Sennen joyû (2001)

A TV interviewer and his cameraman meet a former actress and travel through her memories and career.

Director:

Satoshi Kon

Writers:

Satoshi Kon (original story), Sadayuki Murai (screenplay)

Stars:

Miyoko Shôji, Shôzô Îzuka, Mami Koyama

6 wins & 8 nominations.

Cast

Credited 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)
Takkô Ishimori	...	Head Clerk (voice)
Masamichi Satô	...	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)

Storyline

A movie studio is being torn down. TV interviewer Genya Tachibana has tracked down its most famous star, Chiyoko Fujiwara, who has been a recluse since she left acting some 30 years ago. Tachibana delivers a key to her, and it causes her to reflect on her career; as she's telling the story, Tachibana and his long-suffering cameraman are drawn in. The key was given to her as a teenager by a painter and revolutionary that she helped to escape the police. She becomes an actress because it will make it possible to track him down, and she spends the next several decades acting out that search in various genres and eras.

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Plot Keywords:

key | in medias res | movie star | lost love | faith | 

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Genres:

Animation | Drama | Fantasy | Romance

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Certificate:

PG

Did You Know?

Trivia

Cranes appear frequently throughout the film, typically with Chiyoko in the same frame. In Japanese culture, cranes represent longevity and fidelity, and are said to live for a thousand years.

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Goofs

If the space mission spoken of in the film is the Apollo 11 mission, then the launch date should have been July 16, not July 20.

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Quotes

Kyoji Ida: Leaving work behind? That's inappropriate!
Genya Tachibana: You don't understand women
Kyoji Ida: You do?
Kyoji Ida: [Chiyoko reads the newspaper from a man besides her. There's a headline about a clash in Manchuria] But he's a lucky guy, if she follows him to a place so far.
Genya Tachibana: I would like to be him!

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Connections

Referenced in Anime Abandon: Perfect Blue (2012)

User Reviews

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.

Details

Official Sites:

Official Site [United States]

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese English

Release Date:

14 September 2002 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Millennium Actress

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$18,732, 14 September 2003

Gross USA:

$262,891

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$262,891

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bandai Visual Company, Chiyoko Commitee, Genco

Technical Specs

Runtime:

87 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1