Millennium Actress
| Millennium Actress | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Satoshi Kon |
| Produced by | Taro Maki |
| Screenplay by |
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| Story by | Satoshi Kon |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Susumu Hirasawa |
| Cinematography | Hisao Shirai |
| Edited by | Satoshi Terauchi |
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Production
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| Distributed by | KlockWorx (Japan) Go Fish Pictures (via DreamWorks) (US) |
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Release date
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Running time
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87 minutes |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
| Budget | $1.2 million |
| Box office | $37,641 (US) |
Millennium Actress (千年女優 Sennen Joyū?) is a 2001 Japanese animated comedy-drama adventure film co-written and directed by Satoshi Kon and animated by Studio Madhouse. Loosely based on the lives of actresses Setsuko Hara and Hideko Takamine, it tells the story of two documentary filmmakers investigating the life of a retired acting legend. As she tells them the story of her life, the difference between reality and cinema becomes blurred.
The film opens with a woman leaving to embark on a spaceship from the moon to Earth. An earthquake occurs and it is revealed that this is simply a scene from a movie being played out on a television. Genya Tachibana, a TV interviewer, and his cameraman Kyoji Ida head off to a new job: Ginei Studios, a prestigious but bankrupt movie studio is being torn down and its best known star Chiyoko Fujiwara has agreed to do a rare career retrospective interview. When they meet, Genya gives her a key he believes she lost at the studio, which causes Chiyoko to reflect on her career. As she's telling her life story, Genya and Kyoji Ida, his cameraman, are drawn in literally to Chiyoko's past as they are blended in to various scenes that concurrently reflect Chiyoko's filmography and life story at once.
Chiyoko, as a girl in 1930s Japan, is approached to become an actress by a famous director. While walking on the street, Chiyoko encounters a man running away from a certain scarred military policeman, and she manages to hide him away in a storage barn. It turns out he is a revolutionary against the war in China, as well as a painter; he escapes, but leaves a key behind. After his departure, she decides to become a film actress in hopes that he will see one of her movies, and heads to Manchukuo with the film crew for her first movie to try and give the key back to him. She meets Ginei Studios' lead actress, who treats her with contempt, as well as the director's young son, also planning to be a director. On a train however, local bandits attack. At this point, scenes are played from different movies from Chiyoko's career, ranging from samurai to kaiju: all with the theme of Chiyoko chasing down the mysterious painter. Various characters are seen again and again, such as the military policeman, and even Genya and Kyoji, who continually save Chiyoko and allow her to continue on her quest.
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Wikipedia