Name(s): Millennium Actress / Sennen Joyuu / Chiyoko Millennial Actress / 千年女優
Format: Movie
Studio(s): Madhouse

It’s unfortunate Satoshi Kon can’t get the budget kiss that people like Hayao Miyazaki can, because Kon’s concepts are always immediately fascinating but fall short of their potential due to limited resources, usually in having to keep his movies down to a necessary length.

Millennium Actress isn’t an exception, but those innovative ideas I mentioned before are clearly visible, admirable, and enjoyable despite necessary compromise.

The idea to make a movie about an actress where the narrative explores both her career and personal life at the same time by intertwining them through analogy and metaphor is absolute brilliance, and gives Millennium Actress a sort of kaleidoscopic lens as reality and fantasy intertwine without cause for concern of any unnecessary boundaries.

This psychological drama feels like you’re going through the titular actress’s mind while always still feeling perfectly natural and unassuming. Combined with one of the best anime soundtracks ever, the movie still manages to be an emotional tour-de-force in 90 minutes as it arrives at one of the most powerful conclusions in an animated work I’ve seen. The length prevented some greater plot and character depth, but the feelings implied solely through the shifting visuals and music pick up any slack and just take total control of me.

I suppose that makes the movie’s flaws all the more disappointing when considering what could’ve made it an unarguable masterpiece. Both Chiyoko Fujiwara’s professional and personal lives could’ve used a lot more detail, particularly with events that don’t relate to the mystery man. But this simple tale is made as good as it possibly could be in lieu of the running time.