Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
Spike_Spiegel06
first time watching a Satoshi Kon film and i'm genuinely blown away by how great this movie really is. definitely one of my most favorite anime that i've watched all year.
the animation and artstyle in were absolutely amazing imo. they're obviously pretty similar to Kon's other films like Paprika and perfect blue and i really liked the character designs honestly and maybe it's just me but the animation makes the film feel more surreal.
Millennium Actress is what i'd call Satoshi Kon's love letter not just to Japanese cinema, but to the beautiful art of filmmaking itself. i loved how the film Genya Tachiban (the documentarian) and his camera man inside chiyoko Fujiwara's memories like they're a part of it. from her childhood to her peak as an actress, the film's narrative shows us how fil…
Read at the sourceIvan_Khudoy
Nostalgic recollections of an aging actress's career and personal life blur into a surreal spectacle starring herself, her most loyal fan, and his cynical cameraman. This story illustrates the special bond between artists and their audience. A fascinating experience that becomes a precious memory in viewers' minds could be only a small step in an artist's search for what they seek. In the film, the mysterious painter represents not just a literal true love, but the distant, unreachable artistic ideal the actress strives for. Is the goal worth spending an entire life chasing? I don't know. In hindsight, Millennium Actress feels autobiographical: Satoshi Kon died too soon, leaving behind much unfinished manga and unrealized ideas. Whether Kon loved chasing or not, his legacy lives on as long…
Read at the sourceelumizu
Millennium Actress is a film about memory, but not in the conventional sense. It isn't particularly interested in asking whether our memories are accurate. Instead, it seems more interested in something much more human: Why do certain memories stay with us, even when the details no longer matter? The film follows Genya Tachibana, a documentary filmmaker who sets out to interview Chiyoko Fujiwara, a former actress who has long since withdrawn from public life. What begins as a simple interview quickly turns into something much stranger. As Chiyoko recounts her life and career, Genya and his cameraman become part of her memories. Scenes from her films begin blending with events from her actual life, and suddenly it becomes difficult to tell where one ends and the other begins.
Chiyoko's lif…
Read at the sourceTheGOF
Went into this film not expecting much. I'd been working through Satoshi Kon's back catalogue and it didn't seem to be one of his more popular or rated works. Wow, what a hidden gem! Sometimes, I'll enjoy a film enough to watch it twice in a row, but that very rarely happens with animanga. After watching Millenium Actress, however, I immediately re-watched it to pick up on all the details and foreshadowing I missed the first time. Millenium Actress is all about the details, and it's a piece that cinephiles (not just animanga fans) will adore. The way it blurs the line between genre and documentary is fantastic. The film transitions through fifty years of 20th century film-making in one story, linked together by the 'life' of Fujiwara Chiyoko. The line between her personal story and her act…
Read at the sourcelelbro
Stacy chases Chad her entire life while accepting help from an incel chud that doesn't mind that he gets nothing in return despite being in love with her. Real.
I love the unique storytelling style and beautiful animation. The plot is mostly straightforward, and I appreciate that the movie is not cryptic to the point where you need to rewatch it to understand it. The ending is incredibly definitive, and I love how it is established early and built up to the entire movie. I wish a few more points were elaborated on, and it can get slightly repetitive, but the story itself is airtight.
Read at the sourceHERMIT_PAIMON
My 3rd rewatch
Satoshi Kon shows his skill at drawing you into another world. Millennium Actress has a great story, really great characters, and keeps you fixated from start to finish. Watching this one made me forget this was an anime as I became fascinated by the life moving before me. Chiyoko is amazing at any age or time; her determination, spirit, and energy are infectiously admirable. Note the interviewer and our skeptical camera guy are third party observers in the dark, just like ourselves. Someone watching this mentioned how great the soundtrack is which adds a whole other level and really establishes pace, mood, and atmosphere throughout. A key reminding us of the value of a dream and how far would you go to fulfill it?
this one asks questions, has fun moments, and really touchi…
Read at the sourcemrspenguindrum
A tribute to cinema from one of the greatest Japanese directors of all time. Millennium Actress tells the story of a woman who relives her life, her career, and her most memorable experiences in a continuous interplay between dreams and reality. The viewer finds themselves suspended, unable to discern what is real and what is not, surrendering instead to a dreamlike, poetic narrative that enchants until the very end.
The film explores universal themes such as memory, the passage of time, and the fusion between private life and artistic representation. The protagonist is an almost mythical figure, consumed and shaped by her art—a goddess of cinema who, even as the years fade away, remains an exemplary icon of passion and resilience.
The technical craftsmanship is flawless, from the animat…
Read at the sourceMarginem
This postmodernist drama follows a love story that is pursued through different historical eras and stages in the life of the protagonist "Chiyoko Fujiwara", who in her youth and adulthood was one of the most recognized and important actresses of the golden age of Japanese golden cinema, but whose real target was always a painter she met during her adolescence. It is here where the film's director, "Satoshi Kon" intermingles the events of his past with his most popular films, giving a journey in which even the journalist "Genya Tachibana" and the cameraman "Kyoji Ida" participate as characters throughout the premise that go from the Edo period, the Taishō era, and the Second World War, covering more than a thousand years of Japanese history.
"After all, it's the chasing after him i really…
Read at the sourceKhashishi
Here's a nice movie with a basic plot told in the most interesting way possible. It's definitely style over substance, and I respect that, though I prefer something a little deeper. Like other Satoshi Kon movies, it blurs the line between reality and imagination in order to tell the story. The main draw of this movie is the imaginative way that the story is presented. We see the story of the actress's life presented through scenes from movies she's acted in. Compared to Paprika, Millenium Actress is a lot simpler to understand, since there isn't really that much that happens. It gets a bit repetitive since the same life events get shown through many movies.
The animation is decent. There aren't really any breathtaking sakuga bits, but nothing to complain about either. Due to the nature of…
Read at the sourcebemarobot
Technically Flawless, Perfectly Crafted. A Satoshi Kon Masterpiece.
This animated film delivers a story that’s mind-blowingly arranged and a must-watch of this millennium. If the character's actions seem intense, remember this is an animated film—a medium that often embraces heightened expressiveness, like musical storytelling in Indian cinema. Here, Satoshi Kon nails every element of Japanese cinema.
The art style and animation are incredibly unique; a single glance is enough to recognize it as Satoshi Kon’s work. It’s the subtle movements of the characters that make this film truly special. The backgrounds and character movements are some of the most intricate and detailed in animation. The color palette, though not as vibrant as Paprika, perfectly captures the emotional tone of each s…
Read at the sourcebergars
A love that feels like 1000 years.
“Millennium Actress” is one of those movies that's just about to be something, but isn't at all. An exploration on the film industry, but no, it's an observation on actors. A love story, that's more about the objective, not the destination. An interview, that's actually a love letter. It keeps changing, evolving, turning into a piece of a person's heart. What motivates a person to pursue art? To pursue love, to pursue a passion? What are everybody's motives to be where they ultimately are? In the end, you're where you stand, at this very moment, for a reason.
None can easily explain a movie from Satoshi Kon. They're always breaking conventions with the genre they use as a base. As the last movie I've seen from his stuff, it's equally baffling to truly…
Read at the sourceHalalex
Managed to catch this one on the big screen for a rewatch, and boy is it refreshing to watch a movie about movies that actually tells a story about the emotions elicited by movies, as opposed to just the fame/glamour/drama of starring in them. It just kind of manages to recontextualize every piece of media I've consumed up until this point, in a positive way of course.
A reserved color palette that manages to be as interesting and unique as those of Satoshi Kon's other, more vibrant works.
An unsurprisingly outstanding score by Susumu Hirazawa.
A complete trust in the audience to just accept the film for what it's trying to say, rather than focusing too much on the plot.
It's a masterpiece folks, probably my favorite of Kon's short but impressive lineup.
9,5 / 10, You left us way too…
Read at the sourceEmpireDeLuna
I never knew cinema could be this, honest...
THERE'S A CHUNK OF SPOILER AT THE END, BECAUSE SCREW IT! THERE'S NO OTHER WAY TO PROPERLY GET THIS FEELING OUT OF MY CHEST!
After faithfully spending so much time marathoning Satoshi Kon's work with a very messy order, it's kind of a miracle that the finish line just happens to be this. The second movie that i was accidentally skipped over. Millennium Actress, the most beautiful swan song i've ever heard, the perfect ending to this long journey!
This is the most honest, most sincere, most emotionally draining story ever told in the medium of animation. Although the basic foundation may seem familiar at first glance, and has its fair share of flat moments here and there, the many flaws actually came together as a catharsis to make the movie fe…
Read at the sourceOkamii_JA
Wow, what a boring movie. The story was incredibly weak, with tons of random cutscenes that made no sense — clearly just filler to stretch the runtime. The only thing somewhat decent was the animation.
The plot? It's basically about a girl who meets a guy being chased by the police and immediately falls in love with him. He drops a key, she finds it, and when she tries to return it, he tells her to give it back "when they meet again." So she starts searching for him… seriously? That’s it. No character development, no real events, no meaningful progression — just an old lady narrating her past drama.
Honestly, I had to push myself just to make it to the end. I paused the movie several times because it just couldn’t keep my attention. I really don’t get how some people enjoyed it — though,…
Read at the sourceJim--anime
The art was the first thing I am an aesthete when it comes to anime animation and I noticed in regards to this film that the character designs although simplistic are very much detailed in there own right and that rings true for the environmental art as well it was the main thing that kept me invested. Every single frame of this film was beautifully animated and it give me nostalgia for the early 2000s I particularly was enthralled by the use of weather and the way the snow fell every single second of these master crafted scenes are uplifted by it's almost dream like.
Satoshi Kon is a fantastic director and every scene serves a purpose in it's own right the story is extremely driven but I personally found some of it fell flat around the mid way point the film does get points for finishing…
Read at the sourceEDOSHINRATENSEI
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,…
Read at the sourceFirechick12012
Unlike most anime fans familiar with his body of work, I didn't know much about Satoshi Kon and his influence on the anime/manga industry. At one point, when I was in college, an anime club I joined showed Perfect Blue for a movie night once, but I didn't like it as I'm not really into horror, and I didn't see the whole thing, as I had to leave due to other obligations. But Kon was considered one of anime's greatest movie directors, and fans eagerly wanted him to make more movies, which would be rendered impossible due to his untimely passing in August 2010. In recent years, there's been a sort of Kon renaissance in the West, as licensing companies have been not only giving his movies and shows newer releases, but in some cases, giving them completely new dubs, whether they be from whole c…
Read at the source__Haliya__
A key without the lock is like a chase without the hunt.
"I love who I was while chasing him."
In the end, Chiyoko never found the mysterious man but she found herself and her passion through various roles and films she became part of. Even when she left the Earth in the end, her movies eternalized her legacy as the millennium's actress.
"I love you more than I can bear, and I hate you more than I can bear." Chiyoko hated herself for chasing someone unattainable but in the process of pursuing someone, she found her passion. She found her love for acting and she loved who she became because of the chase.
Satoshi showed two kinds of love through Genya and Chiyoko. The IDEALIZED LOVE & TRUE LOVE. Chiyoko's affection for the mysterious man symbolized the ideal kind of love. The one that i…
Read at the sourceMikey2520
"What does the key open?"
"The most important thing in the world."
First came across this film during college. Cried at the end. Of course.
After a hundred films and reading various reviews, I rewatched this. The key stood out. It's kinda like Malena in the film Malena.
"In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea / with a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me"
As an east asian (chinese), the historical side of this film resonates even more. In the novel Farwell my Concubine, Li wrote that "although humans have ten thousand ways, eventually they cannot withstand their fate."
It's like George Martin is right, there's only one true God, and his name is death. But humans can spit in his face and say "not today".
To me that is faith. I'm glad Chiyoko has it.
Read at the sourceMrYandereFan26
This was a really good movie and quite unique. It shows an actress telling her life’s story to two film makers with flashbacks and it’s actually done in a really interesting way.
Due to her old age she would tend to get mixed up and it really blurred the line between fiction and reality. It makes you question things and really makes you think. I did find myself confused at points as I kept being unsure if things were really happening or not but I think that’s the point. This is a film I feel would only get better the more you watch it. It’s not very often I finish an anime and already looking forward to a rewatch but this is definitely one of those cases. The more I think about it the more I like it.
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