Millennium Actress - 2001

Weird, I thought this came to the theater when I was there.  Of course, that's the Japan release year, and we might have brought it in after that, 2002 or whenever. 

I had seen Perfect Blue, and it's hard to put myself back in the mindframe where Satoshi Kon had really only created that one thing.  Perfect Blue of course was a seminal and popular film, it was well known in the weird sorta offbeat crowds I hung out in.  These were the days when nerd culture and all that shit was still "uncool".

Millennium Actress is a stylistic approach to a simple story, the story being the love and life of a actress.  She is in her 70's now, and the film begins with two reporters going out to interview her.  One of the reporters has a surprise for her:  a key he found, that belongs to her, and which launches a series of stories about her life, her love, her career, and everything in between. 

Using a blend of editing techniques, inserting characters into the story, transitional dialogue and of course style, Satoshi Kon spins a elaborate but simple story.  Filled with heartfelt innocence and great animation, we follow main actress Chiyoko Fujiwara as she, in a moment of pure reaction, helps a man she sees on the run early into her flashback.  The man is a mystery and she feels strongly drawn to him, he gives her a key and vanishes pretty quickly out of her life.  The rest of the film is a story of her life, as she tries to track him down.

It's a really beautiful film, and there is action and drama and even sci fi elements.  Using the films this actress was involved with as a backdrop, the moments in her movies tell the story of her relationship with this man she's looking for, and it is really amazing.  A big thing I loved about it is that it's the simplicity in the story:  this idea that one thing, one event, one encounter, can shape a persons entire life, and can drive them forward in many different ways.

It's very different from Perfect Blue, and it would continue to show throughout Kon's career that he was not a one trick pony, he had a lot of diverse and interesting stories he wanted to show.  I was a bit disappointed when it first came out that it wasn't darker, but truthfully, that was just young dumb me.  This is iconic and much more in the vein of Grave of the Fireflies.  Which, by the way, is also a 5 star film.