Rating: 
Summary: Satoshi Kon Outdones Himself
Review: Words can't do justice to this masterpiece. It just reminds me of why I love anime in the first place. From its first scene, you know you are watching a Satoshi Kon film. His attention to details, the striking reality of the sets that reminds you of Mima's room, the deep and live characters that are rare in anime, along with his way of making you guess which is fantasy and which is real in every scene are all here. That doesn't mean that this movie is just another Perfect blue. On the contrary, it's really amazing that the production team wanted to make something like Perfect Blue but the result turned out to be totally different except for the multi-interpretation of story or stereogram as the producer calls it. Not only that, Satoshi Kon adds new visual style to his direction in which he uses rendered colors and moving backgrounds to describe the past.
what about the story?!. It's wonderful. It's emotional. It's DEEP. And I mean really DEEP. The director wanted to make a stereogram and he really succeeded in that. Every one will find a different meaning from the story. I won't talk much about the story so that I don't spoil it for any body. This is an absolute gem for anime fans and casual moviegoers alike. And for those who are familiar with Japanese history and particularly Japanese films like Kurosawa's, you will appreciate it even more.
Rating:
Summary: It was pretty awesome movie I ever seen
Review: I just watched it. It is at once funny, sad, and very melodramatic and heartbreaking at same. It is also a very complex story which may require several viewings to understand what was going on. The main character, the then actress Chiyoko Fujiwara related how she, as a young teenager, was given a key by a mysterious painter. For the most of her life she journeyed through Japan's history using various period films she had acted in (such as being a schoolgirl, peasant, Geisha, and so on) to illustrate her desperate search for the painter in order to return the key back to him. Line between reality and fantasy became blurred and there are lots of twists down the path. It was just amazing. I love the style, wonderful animation and how the story unfolds, but like I said, it IS rather complex...already I've watched it twice just to figure out the true meaning of the key and Chiyoko's remark at the very end of the film. highly recommand it to any serious anime fans, as well and everyone else who might enjoy it.
Rating:
Summary: A classic for sure
Review: What helps set "Millennium Actress" apart from other anime series and movies is the depth of story and visual presentation. Drawing from techniques easily created in live-actor movies (different angles, hand-held camera effects, etc.) it adds a welcomed variety to the viewer. I thought it was amazing that such things could be executed in an animated version!The story has amazing depth and really dives into the life of the actress. It reveals how the central theme of her successful movie series sadly echoed her fruitless quest for "him" in her "real life." If you collect, I highly recommend this. Otherwise, count this as a must-rent.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant and complex
Review: Satoshi Kon's Millenium Actress demands attention from its viewers - time and space are plucked apart and rewoven over and over to capture the spirit of Chiyoko Fujiwara, once a famous actress but now retired, living in isolation for the past thirty years. At last she grants an interview to a documentary filmmaker, Genya Tachibana, who has been devoted to her since his youth as a gofer in her studio. He returns to her a precious token: a key, given to her in her youth by a mysterious, hunted stranger she has devoted her heart and life to ever since, even though she can't find him. The key opens her memories, and she, Tachibana, his cameraman, and us start on a journey that weaves between historical eras, places, and the border between reality and the fantasy world of her film career. Tachibana even finds himself becoming a character in the movie of her memory. Kon uses muted color and even black-and-white throughout as story elements. I found myself as devoted to her as Tachibana was. A great movie.
Rating: 
Summary: Extremely refreshing
Review: This movie is a fantastic adventure that is not the in the norm of other anime. Millennium actress is just an interesting story shown an interesting way. I would not be surprised if an American director steals this movie and make it a live action film.
Rating:
Summary: Most excelent!
Review: I bought this movie on a whim and will never regret it. It has an amazing, deep, wonderful storyline. The quality of the art is not amazing but it is very good. But I easily let that slide for the storyline. Also the soundtrack is great, the music fits perfectly. I have watched this film a fews times now since I got it and I still tear up during the ending. It is just an amazing movie.
Rating: 
Summary: exhilirating
Review: Just beautiful. It's about a fictional actress named Chiyoko who has gone into seclusion for 30 years and a journalist who seeks her out for an interview to make a documnetary about her life. As the 70-year old Chiyoko relates the story of her career, she ties it to the films she's made. When she was a young girl in Japan just before the war, she ran into a man, a human rights activist/painter, whom she helped hide for a while. He had a mysterious key with him, which he said would open "the most important thing that there is." The film relates her search for this man, who then disappears from her life, and how it impacted her movie-making career.
Stories within stories, a mix of fantasy and reality...there's a bit of ambiguity between what is real, what is the movie, and what is her story. It's an inventive way to tell a pretty simple story about one girl's relentless pursuit of a man she fell in love with at first sight.
At times I felt exhilirated, like I was coasting down the highway listening to music... on my way to meet someone.
Rating:
Summary: A different way to tell a story
Review: This is something I haven't seen in a long time: a basically different kind of narrative. Chiyoko was an actress, many years ago. Now, after she's been in retirement for decades, a former co-worker (Genya) interviews her about her life, her career, and the one mysterious strand that connects all the pieces together. The story is told in scenes from her earlier life, mostly in fragments of the movies Chiyoko has made. Occasional cuts back to the present interview keep the story anchored, but the cinematic flashbacks really carry the narrative. The unique aspect was that Genya and his camera-man find themselves transported into each flashback. When a scene from a remembered movie shows fire, they feel the heat. When another scene shows an attack by archers, the camera-man's sleeve is pinned to the wall. At first, the two are ghostlike observers, unable to interact with the scene. Gradually, however, Genya is pulled into the action; he now takes part in the movie-memory. Saying more would be saying too much. There are many surprises in this movie, and I want you to enjoy them the way I did. This anime meets very high technical standards, but competent animation is easy to find. The story and the style of the story-telling really carry this movie. There are layers to unravel, making this much more complex and nuanced than most animation. This almost never happens to me: as soon as the movie ended, I wanted to see it again. My partner and I rented this movie. Just a few minutes in, we realized we should have bought it.
Rating:
Summary: A classic for sure
Review: What helps set "Millennium Actress" apart from other anime series and movies is the depth of story and visual presentation. Drawing from techniques easily created in live-actor movies (different angles, hand-held camera effects, etc.) it adds a welcomed variety to the viewer. I thought it was amazing that such things could be executed in an animated version! The story has amazing depth and really dives into the life of the actress. It reveals how the central theme of her successful movie series sadly echoed her fruitless quest for "him" in her "real life." If you collect, I highly recommend this. Otherwise, count this as a must-rent.
Rating:
Summary: Visually absorbing
Review: The central plot device of the actress endlessly pursuing her lost love is simplistic. It would be useful to have some sort of primer or key to the many historical and filmic references in this movie. Never mind, the animation and color and character design are magnificent.
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