Millennium Actress

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Millennium Actress
File:Sennenyoyu.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Satoshi Kon
Produced by Taro Maki
Screenplay by <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
  • Sadayuki Murai
  • Satoshi Kon
Story by Satoshi Kon
Starring <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
Music by Susumu Hirasawa
Cinematography Hisao Shirai
Edited by Satoshi Terauchi
Production
company
Distributed by KlockWorx
Release dates
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Running time
 87 minutes
Country Japan
Language Japanese
Budget $1.2 million[1]
Box office $37,641 (North America)[2]

Millennium Actress (千年女優 Sennen Joyū?) is a 2001 Japanese anime film directed by Satoshi Kon and animated by the Studio Madhouse. It tells the story of a documentary filmmaker investigating the life of an elderly actress in which reality and cinema become blurred. It is based on the life of Setsuko Hara[3] and Hideko Takamine.[4]

Plot

A movie studio is being torn down. TV interviewer Genya Tachibana has tracked down its best known star, Chiyoko Fujiwara, who has been a recluse since she retired from acting some 30 years ago. Tachibana delivers a key to her, and it causes her to reflect on her career; as she's telling the story, Tachibana and Kyoji Ida, his long-suffering cameraman, are drawn in. The key was given to her as a teenager by a painter and revolutionary that she helped to escape the police. She becomes an actress because it will make it possible to track him down, and she spends the next several decades acting out that search in various genres and eras.[5]

Cast

Additional voices were provided by Mitsuru Ogata, Tomohisa Asō, Kōji Yusa, Makoto Higo, Kōichi Sakaguchi, Tomoyuki Shimura, Akiko Kimura, Tomo Saeki, Hirofumi Nojima, Ruri Asano, Hiroko Ōnaka, Yoshinori Sonobe and Yumiko Daikoku.

Production

Following the release of Satoshi Kon's previous film Perfect Blue, Kon considered adapting the Yasutaka Tsutsui novel Paprika (1993) into his next film. However, these plans were stalled when the distribution company for Perfect Blue, Rex Entertainment, went bankrupt.[6] Millennium Actress had an estimated budget of $1.2 million.[1] The screenplay was written by Sadayuki Murai,[7] who used a seamless connection between illusion and reality to create a "Trompe-l'œil kind of film".[8] Millennium Actress is the first Satoshi Kon film to feature Susumu Hirasawa, whom Kon was a long-time fan of, as composer.[9]

Reception

Millennium Actress was favorably received by critics, gaining a 92% "fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes.[10] Los Angeles Times critic Kenneth Turan said of the film "as a rumination on the place movies have in our personal and collective subconscious, Millennium Actress fascinatingly goes where films have not often gone before".[11] Kevin M. Williams of the Chicago Tribune gave the movie 4 stars and put his feelings for the film this way: "A piece of cinematic art. It's modern day Japanese animation at its best... It's animated, but it's human and will touch the soul of anyone who has loved deeply".[12]

Box office performance

Source Gross (USD) Number of Screens
United States $37,285 6
United States Opening Weekend $18,732 6 [13]

Commercially, the film performed modestly on its US release, earning $37,285 during its three-week release. The film was shown almost exclusively in New York and Los Angeles, and received a minimal advertising campaign from Go Fish Pictures.

Awards

Millennium Actress received the Grand Prize in the Japan Agency of Cultural Affairs Media Arts Festival,[14] tying with Spirited Away. Additionally, it won the awards of Best Animation Film and Fantasia Ground-Breaker at the 2001 Fantasia Film Festival. It was awarded the Feature Film Award at the 8th Animation Kobe. The movie took home the prestigious Ofuji Noburo Award at the 2002 Mainichi Film Awards, and was honored with the Orient Express Award at the 2001 Festival de Cine de Sitges in Spain. The film was nominated for four Annie Awards in 2004, including Outstanding Direction and Writing. It was also promoted by its studio as a contender for the 2003 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, but it was not nominated. The film is ranked in the Top 50 Animated Films on the Internet Movie Database.[15]

See also

References

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External links

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