Millennium Actress (2001)
Movies about the art of making movies frequently appeal only to die-hard film geeks. Both CQ and Ed Wood (to name two recent live-action examples) are meaningful only to the degree with which the audience is familiar with behind-the-scenes intrigue. Satoshi Kon’s Millennium Actress happily avoids this common pitfall while stumbling squarely into another, resulting in a maddeningly disappointing film.
Kon’s story begins in a straightforward fashion, as two TV documentarians record the destruction of some old movie sets. Genya, the chief filmmaker, has scored an impossible feat – an interview with the reclusive and legendary movie actress Chiyoko. What movie-making secrets will Chiyoko reveal after decades of silence?
Kon fills Millennium Actress with period set pieces from Chiyoko’s film career, most of which won’t be fully appreciated by American audiences unfamiliar with the source material Kon is paying homage to. (I enjoyed much of these mini-homages as I recognized the genres, if not the exact films, Kon referenced.) But rather than take the expected route contrasting the mundane, tedious world behind the scenes with the glitter of the finished product, Kon instead takes a psychological approach. All of Chiyoko’s films in some way reflect a lifelong unrequited love, and reveal a small clue into understanding why such a talented and popular actress chose self-imposed exile as her career began to decline from period dramas to science fiction quickies. Chiyoko’s storytelling is so engrossing that Genya and his assistant literally find themselves drawn into her life, perplexed as they act as costumed extras in her story. The longer Chiyoko talks, the more intertwined her hidden personal life and very public fantasy career become.
We also learn that Genya has several connections with Chiyoko’s past and, at heart, is a lifelong fanboy. At times this provides much-needed comedy relief, at other times a convenient Greek Chorus, and often gives us a touching ordinary counterpoint to Chiyoko’s admittedly operatic suffering. Of all the characters in the film, I found it easiest to relate to Genya. In Genya, Kon has created a wonderful surrogate for the audience, someone through whom we may experience the mysteries and sadness that surround Chiyoko. Without Genya, it’s difficult to imagine the film’s strongest sequences.
So far, so good. But what deep secret could possibly have motivated a leading talent for more than 30 years and led to her premature retirement? The answer, disappointingly, is Chiyoko’s brief meeting with an art student when she was a schoolgirl. To reveal more would totally destroy the magic Kon has worked so lovingly to create. But the discovery that a worldly, talented, successful motion picture talent, who lived through the rise of Japanese imperialism, the horrors of World War II, and the glorious rebirth of Japan in the postmodern era could somehow be psychically bonded to a chance encounter with a stranger in her youth defies comprehension and belief. Even by the sentimental standards of much female-oriented anime, the core of Millennium Actress is exceptionally hollow.
Most of the time, Kon is able to draw our attention away from Chiyoko’s ultimate triteness by rapidly changing genres, costumes, and musical styles. Indeed much of the fun of Millennium Actress comes from unexpected contrasts and carefully staged incongruities. This is a movie that would be nearly possible to film on a moderate budget if it were not animated. For that reason, Millennium Actress is worth seeing, though hardly worth seeking out. Kon proved himself to be an exceptionally sensitive and thoughtful director and writer, and I hope that one day in the very near future he will wed his sentimentality to a more deserving vehicle, with more plausible character motivation.
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