Millennium Actress

  • Review Date: March 20, 2010
  • PG
  • Genre: Fantasy
  • 2002
 Review

Common Sense Media says

Arty Japanese animated drama is too complex for little ones.
greenON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age.
yellowPAUSE: Know your child; some content
may not be right for some kids.
redOFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age.
not for kidsNOT FOR KIDS: Not appropriate for kids any age.

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Quality
 
Sometimes media can be age appropriate but a real waste of time. Our star rating assesses the media's overall quality.

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Parents say

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Kids say

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What parents need to know

Parents need to know that this Japanese animation is no simplistic Speed Racer adventure but an intricate, surreal plotline that blends the make-believe of filmmaking with the "real" life of an actress. Kids may be confused by the multiple levels, shifting time-periods, and the ambiguous, bittersweet ending (which is a tenderly metaphorical death from old age). There is studio-set violence -- war, ninja fighting -- that overlaps with the real deal, but never graphically. The heroine considers killing herself with a knife (in a role). Talk of another character dying under government torture. Be prepared for Japanese language with subtitles, rather than English-dubbed editions.

  • Though an overarching theme is the artifice (or reality) of moviemaking and the crossover of Chiyoko's ever-heartsick characters with her real life, the film's actual message is about the power of love -- or, in Chiyoko's case, love withheld, a hopeless girlhood crush that consumes a lifetime (maybe longer).
  • In a switch from actress-diva characterizations, unspoiled Chiyoko claims no interest in movie stardom -- she just takes roles to pursue her mystery man. Though the plot romanticizes it, there's the hint she's allowed obsessive love to ruin her chance for a normal life. Another female character fits the jealous-aging-starlet stereotype. Genya is a stalwart, semi-comical defender and helper of Chiyoko in both reality and fantasy. Either way, he never wins the love game either. Sigh.
  • Battlefield rifle fire (including giant monster-attack mayhem) and flaming arrows. Swordfights with dead bodies. Some bloodshed, mostly impressionistic. A dead body (mostly covered) of a feudal hari-kari suicide is shown. Earthquakes cause damage.
  • Nothing objectionable, despite a love-centric plot.

What's the story?

As a Japanese movie studio demolishes its old soundstages, blustery exec Genya and irreverent young videographer Ida start a documentary on one of their stars, actress Chiyoko Fujiwara, who retired at the height of her career. They find the reclusive Chiyoko -- 70, the same age as the studio -- gracious and hospitable. Her memories of growing up against the rising Japanese fascism of the 1930s are so vivid that Genya (who, comically, has a lifelong infatuation with Chiyoko) and Ida find themselves back in flashbacks with her, dutifully videotaping the girl's childhood brief encounter with a handsome, nameless artist running from Japanese authorities. This fugitive gives Chiyoko a gold key to "the most important thing there is" and disappears. Discovered by a talent agent, Chiyoko turns film actress to track her mystery man to Manchuria, where a propaganda drama is to shoot. During this, the two-man documentary crew reappears as observers/characters in Chiyoko's films -- historical pageants of thwarted love and romantic yearning, set amidst samurai, ninjas, and 20th-century soldiers. Truth and fiction blend in Chiyoko's life, career, and unending search for her nameless first love.


Is it any good?

 

It would be hard to imagine how to successfully realize the movie's dazzling premise outside of animation. There are three timelines, one spanning a thousand years (and extending into the space-travel future), the other Japan's last hundred years or so, and finally the arc of Chiyoko's own 20th-century life -- or reincarnations of several lives. Or re-enactments for the film-studio cameras. Or all of the above. Yes, it helps to have a knowledge of Japanese history, culture, and cinema (even a Godzilla lookalike cameos), but even without noticing the recurring lotus-flower or crane visuals, MILLENNIUM ACTRESS works beautifully as arty drama and a bittersweet, if rather rosy, picture of obsessive first love.


Explore, discuss, enjoy

  • Families can talk about the meaning of the film and its complicated structure. Ask kids if they had trouble following the multi-faceted storyline. What do they think is "the most important thing there is?"

  • What are the "hot" Japanese titles in animation and comic books at the moment, and why?

  • Chiyoko suffers throughout the movie from an adolescent crush. Ask kids how deep they've gotten with hopeless love, and whether they think what Chiyoko puts herself through in this movie is even healthy.


This review of Millennium Actress was written by
Teen, 14 years old
October 2, 2012
 
Anime Best for Older Kids
This is truly one of the greatest anime films of all time. The plot centers around Chiyoko, a 70-odd year old actress, when the film studio that see worked with closes down, two documentary filmakers decide to interview her, we are then shown her past, as well as her films. There is nothing inappropriate about this film, however young children may be confused by this film and should wait until they are a bit older.
What other families should know:

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This review of Millennium Actress was written by
Topics:history
Studio:DreamWorks
Director:Satoshi Kon
Cast:Miyoko Shoji, Regina Reagan
Genre:Fantasy
Run time:87 minutes
Theatrical release date:September 14, 2002
DVD release date:October 28, 2003
MPAA rating:PG
MPAA explanation:thematic elements, violence and brief mild language

This review of Millennium Actress was written by
 

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