Millennium Actress

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Millennium Actress

PG,

2003,

1h 27m,

Drama/

Fantasy/

Anime

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93%

58 Reviews

Tomatometer

90%

10,000+ Ratings

Popcornmeter

93%

Tomatometer

58 Reviews

90%

Popcornmeter

10,000+ Ratings

In this animated movie, filmmaker Genya Tachibana begins work on a documentary about famed Japanese actress Chiyoko Fujiwara. Now well into old age, Chiyoko has become reclusive and shy about any publicity, but she eventually warms up to Tachibana and starts to relate her life story. As the decades pass, Chiyoko is transformed from a teen with big dreams into a full-blown celebrity, while her cinematic characters span various eras, from ancient Japan to the distant future.

Critics Consensus

The story of an aging movie actress' complicated personal saga unfolds in this sophisticated anime film that deftly blurs memory and make-believe into a meditation on the nature of cinema itself.

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Nick Schager

Lessons of Darkness

May 4, 2005

A

The finest anime film I've ever seen.

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Marc Savlov

Austin Chronicle

Oct 27, 2003

3/5

Millennium Actress has more layers to it than the proverbial onion, but Kon's sure hand keeps things moving right along.

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Jeff Shannon

Seattle Times

Oct 17, 2003

3/4

Given its complex array of fact, fiction, location, character and atmosphere, Millennium Actress is almost unimaginable in any other medium.

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Sean Axmaker

Stream on Demand

Jul 29, 2026

It’s a beautiful expression of the interaction between stories and audiences, as well as being simply lovely in its own right.

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Diana Tuova

Spotlight on Film

Aug 21, 2024

4.5/5

This beautiful animation...relies on an interesting mix of reality and fantasy...and the result is an intelligent, complex and multi-layered anime that pays equal attention to romance, the philosophy of destiny, and Japanese cinematic history.

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Douglas Davidson

Elements of Madness

Mar 21, 2022

... truth and fiction, time and memory, love and loss, all intermingle until the only way to get to the end of the story is not through the linear path but by jumping forward and backward and forward again as memory becomes the road we travel.

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Finn R

Mar 8, 2019

I'm currently writing a letter to the Criterion to add this film to their catalog. That's how much I love this film. That and it's very hard to find.

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Luke R

Oct 16, 2018

Amazing movie. A modern day buddhist parable. Satoshi Kon's surrealism blends the cerebral with emotional impact.

Theodore S

Jan 17, 2018

There are many stories that have blended reality and fantasy together. This is one of the first to try, and succeed in it.

Abraham M

Aug 19, 2017

Beautifully animated with lovely cinematography, 'Millennium Actress' is the touching and romantic story of a woman's life and the great love contained within it. Despite being somewhat slow at times, and quite possibly a bit confusing due to the way the switch between her memories as an actress and reality is handled, it is almost impossible not to be sympathetic towards the protagonist and to become invested in her happiness.

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Hagrid S

Jun 27, 2017

9 9 9 7 8 8 9 8 8 8 = 83

Han W

Apr 8, 2017

Perhaps the greatest anime film ever made, not technically per se, but conceptually unparalleled and unrivaled. No other anime took the notion of film to its logical extreme or rather speculative extreme as Satoshi Kon did in that masterpiece. Cinema becomes the extension of wish-fulfillment, or rather dreams unfulfilled that are reenacted again and again endlessly, in many stories and in many avatars, and each time that ceaseless search for love/imagined experience fuels more journeys and more wondering, until the boundaries between the two completely dissolve.

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Satoshi Kon

Director

Miyoko Shôji

Chiyoko Fujiwara (70's)

Mami Koyama

Chiyoko Fujiwara (20-40's)

Fumiko Orikasa

Chiyoko Fujiwara (10-20's)

Shôzô Iizuka

Genya Tachibana

Masaya Onosaka

Kyoji Ida

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Synopsis

In this animated movie, filmmaker Genya Tachibana begins work on a documentary about famed Japanese actress Chiyoko Fujiwara. Now well into old age, Chiyoko has become reclusive and shy about any publicity, but she eventually warms up to Tachibana and starts to relate her life story. As the decades pass, Chiyoko is transformed from a teen with big dreams into a full-blown celebrity, while her cinematic characters span various eras, from ancient Japan to the distant future.

Director: Satoshi Kon
Producer: Taro Maki
Screenwriter: Satoshi Kon, Sadayuki Murai
Distributor: DreamWorks SKG
Production Co: Mad House Company Ltd.
Rating: PG (Violence|Thematic Elements|Brief Mild Language)
Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Anime
Original Language: Japanese
Release Date (Theaters): Sep 12, 2003, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Jul 18, 2019
Box Office (Gross USA): $37.3K
Runtime: 1h 27m
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital
Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.85:1)

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