Opinion: Millenium Actress

Well it's been like what feels like a whole week since I promised a review of this film. On the other hand I'm glad I took the time to watch it while wide awake because the whole thing goes by with a "blink and you'll miss it" style.

The tale is written by Satoshi Kon - director of the hit Perfect Blue. I had a certain resistance to watching this movie because his previous work was just so damn creepy - parts of which (to me anyway) didn't seem to make any sense. Either that, or Perfect Blue was just too trippy for my sensibilities. Millenium Actress however is fairly straight-forward in plot, yet maintains Mr. Satoshi's unique visual style blending the audience's third-party view with the cast's collective mind's eye.

The story's about a starstruck documentary-film-maker and his young camera-man who's tracked down a legendary actress for an interview. His secret motivation however was to return a single copper key he's held onto for most of his life... And it's this very key that was the center of the actress's personal obsession for many years long ago. She came by this key as a young girl living in the early 20th century - given to her by a political fugitive who promised that one day, when they would meet again, he's show her his paintings... So the young girl, through what seems to be happenstance discovers that she could travel abroad by becoming in actress.

The film follows her story while leaping in and out of the film-maker's imagination as he interjects himself (and his partner) into her memories. The movie's reality-bending perspective goes really weird when the actress reveals that most of the films she performed in were in actuality reflections of her own real-life chase for her mystery love. At this point, the film starts to blend together present-day reality (the interview at her private residence), the tale of her personal life (a rivalry with a senior actress, a relationship with her director, etc), and all the period-films she played in (everything from feudal Japan to science-fiction) and all the while, the same "cast" of people appear in different versions of themselves.

Nevermind the amazingly editted jumps from one reality to the next, but the movie was very thought-provoking too. Sometimes you just need to decide what you need to hold onto. And what needs to be let go...

I definitely have to give this film a thumbs-up.
[psst: I should mention by the way, this film is only available sub-titled in English and French as Dreamworks never dubbed it from its original Japanese form]