Millennium Actress

Millennium Actress (Japanese千年 女优, Sennen joyu ) is an animated film by director Satoshi Kon, who on the Fantasia Festival in Canada celebrated 2001 debut. The film is about a documentary filmmaker who wants to make a film about the once very famous actress Chiyoko Fujiwara and relived in the interview with her various stages of her life, beginning in the 1930s up to the 1970s, when they came out at the height of her acting career the public withdraws. The viewer gains at the same time an overview of Japanese history.

Action

Documentary filmmaker Genya Tachibana goes along with his cameraman Kyoji Ida to the secluded house of Chiyoko Fujiwara to perform there for his planned documentary about the life of the once highly successful actress an interview with her. He gives her a golden key that revives in Chiyoko the memory of their search again. The stages of her life told in the form of flashbacks, which are interwoven with the roles in their films, in which also appear Tachibana and Fujiwara repeatedly as extras.

In the turmoil of the Second World War, the young Chiyoko meets a young painter who is wanted as a dissident by the fascist Japanese regime, and falls in love with him. At their last meeting in a warehouse, the painter tells her that the golden key, which he wears around his neck, the " key to the most important ones " is. Shortly thereafter, the painter is discovered and flees, but doing so he loses the key. As Chiyoko finds him, she decides to go looking for him. She is an actress and spends the next few decades so that, in a variety of roles to make movies again and again to watch in the hope that her childhood sweetheart.

Finally, it comes at a turning to an earthquake, which can collapse the backdrop of the set. Chiyoko is rescued by young Tachibana, who is an assistant on the set, but loses the key. Tachibana finds him later, but Chiyoko believes it lost, breaks off her acting career and retires, as it has now given up hope of finding the painter.

At the end of her story, it also comes in the presence of an earthquake and again Chiyoko is protected by Tachibana, yet she is unconscious. On the way to the hospital Tachibana tells his cameraman Ida from a meeting with the representative at that time captain of the Japanese military, who admits that the painter captured and was tortured to death during the subsequent interrogation. So Tachibana knew all the time that Chiyokos childhood sweetheart had not left the station alive but could not believe all these years, Chiyoko to say that their decades-long search was in vain.

In the hospital finally Chiyoko Tachibana thanks that he had returned her the key and told him that it was her not so much anymore arrived it over time, to find the painter, but rather driven by the search for him was and is grateful for the wonderful experiences she has gained thereby. She concludes that it would continue its search for the death, and closes his eyes.

Production and publication

The film was made in the studio Madhouse and directed by Satoshi Kon. The character design designed Satoshi Kon and Takeshi Honda and artistic director was Nobutaka Ike. The soundtrack was composed by Susumu Hirasawa. More involved in the production studios were Dr. Movie, Kyung Kang ANIA and Shaft.

The first performance took place at the Fantasia Festival in Canada held on 28 July 2001. On 14 September 2002, the film was released in Japanese theaters, the film was subsequently shown at several festivals and appeared among others in Poland, Britain and France on DVD. In Spain he was broadcast by Buzz Channel on TV. The German version was published by Universum Anime on August 7, 2006 to DVD.

Voice Actors

The German dubbed version was produced by the Berliner Synchron.

Reception

According to the journal AnimaniA used Satoshi Kon in Millennium Actress similar elements as in Perfect Blue, lead the viewer "on the wrong path of reality and film as well as the thoughts of the protagonist ." The scenes are not in chronological order, followed by their own rules. The film as a nostalgic melodrama difficult to find its audience, but the animation is very well done and the film succeed it credible to represent the Japanese film history, as if it were a real movie possible.

The magazine video week called Millennium Actress as " original and poetic, in parts fantastically well designed animated drama", the Japanese let history come alive. He was a " gem for discerning Animé fans ".

2003, the film with a price of the Tokyo International Anime Festival was considered. In Canada, he received the award for the best animated film and the Fantasia Ground - Breaker Award for artistic innovation at the Fantasia Festival.