Weblog entry:
- Millennium Actress
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Seems I’m late to almost every party. While Millennium Actress (Sennen joyu) was released in 2001, I’d never heard of it nor its director, Satoshi Kon. I decided to rent it after being blown away by the trailer for Kon’s upcoming Tokyo Godfathers.
The movie opens simply, almost delicately: a documentary filmmaker and his cameraman are interview a reclusive, once-great film actress, who disappeared at the height of her career and now tends to her herb garden. But before the interview begins in earnest, the filmmaker presents the grande dame with a small golden key, found in the ruins of the movie studio for which she once worked. Long lost to her, the key forces the old actress to uncover some long-buried memories, reminiscing about futile love and film shoots as the filmmakers sit nearby.
While Millennium Actress definitely kicked my ass from here to Hokkaido, I had a lot of trouble pinpointing exactly why I liked it so much. The movie’s definitely an astonishing little bit of anime, but there’s some real substance beneath the stunning animation. It’s a real rat’s nest of allegory, filled with a visual vocabulary that’d make Spenser blush. And beyond that, Kon seems more than happy to mess his viewers’ minds, gleefully revising his definitions of
fiction
andfantasy
on a minute-by-minute basis.I suppose the point of all this blathering just underscores that I don’t really know why I liked Millennium Actress to the extent that I do. But I do know I’m going to see it again. Soon.
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- 09th day of February 2004.
- Filed under Reviews, Movies.
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