He sneaks away one night, leaving behind a mysterious key that he has told her is “the key to the most important thing in the world.” From that moment on, Chiyoko has found her life’s pursuit: to return the key to its rightful owner, a man with whom, in the swoon of adolescence, she is convinced she is in love. In the first flashback, set in WWII Japan, we see a preteen Chiyoko help a mysterious artist to escape from the police by hiding him in her family’s storage shed. Memory fuses with fiction and history, and both are subordinated to Chiyoko’s overwhelming drive to fulfill a girlhood desire. Her narration quickly gives way to flashbacks, in turn intertwined with her movie roles. Now available on a DVD from DreamWorks, the film comprises the memoir of fictional Japanese movie star Chiyoko Fujiwara (voiced by Miyoko Shoji in her 70s, Mami Koyama in her 30s and 40s, and Fumiko Orikasa in her youth), as she speaks to a documentary filmmaker and his cameraman. Millennium Actress, the second anime offering from director Satoshi Kon (who made Perfect Blue in 1997) explores this shifting territory in a style as elegant and epic as the Terminator’s is brutish and plodding. But the recall election is only the latest, and perhaps most tragically hilarious example of the ever-blurry line between truth and fiction.

He’s returned from the future again, this time to save California, which should be easy, compared to saving the planet. Boasting countless awards, including the Grand Prize in the Japan Agency of Cultural Affairs Media Arts Festival, which it shared with Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away, MILLENNIUM ACTRESS is a must-see for anime fans of all ages.Īfter the film, stick around for a conversation with Millennium Actress producers, Taro Maki and Masao Maruyama as they reflect on making the film and Satoshi Kon's legacy.We’ve elected the Terminator. Despite never knowing his name or his face, Chiyoko relentlessly pursues that man in a seamless blend of reality and memory that only Satoshi Kon could deliver.

As she recounts her career, Genya and his crew are literally pulled into her memories where they witness her chance encounter with a mysterious man on the run from the police. When the legendary Ginei Studios shuts down, filmmaker Genya Tachibana and his assistant are tasked with interviewing its reclusive star, Chiyoko Fujiwara, who had retired from the spotlight 30 years prior. Experience the gorgeous new restoration of what many believe to be Satoshi Kon’s ( Perfect Blue, Paprika) greatest work, MILLENNIUM ACTRESS.

Millennium actress