Millennium Actress

Documentary filmmaker Genya Tachibana has carried a single key for thirty years. He found it as a boy in the rubble of a burned movie studio, and it belonged to Chiyoko Fujiwara, the most famous actress Japan ever had. When he finally tracks her down to a remote mountain home, the key unlocks something neither of them expected: a flood of memories spanning seven decades of Japanese history and cinema.

This is Satoshi Kon's second feature, following Perfect Blue, and his first original story. Where Kon's debut was a tight psychological thriller, Millennium Actress is something looser and warmer. The film moves through Chiyoko's life and filmography in a single flowing motion, with Genya and his cameraman Kyoji literally pulled into her memories. They become part of her movies, her past, and eventually her final revelation. Madhouse produced the film on a reported budget of $1.2 million, with Susumu Hirasawa's electronic score weaving together traditional Japanese instruments and synthesizers.

The voice cast is anchored by three actresses playing Chiyoko at different ages: Fumiko Orikasa as the young girl, Mami Koyama as the adult star, and Miyoko Shoji as the elderly recluse. Shozo Iizuka voices Genya with a quiet intensity that matches the film's emotional core. Released in Japan in September 2002 after a festival premiere at Fantasia in 2001, it earned a modest theatrical run but has since become one of the most studied and beloved anime films of the 2000s. [edit]

Genya Tachibana and his cameraman Kyoji Ida drive through the mountains to visit Chiyoko Fujiwara, an actress who vanished from public life at the height of her fame. Genya brings a key he found decades ago among the ruins of Ginei Movie Studios. When he hands it to Chiyoko, she begins to tell her story.

Her life started during the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. Her father died in the disaster, and she grew up in her mother's confectionery shop. A talent scout spotted her as a schoolgirl and cast her in a wartime propaganda film. Her mother objected, but Chiyoko was already drawn to the world of cinema. Soon after, she met a painter who was hiding from the authorities. He was a political dissident, and she hid him in the family storehouse. Before he fled to Manchuria, he gave her a key. He called it the most important thing there is and promised to return for her. She ran to catch his train but arrived too late. She never learned his name.

As Chiyoko narrates, the boundaries between her memories and her films begin to melt. Genya and Kyoji find themselves physically inside her stories. They become characters in her movies, watching her chase the painter across centuries and genres. In one scene she is a samurai-era princess; in another, a Meiji-era revolutionary; then a wartime nurse; then an astronaut in a future space station. The painter appears only as a fleeting figure, always just out of reach. A man with a scar across his face pursues her through every film, a shadow she cannot shake.

Her career spans decades. She rises from starlet to national treasure. A rival actress named Eiko Shimao steals the key at one point, leading to a confrontation that reveals hidden layers in their relationship. A kind man named Junichi proposes marriage, offering a stable life away from the chase. Chiyoko considers it but cannot let go of her search. The key remains her anchor through every role, every year, every failed attempt to find the painter.

Genya reveals that he was present at a pivotal moment in her life. As a young assistant on the set of her final film, an earthquake struck and destroyed the studio set. Genya saved her life. That moment cemented his lifelong devotion. Now, as Chiyoko tells her story, the interview becomes a journey through Japan's 20th century, from pre-war militarism through postwar reconstruction to the present day. Her memories grow fragmented, nonlinear, blending her personal history with the nation's history. The key connects each phase, a thread through the labyrinth.[edit]