Millennium Actress (2001)

In this unique epic adventure, the lines between the past and the present, and truth and fiction, are blurred when a documentary filmmaker fulfills his quest to find the legendary actress Chiyoko Fujiwara, and learn why she mysteriously vanished at the height of her brilliant career. (Go Fish Pictures)
Cast and Information
Directed By: Satoshi Kon
Written By: Sadayuki Murai, Satoshi Kon
Starring: Kôichi Yamadera, Fumiko Orikasa, Shôzô Îzuka, Mami Koyama, Masaya Onosaka, Masane Tsukayama, Shouko Tsuda, Miyoko Shôji
Genres: Romance, Drama, Animation
AKAs: Chiyoko Millennial Actress (Show all 3)
- Sennen joyû
- Sennen Joyuu
Country: Japan, South Korea
Where to Stream
Loading...


Millennium Actress belongs to 44 collections
1. Features under 91 minutes (collaborative: moderated by epiphany - 56 stars)
2. Certified weird (collaborative: moderated by Dreamer - 47 stars)
3. Movies about movies (collaborative: moderated by Pickpocket - 31 stars)
4. Onion AV Club: The New Cult Canon (collaborative: moderated by theficionado - 28 stars)
5. Doubling The Canon (collaborative - 13 stars)
6. Anime (collaborative: moderated by Nanera - 10 stars)
7. Best of criticker: Animation (collaborative: moderated by avgcrtckr - 10 stars)
8. Movies about memory (collaborative: moderated by Magb - 7 stars)
9. Hyperlink Cinema / Interconnected Stories (collaborative: moderated by iconogassed - 6 stars)
10. Best of criticker: Romance (collaborative: moderated by avgcrtckr - 6 stars)
11. Lucid Dreams (collaborative: moderated by Grit - 5 stars)
12. Cinemag's 100 Greatest Movies of the '00s (collaborative: moderated by hristos - 5 stars)
13. Doubling The Canon (2010 update) (collaborative: moderated by MMAlpha - 5 stars)
14. Dream/Fantasy/Hallucination Sequence (collaborative: moderated by iconogassed - 4 stars)
15. Slant Magazine's Best of the Aughts (collaborative: moderated by theficionado - 4 stars)
16. Great Japanese Films (collaborative: moderated by PerryStroika - 4 stars)
17. Meta (collaborative: moderated by Dorkovsky - 3 stars)
18. The Best of Anime (collaborative: moderated by mattornot - 3 stars)
19. Japanese director (collaborative: moderated by iconogassed - 3 stars)
20. Madhouse Anime (collaborative: moderated by Vesey - 2 stars)
21. Prestige Picture / Oscar Bait (collaborative: moderated by Ag0stoMesmer - 2 stars)
22. onderhond.com top 200 movies (collaborative: moderated by Bullt - 2 stars)
23. Doubling the Canon (2011 update) (collaborative: moderated by MMAlpha - 1 star)
24. Tom & Bitches' Infinite Watchlist (collaborative - 1 star)
25. Doubling the Canon (2012 update) (collaborative: moderated by Cinephile - 1 star)
26. A2P CINEMA'S 100 FILMS OF THE AUGHTS (collaborative: moderated by sonique)
27. Favorite anime (collaborative: moderated by PerryStroika)
28. Best of criticker: 2001 (collaborative: moderated by avgcrtckr)
29. 4: Rewatches (public: KasperL)
30. Foreign - Japanese (public: NhanLa)
31. Filmspotting Ratings Project: Week 8 (public: PeaceAnarchy)
32. Satoshi Kon (public: gcat)
33. Films I watched in 2010 (public: jal90)
34. Movie Collection (public: BeeDub)
35. Unseen (public: Walser14)
36. Esplanade to see (public: Malcym)
37. Forrest Watch List (public: ForrestQ)
38. Watchlist - Anime (public: MikiRurk_STG)
39. Mr. Hallenbeck's Blu-Ray Wishlist (public: MrHallenbeck)
40. seen (public: gamzeknc)
41. 2019 (public: gamzeknc)
42. See In Theaters (public: Russ Bedford)
43. Animated movies males enjoy more than females (public: misaeld7)
44. Animated (public: davidysteph)
Browse the full list of collections
Stars | User | Rating | |
4 | ![]() |
Leonardis | 96 91st |
Some pretty incredible filmmaking. I think it’s without a doubt Kon’s most emotionally resonating film, the perfect movie of his for me to end on. It’s beautifully animated and told. I loved this journey through aging, loneliness, regret and longing. I was transfixed from minute one. Perfect Blue is still my favorite from him, but this is really, really close. I couldn’t get enough of it.
|
|||
3 | ![]() |
MartinTeller | 53 9th |
A great concept, but the execution leaves much to be desired. The comic relief guys are really annoying, with all those exaggerated reactions so typical to anime. The animation is stiff and the acting is poor. And to be blunt, most of it is kinda boring. The whole time I was thinking how much better it would be in live action.
|
|||
3 | ![]() |
Ayavaron | 40 26th |
I really did want to like this movie but it's just too confusing. I had no clue whatwas going on about half the time and when I determined a hypothesis to explain what was going on, I was disapointed wtih what the movie was about, but I don't even know if it was about that. Definitely stay away if you don't like confusing movies.
|
|||
3 | ![]() |
e_e | 80 87th |
A poignant and thrilling ode to the magic of cinema. I enjoyed every second of it.
|
|||
3 | ![]() |
eveley | 90 98th |
With excellent animation, brilliant compositing and imaginative method of merging truth and fiction was the perfect spice to complement the restrained, longing story. When Satoshi Kon is in form, he's unbeatable.
|
|||
2 | ![]() |
Shadrik | 74 63rd |
Satoshi Kon's style of mixing reality and fiction doesn't work that well here as it won't add anything to the movie rather than an stylistic element (compared to the enormous tension he creates in Perfect Blue i.e.). That and the not so great main character (and the totally unnecessary comic relief camera man) degrade the movie a bit. But Satoshi Kon's movies are still a great experience and this one is no exception.
|
|||
2 | ![]() |
buffratings | 91 85th |
Millennium Actress is a visually stunning whirlwind of memory and make-believe mixed into a singular narrative, while elements of the avant-garde and Satoshi Kon's unique execution work in tandem to shape the film's resonating themes.
|
|||
1 | ![]() |
SlrSoapbox | 70 41st |
It's beautifully animated and quite original, but the extremely non-linear narrative and convoluted blending of the actress' life with her roles just left me confused. I get what they were going for, but I spent so much time trying to wrap my head around the plot and figure out what was going on, I couldn't enjoy the film as much.
|
|||
1 | ![]() |
gokhanince | 83 75th |
After all, isnt it the chasing after our own 'black lotus' we really love?
|
|||
1 | ![]() |
Cowman | 65 40th |
Merging reality, fiction, history and film fantasy is a promising concept and Satoshi Kon is more than capable of turning it into an exuberant spectacle of Japanese animation. The central plot however was kind of simple and not interesting enough to keep me on the edge of my seat all the way through.
|
|||
1 | ![]() |
Spunkie | 80 94th |
If only Kon has the courage to get rid of expressionistic usage of the side kick characters, Millenium Actress would be nothing less than perfect.
|
|||
1 | ![]() |
Haruko | 65 28th |
First I thought I didn't get it, then I realized there's really not much to get. The characters just wern't interresting and so the whole movie was just a big bore. The animation was beautiful, but not strong enough to hold my interrest trough out the whole movie.
|
|||
1 | chromafresh | 50 2nd |
|
Sorry this story and execution did nothing for me. The animation is rather nice, but thats about it...
|
|||
1 | chengming | 65 47th |
|
Well made, but while the blending of reality and recollection is interesting, it does get old pretty fast and all we're left with then is a fairly generic story.
|
|||
1 | ![]() |
begoniabol | 62 50th |
Quite dissappointing, I thought the story was pretty corny. The animation isn't bad though, but a good anime to me is more than that
|
|||
1 | synthono | 100 99th |
|
A powerful and astonishing film about acting, longing and desire, with some of the best editing in the history of cinema. It is film, pure, distilled and perfect. Easily one of the greatest movies ever to be made.
|
|||
1 | ![]() |
Bown | 85 76th |
An epic romance, a love letter to Asian cinema, and a reality-bending mindfuck. Satoshi Kon is the best so there.
|
|||
1 | ![]() |
magdabag | 96 97th |
The final film of Satoshi's for me to watch, and boy was it one to end on. I loved It! I'm not sure I've really seen this type of storytelling before, and thought Kon did a phenomenal job with it. It was so easy to get invested in Chiyoko and her past roles and I honestly couldn't get enough. More people need to be watching Kon's work because you don't really see these types of movies being made anymore. One of my favorite filmmakers for sure. I give 9 missing key necklaces out of 10.
|
|||
1 | ![]() |
VengefulKBM | 80 75th |
A moving, well-crafted, non-linear narrative portrait of the life of an actress. It's rare to find a movie that's this holistic, and I really enjoy it for that. Color me extremely unsurprised that this was written and directed by the same genius that put together Perfect Blue.
|
|||
1 | ![]() |
ajmurad | 60 41st |
I definitely enjoyed this from start to finish, but there's something missing that I can't put my finger on that prevents this from being great.
|
|||
1 | ![]() |
shinySinger | 92 87th |
the battle of the simps
|
Average Percentile 69.14% from 1227 Ratings | ![]() |