Millennium Actress

Satoshi Kon's work is one that plays with what is reality and what is fiction making you to figure out, which is which through the character's perspectives from the psychological horror in Perfect Blue to the mind-bending trip that is Paprika to even the magical realism and convoluted drama in Tokyo Godfathers. But here Kon takes ideas from films that blend documentary and fictional storytelling like the likes of Close-Up and A Moment of Innocence. Here we see a story that in universe is a real one about an actress's life but retold through the fictional worlds of her films.

Millenium Actress is about Chiyoko Fujiwara, a famous Japanese actress who became reclusive, who agreed to have her life story told by Genya Tachibana, who is a big fan of her work. As she starts talking about her life and how she met a strange man that she helped escape from the police, without the viewers knowledge the movie transitioned from being a retelling about her life to a retelling of one her films, where her character chased a man, she loved who is going to Manchuria. From this point on the movie is the actress's life retold through her movies, but you can't help but wonder if some of them are the real story.

What's really great about this way of retelling a story about a young woman, who doesn't want to be constrained by traditional Japanese norms about women, who is chasing a rebel she fell in love with, is that it helps the story feel fresh to those who have heard it 100 times and it gives an extra layer of dissection as we are listening to plots in movies that reflect her real-life struggles and so the viewer is tasked with connecting the dots, which on top of it all works as an interesting way to introduce someone on how analyse films. We figure out quickly that Chiyoko became a well-known and respected actress, because the roles she gets, or she chooses to star in (it's not clear what is the case) are a reflection of her real-life. She doesn't need to get into character as that is her life and experiences and in turn she gives. It's an interesting way to show how an actor can relate to the characters they play.

The movie is also infectiously joyous as Chiyoko retells her life and you see Genya, who is a big fan of all works, get into character and play the supporting cast. It's hard not to laugh when you see Genya get in character and clearly overacting how the actual character was likely played by in the movie. And hard not to get emotional like Genya, when the big emotional climaxes of her films are being shown and we know that they reflect her emotional state and is happening in her life.

I like how much this movie focuses on Genya too. He is a documentary filmmaker, who wants to tell Chiyoko's live, but it's hard for his presence to be gone and the full focus to be only on Chiyoko and her story. It's his love for her movies that give us a different character to attach to one that the viewer could relate to more. But I also wonder if this is Satokshi Kon commenting on how real-life documentary filmmakers can't escape their movies to be also about themselves as people, even if it is about them telling the story of another person.

Millienium Actress is clearly a love letter by Kon towards film history, especially towards Akira Kurosawa as his films get referenced the most, and it's great to see how the cinematography changes in each story we got to. But movie is also a huge respect given to the actors that bring the characters in them to life. It is the power of filmmaking in how those stories connect with the viewer emotionally even if they never experience them. And it is through the performances of the actors that the viewer forms that connection.

Edit: I just found out after finishing this review that the character of Chiyoko Fujiwara is partly based Setsuko Hara, so I have to watch her movies and see the woman Kon had in his mind when creating this movie and read about her life.