyoko Fujiwara who now lives in seclusion. He finally tracks her down and, by returning a piece of memorabilia to her, secures an interview.
No sooner does Chiyoko start recalling her life story than reality begins to slip. Genya and his cameraman find themselves slipping into her memories. Her real life memories aren’t exactly linear either. As she becomes an actress, these storylines begin to become entangled in her life too. As an actress she had drawn on her real life emotions to play the roles and now they too become part of her raw experience.
This means we also travel through a thousand years of Japanese history, from the feudal state period into an imagined space age. In an interview, the director talks about the importance of this though, I admit, I found the connections (with the notable exception of the rocket scene) superficial at best. They do, however, add a fair degree of spectacle to the proceedings.
If that doesn’t sound like it will bore the pants off of you, you should pick this up. If you do think it will bore the pants off of you, you will be wrong.
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