Rating: 
Summary: Satoshi Kon's Movin on Up!
Review: If Perfect Blue had better animaton, it would look like this. Millennium Actress is a beautifully crafted film. Told in a very original perspective, in the eyes of a former actress but followed by two film makers. My only beef with this DVD is, well the DVD. The features listed on the back of the cover mention a commentary by director/writer Satoshi Kon. There is no commentary on this disc like there was on the Region 2 release. There is however a nice documentary on the film in the extras along with the U.S. trailer. The main problem with the disc comes in on the language set up. Picking either a subtitle or a audio takes you right back to the top menu which is a pain because you have to go back again if you want something else. It's just not a good menu. But anyway, if you are prejudice against Japanese Animation, slap yourself and see this film. Anyone who has the least bit of interest in film will love this.
Rating: 
Summary: endearing love story
Review: true subtlety is difficult to achieve. it seems to me that most "subtle" films teeter one way or the other: too much information or too many abstract 'symbols'. this film, however, may have achieved perfect balance. using snippets of the actress' films to tell the story while the interviewers film the documentary (in the films themselves) was quite original. the recurring characters throughout all of the movies are interesting as well, such as the official who's following the painter. my husband and i both loved this film. the voices are so well acted and passionate (in japanese anyway) i'm not a bit surprised that it's won awards. i'd recommend this film to anyone who would enjoy an endearing love story on a grand scale.
Rating:
Summary: just watch the thing
Review: I hate reviews. There's something for everybody, and everybody likes something different. I won't put any details here. If you like something that makes you think, touches your heart, and is very artistic, watch this movie. If you insist on only watching movies that give you all the answers, have cookie-cutter endings, and have cut-and-dried plotlines driven by special effects and half-nude women, don't watch it. It's that simple. Personally, I thought it was beautiful. A good movie to me is one that makes me look for my own answers deep within. What does the key mean to you?
Rating:
Summary: Magnificent!
Review: * I am always a little amused at the way many anime fans pass out a
five-star rating to almost everything they watch. As far as I'm
concerned, an anime that is competently put together and entertaining
gets three stars, with four stars reserved for something that's
definitely superior. As far as five stars go, if I handed that out to
everything, what would I have left to give to something as magnificent
as Satoshi Kon's MILLENNIUM ACTRESS? MILLENNIUM ACTRESS starts in the present day, with Genya Tachibana, a
long-time movie studio worker nearing retirement, and his young
assistant going to interview Chiyoko Fujisawa, thirty years' earlier
one of Japan's greatest movie stars but since that time a quiet
recluse. They find a delicate, frail, and lovely old woman --
reminding me much of an aunt of mine who was beautiful to the day she
died. Genya, who turns out to be her biggest fan, worshipping the
ground she walks on, and his assistant then literally
take a "trip down memory lane" with her to review her life and career. However, that story is not merely presented as a cinematic fairy tale
but as a composite of cinematic fairy tales, something of a homage to
the history of Japanese cinema, which in turn acts as a filter for a
thousand years of Japenese history. If that sounds confusing, sorry,
I don't dare say any more because it would give away too much of the
highly imaginative script of this film. Not only is the scriptwork brilliantly imaginative and outstanding,
everything else is as well. The artwork is not merely technically
meticulous, it is also ingenious and stylish. In a "the making of"
documentary with this film, the director suggests stopping the DVD
every now and then just to take in the backgrounds and the details.
The soundtrack work by Susumu Hirasawa is also outstanding, something
of a mix of atmospheric movie score and new age with a Japanese
flavor, and it works absolutely perfectly. Another thing about most anime fans is that they seem to be suckers
for sentimentality. I tend to find it annoying and will get irritated
enough at TV melodramas with tiresomely overblown dialogue to turn
them off in disgust. However, I was unable to resist MILLENNIUM
ACTRESS from the instant it started. There was no way I could hold out
against combination of classic cinematic moments, originality, and
humor (mostly provided by Genya's assistant with his slacker
observations), illuminated with almost hallucinogenic color and light.
It is always interesting to find that the Japanese, stereotyped as
buttoned-down and reserved, have such a streak of wild passion, and
maybe a bit unsettling to find myself carried along on that emotional
roller-coaster ride. I could barely sleep after watching this movie
and going to bed. The number of anime films released each year that can really be
regarded as worth five stars can be counted on the fingers of one
hand, with fingers left over. This is one of those films. Somebody
who lacks imagination might have some troubles with the story line (is
it live or is it Memorex? -- the answer is YES) and find it
confusing. I also have to point out that the soundtrack is in
Japanese only, with a selection of subtitle languages, which is fine
by me but might annoy those who prefer dubbing. Beyond that I can
recommend MILLENNIUM ACTRESS with almost no reservations.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing Film!
Review: If this film had been done with live actors & live action you'd be seeing it awarded on Oscar night. It's that good. The editing is superb. Likewise the animation. As for the "confusing" flashbacks, my daughters (8 & 9) watched this and after explaining that the old actress is telling her life story by using the films she starred in as parts of her actual life, they had no problem following the story. I didn't find the story to be depressing although it is bittersweet. The characters are so strongly drawn that halfway through I found myself forgetting they weren't real people! Strong, gentle story, superb visuals, pacing & editing make up one of the best anime movies ever! In fact, forget anime, this belongs in the top 100 films period.
Rating:
Summary: Great subtle movie
Review: this was a very good movie - better than I'd anticipated, having no experience with the director and writer. It's a very cool tale of a retired reclusive actress and her films and her life and her experiences with a mysterious artist she meets as a teenager prior to the US involvement in WWii. As she tells her story to the interviewer (who turns out... well, don't want to give to much away) he and his camera man get involved in the action in scenes of her movies and scenes of her life, which become interspersed and blend into each other (life and movie, movie and live). It's very cool and very unique, especially with the cameraman's reaction to everything. I haveta say I liked this alot and while I rented it I'm adding this to my wish list so at some point I'll be picking up a copy, and I'd recommend the same to you.
Rating:
Summary: The greatest flashback movie I have ever seen
Review: Normally, when a movie relies heavily on the use of flashbacks, it's a recipe for a boring movie, and quite often a confusing one. Not so here. Upon my first viewing of Millennium Actress, it stuck me not simply as anime, or an anime film, but more like something that you would catch a tv channel showing high-art films late at night. All of the elements of film that takes itself seriously are there. In this film there are dramatic camera angles, amazing use of color, a striking film score, incredible dialog and perfect acting. In a normal film you would say that magic was captured by the camera. In this movie it was CRAFTED, because it is not live-action, but animation. Many reviews have talked about the brilliant exploration of the many film genres that this movie recreates (from samurai flicks to war films to sci-fi drama), and I have to say that the way this movei switches seemlessly from reality to flashback, and the way that fantasy and reality fuse together is nothing short of breath-taking. You could say that this movie manages to capture the true nature of memories. As time passes, memories change. And sometimes they run together and seem to happen at the same time. Was it a dream or was it real? That's the mystery, the reason why this movie is so fascinating. Some have remarked that there was some flaw or other with the animation or soundtrack. All I can say in response is that the animation in this film is a work of art. Maybe you don't like it, but to call it flawed would be a terrible insult. The same thing goes with the soundtrack. Cheesy 80's style music?! I would call it more an awesome experimental soundtrack that highlights moments of drama perfectly. Upon reflection there is no doubt in my mind. The Cat Returns was my favorite movie of the year, but this was definitely the best.
Rating:
Summary: perfect art, good story
Review: a well made anime film,from perfect blue's director satoshi kon,great visuals with great direction.
unfortunately,the story coudln't catch up with that.
the story is not bad,but you lose interest at the end.
about a retired actress and her number one , forty something documentary director, fan,who wants to make and interview with her for his film.he also has a gift for her,a key,when given to her,satoshi kon takes us through the actress's memories,her personal life and films,accompanied by the director and his camera man,funny at moments ,and romantic,but to me,the story is too much, for a teenage crush.
great job on the costumes,depicting the different eras of the actress's story,japan pre WWII,during the war,the fifties,the historical films,with great use of colors.
for satoshi kon's fans,and people who love a complex romantic story.
the film won the grand prize for animation,in japan agency of cultural affairs media arts festival 2001,along with spirited away.
p.s. an funny note.the actress's left cheek mole ,is on her right cheek,on the dvd disc.
Rating: 
Summary: I Really looked forward to getting this film
Review: When I got it home I expected great things. Yes the romance was touching in some ways but as another reader said, it was hard to follow. I think it was more than just the subtitles. You may have to be Japanesse to really understand this one.
Rating:
Summary: Not just for anime fans.
Review: Last night a friend of mine gave me the movie Millennium Actress, which we watched. It's an anime movie from last year by Kon Satoshi, the writer/director of Perfect Blue, which is famous apparently, but which I've never seen. In contrast, Millennium Actress is not that famous in Japan, nor did it make even a whisper when it was released in a whopping six theatres across the United States. I guess unless it's a Miyazaki film released under the Disney name, anime still isn't going to get any notice in America, unsurprisingly. Anyhow, I'm not a big anime fan, so I had never heard of this movie, and wasn't all that excited about it from the title. Fortunately I was pleasantly surprised. If you don't know, the story is about a documentary being made about an actress who, as a child in War-era Japan, ran into an anti-government man in the street. He gives her a key to "the most important thing in the world" and she promises to meet him the next day to tell him what she thinks it's to, but by then he's disappeared. However, she insists on keeping her promise. Therefore, when the opportunity to go to Manchuria, where the man said he was going, arises in the form of an acting job, she takes it. Anyhow, the story is okay, but not great, up to this point. It starts getting interesting when the movie shifts from talking directly about her life to shifting into scenes from her movies. The time period and costumes and everything changes suddenly and so forth. It gets progressively more common as the movie continues, the documentary crew becoming a part of it, jumping from Heian era Japan to the Ronin-filled warring states period to World War II. It's got a lot of references to famous Japanese period films in it (If you miss the reference to Kurosawa, you're just out of it!), which is one of the things that I really liked about it, since I'm a Japanese film buff of sorts. The music was neat, also, and meshed with the film quite well, the film becoming very stylish at moments when the music gets good so as to avoid drowning it out with story. The story itself does not change that much, but instead of focusing on that, you get caught up in the various scenes jumping around throughout Japanese history, and the search for the man who gave her the key is a good excuse for it. The story, overall, is very melodramatic (typical of Japanese drama), but not trite, so I think it was good. However, like many overly stylish films, the story isn't as important as the look, sound and feel of the film, so having an excessively detailed or complex story wouldn't have worked as well anyways. I enjoyed the movie a great deal, which is surprising because it was so overly dramatic at times and was in a medium I already take with a grain of salt (anime). However, these features that I would usually dislike were made into very positive parts of it thanks to the style of the film, and increased my enjoyment of it. I recommend it to anyone, not just anime fans.
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