A very interesting way of telling a not very interesting story.

this cinematic masterpiece is a testament to the depth and sophistication that animation can achieve, proving that those who dismiss the medium as merely children's entertainment are missing out on something truly extraordinary.

An elegantly absorbing, comprehensibly surreal vision that depicts how an actor’s career seamlessly blends roles based on life’s trajectories as told in artistic transcendence, becoming a timeless animated classic albeit its flawed secondary purpose that may’ve served purposeful and humorous. (B+)

The narrative is both sentimental and abstract while offering a pretty effective overview of Japanese film history. Its far better than a traditional biopic would be.

I loved this movie as a teen, so today I re-watched it for the first time. Didn't enjoy it as much as I hoped. If it was a book, I'd say there's nothing keeping you turning the pages. The story is slow-paced and very bare-bones. The only things I like about it are the beautiful art and the blurring lines between fiction/reality or between different identities.

This is an intriguing anime film. Its not so much a film aimed at young kids and I liked the plot concept of travelling through different times in a persons life, to see what they saw and witness events first hand. I thought the old fashioned, video game type music played at times was somehow endearing - it has quite a strong sense of nostalgia. It's not as great as Tokyo Godfathers (it features the same director) but its certainly worth a watch regardless if your into anime films and so I would recommend it, yes.

Satoshi Kon brings his trademark blend of reality and fantasy to the premise of growth and memory, tracing the career and personal longing of an aging actress through a rich variety of settings and in particular reflecting on the relationships that audiences have with film. While Millennium Actress is a well-designed and creative film, interweaving the personal and professional experiences of a main character in a way that is both visually vibrant and narratively solid, it feels at time as if it casts too wide a net in its emotional range, hinging key moments on somewhat underdeveloped side character and introducing a range of potential themes only to let a couple feel unfinished. But at its core the film is still an emotionally charged take on emotional evolution, featuring a main character that has fixed upon a seemingly unreachable goal as her internal motivation before coming to terms with her own desires fueling the seemingly ill-fated search for a man she met decades ago, extracting the image of herself on the screen from her own aging self in the process. At a budget of only about $1.2m, it's a wonder that Kon was able to deliver not only visuals of this quality but an exceptional soundtrack to support it. I don't think it packs the whallop that Kon's other work does, but there's still plenty to recommend this work to even a casual viewer; the comic relief is used liberally and works surprisingly well. (3.5/5)

Movies are made not only for writers and directors to express themselves, it also for audiences to see themselves in the shoes of the characters. There are countless times where I imagined myself playing that character from that movie. This is why I absolutely adored this blend of narration by Satoshi Kon. It's his 2nd movie, and I can see how masterful he is at mixing two different elements in such elegant and smooth way. The transition between scenes of different movies was phenomenal and dynamic. I love how the interviewer character changed himself into different characters and re-enact the scenes. It's exactly how movies are for audiences. The heartbreaking story of this movie was also investing. The symbol of the key and her unrelenting love got me pretty sad at the end. Overall, I absolutely enjoyed the eye-opening and beautiful storytelling. 8.5-9/10

In terms of animation, Satoshi Kon's direction is the best I've ever seen! "Millenium Actress" is simply wonderful! The highlights are the smooth transitions between different scenarios and the colour palette, especially in the two main sidekicks (the reporter and the camera operator, who are hilarious, each in their own way). Chiyoko's journey is fantastic. It's simple and impossible at the same time, original, thrilling, and above everything, very immersive; it's almost Amélie Poulain's journey but completely different. And the ending is a punch in the stomach; it's courageous and touches on a theme that always makes me drop some tears. 2001 was amazing for Japanese animation. Alongside Hayao Miyazaki's "Spirited Away", "Millenium Actress" is one of the best animated films of all time.

I give it 4 stars on the voice acting alone, and watching it again it is a MASTERPIECE but takes some thinking when watching and probably watching it 2X's to get it. It's a great movie about immature love and how many people, usually girls, get obsessed with the thrill of "the chase" VS real love where you actually know, accept, and unconditionally care about someone. About the voice acting. NOW (in the 2000s) all the voice actors are extremely annoying with their overdone hyperbole voice acting. Overlyemotional and RIDICULOUS in everything from My Hero Academia to Demon Slayer. It's really quite irritating. In this movie the voice actors are more natural and restrained. Nice voice acting. I'm not sure if I'd say it's a another Satoshi Kohn masterpiece as I really like Perfect Blue But it pretty good compared with a unique premise. GREAT for anyone into making movies as it's about an actress, cameraman, and an interviewer/huge fan. It's about a love, the film industry, and just life. Big emphasis on immature love and being enthralled with "the chase" VS real love. The main character chases what she wrongly sees as "love" until her death sadly. MOVE ON DUH lol

ooh, meta! But for a performance scholar, well, what's not to love?! The film refuses to disentangle (fictional) reality from (fictional) fiction-making, and that is cool and mind-bending, and sort of, kind of a political history of 20th century Japan, too.

Ever wondered why does a well-told love story always work in every movie regardless of its genre? Be it a shoot-'em-up actioner, a swashbuckling fantasy, an alien-invasion sci-fi or a cowboy western, nothing can prove a constraint to the power of love in cinema. For love thrives in cinema. It has the ability to ground the most wild and fanciful stories in reality because it evokes emotion in such a way the viewer comes to identify with the characters and invest in the story readily. Satoshi Kon captures that notion here to perfection, blurring the logical line between reality and fiction, forcing us to completely rely on what we feel as we're letting the movie wash over us. "The Key" is a catalyst that opened the flood-gates of memories of the eponymous actress, letting these memories rush out in flashback scenes the two documentarians interviewing Chiyoko are literally pulled into them. The cheekily innovative way of making them intervene in her quasi-fictional stories added a sense of meta and light relief that imbued the film with much needed breeziness. In addition, that made us pry to Chiyoko's both inner and outer feelings throughout her cinematic and love-pursuing journey. That said, Millennium Actress perhaps runs too short to make a lasting impact on me, and the frenetic pace doesn't help either. I'm sure, however, that a rewatch can make me pump my rating up. "I can't remember! Not even his face! I loved him so much. Now I can't remember his face!" The story moulds the agonizing feelings of longing in memory vessels that would preserve love so long as youthfulness lasts. But youthfulness withers, allowing memories to fade away. Here comes the struggle that's even harder than the life-time seeking of love: the struggle of desperately trying to hold onto memories of lost love while your aging mind failing you. That's when you even fail to lament your most precious loss! The story here takes a huge metaphysical leap to emphasize the immortality of love and cinema.

Simply one of the best movies Ive ever watched, animated or not.

THIS IS AN ABSOLUTE HIT FOR ME! The pacing of the story is majestic. No words can truly describe this. An absolute classic from Satoshi Kon! I recommend it!

A beautiful animated film that ironically chronicles a brief history of Japanese live-action filmmaking, Millennium Actress tells its story in a very unusual style, and achieves its humor and emotion in that way.

This movie literally left me without words. It blew my mind. Satoshi Kon is a genious in making movies of a human mind... This and Perfect Blue are true masterpieces.

This is literally my favorite movie, had me in tears the first time I saw it and it still gets me emotional. The story is about the life and career of Chiyoko Fujiwara, a fictional Japanese actress who is being interviewed by Genya Tachibana and his filming assistant. Genya, a deep admirer of hers, returns a key that she had lost long ago, something that she held close at all times. Seeing the key, she tells Genya what it's for and recalls her incredible life's story and the key to it all. The movie then begins as Genya and his assistant are thrust into every flashback of her life, filming and watching as everything unfolds. As her real life events and the films she starred in unfold before us, events begin to blur together in what can only be described as the interwoven threads of love, time, reincarnation and fate weave together to form a tapestry that is Chiyoko's story and how they are all tied together. The new Blu-ray version that came out in 2019 was done by a different company than the original 2001 release and is NOT recommended. The translation is poorly done and the subtitles are rife with SERIOUS grammar and spelling errors. I mean it is REALLY BAD! Look for the original DVD 2001 release, it's by far the superior version.

Satoshi Kon's directorial follow-up to Perfect Blue is a somewhat lighter, less enveloping picture. We tail a pair of DIY documentarians, enamored with their subject, as they suss out the location of a reclusive former starlet and entice her to share her life's story. Truth and fiction intertwine in the telling of that particular saga, with personal memoirs stirred into various scenes from her best-loved screen performances. The result is a flighty, dreamlike atmosphere, a general easing in and out of the present that doesn't always follow a linear train of thought. It operates with a soft touch, which matches the understated nature of our aging narrator; smoothly straddling genres and decades en route to a destined meeting with a lost love. That puts it on common thematic ground with both Perfect Blue and Paprika (Kon's 2006 swan song), which both toyed with perception and the meeting ground between internal and external realities. Millennium Actress, though, approaches the subject with reduced color and vigor, leaving less dangling threads to captivate audiences and fewer cornerstone visual showpieces to linger in their memories.

Loved it, it was trippy in a good way even though it was extremely sad.

Absolutely amazing animation and story telling.