Sennen joyû (2001)

Director:

Satoshi Kon

Writers:

Satoshi Kon (writer)
Sadayuki Murai (writer)

Release Date:

14 September 2002 (Japan)

Genre:

Animation | Drama | Romance

Plot:

A movie studio is being torn down. TV interviewer Genya Tachibana has tracked down its most famous star...

Plot Keywords:

Key | Actress | Cameraman | Meiji Period | Director Actor Relationship

Awards:

4 wins & 8 nominations

Cast

Miyoko Shôji	...	Chiyoko Fujiwara (70's) (voice)
Mami Koyama	...	Chiyoko Fujiwara (20-40's) (voice)
Fumiko Orikasa	...	Chiyoko Fujiwara (10-20's) (voice)
Shôzô Îzuka	...	Genya Tachibana (voice)
Shouko Tsuda	...	Eiko Shimao (voice)
Hirotaka Suzuoki	...	Junichi Ootaki (voice)
Hisako Kyôda	...	Mother (voice)
Kan Tokumaru	...	Senior Manager of Ginei (voice)
Tomie Kataoka	...	Mino (voice)
Masamichi Sato	...	Young Genya (voice)
Masaya Onosaka	...	Kyoji Ida (voice)
Masane Tsukayama	...	The Man with the Scar (voice)
Kôichi Yamadera	...	The Man of the Key (voice)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Stephen Bent	...	Junichi Otaki (voice: English version)
Matt Devereaux	...	The Man with the Scar (voice: English version)
Felicity Duncan Smith	...	Mother (voice: English version) (as Felicity Duncan)
Takkô Ishimori	...	Head Clerk (voice)
Jo Lee	...	Eiko Shimao (voice: English version)
Stuart Milligan	...	Kyoji Ida (voice: English version)
Regina Reagan	...	Chiyoko (Manga Entertainment 2005) (voice: English version)
Samantha Shaw	...	Mino (voice: English version)
John Vernon	...	Genya Tachibana / Senior Manager of Ginei (voice: English version)

Also Known As:

Millennium Actress (International: English title) (USA)

MPAA:

Rated PG for thematic elements, violence and brief mild language.

Runtime:

87 min

Country:

Japan | South Korea

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Australia:PG | UK:PG | Germany:12 | Portugal:M/6 | Finland:K-7 | South Korea:All | USA:PG | Canada:G | Singapore:PG

Company:

Bandai Visual Company

Trivia:

Commercially, the film performed modestly on its US release, earning $37,285 during its 3 week release. The film was shown almost exclusively in New York and Los Angeles, and received a minimal advertising campaign from Go Fish Pictures.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: The cameraman is always filming the action, but the red LED that indicates that the camera is recording is never turned on.

Quotes:

Junichi Ootaki: [Talking to the Young Genya] Hey kid, Remember, in this business we're always flattering to the public and actresses,I will teach you that one of these days...

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Tokyo Godfathers (2003)

Outland Empire

A key reward for writing IMDb comments is that readers send you recommendations. This is one that I had a hard time tracking down. I'm glad I did.

This seems to be viewed only by fans of anime, and that's a shame. I'm not knowledgeable enough in anime to note how it fits. It seems to be in the more "realistic" spectrum, with fewer edges and less posturing.

Japanese writing has gravity. In traditional mode, the eye falls down as it gathers a phrase. The characters are derived from ink on paper instead of the western fonts shaped by chisel on stone. And where the characters I use in English have no inherent semiotic association, Kanji is inherently pictographic. A Japanese reader will literally harvest phases by falling through images, images in a static situation with dynamic sweeps therein.

So when I come to anime, I look for this. Being nonJapanese, I can see it and appreciate it more than a native can I believe.

That's why I'm excited about this, because the visual phrases are imposed on some folds I know.

First about the folds. The way this is structured is as a double documentary of an aged film star, "Sunset Blvd"-wise. Its double because we have a camera and we are seeing the two documentarians: one the interviewer and the other with a camera. (We never get a view through that camera, I think.)

The interview blends with the actress's flashbacks. Now this is very clever, how this is done.

It isn't memory: the documentarians are physically there when a "past" episode occurs. The cameraman constantly asks "what next?" and the interviewer takes on the role of certain characters in the films. These really are films, we see, when sometimes the "camera" rolls back and we see the crew. This is a third camera.

But more: all of the films over many decades conflate and merge, interweaving back and forth through history, forming a single quest for a love. That love is for a painter, who clearly is the animator of this cartoon, "Duck Amuck"-wise. These films not only merge with each other, and the quest, and the "interview," but with her life proper.

As with "8 1/2 Women," earthquakes figure in the shifts and overlays of stories. The thing that binds it all is a "key" which we learn early is to a paintbox, the source of all the paintings we see. Its wonderful organic oneiric origama. oneiroticama.

And that's just the story. Watch how the phrases are constructed though. We fall through them, soft layer after cloudy image.

Its like relaxing into love with perfect trust. You really should see this.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.