Directed by Satoshi Kon, Millennium Actress (Sennen Joyū) was released in 2001 to a generally positive reception. Much lighter in tone compared to the director’s previous film, Perfect Blue, this film is a masterful love letter to Japanese cinema and one of its most iconic figures, Setsuko Hara. There’s a lot you can take from Millennium Actress and much has already been said about it. In fact, I seriously doubt I can fit everything I want to say about the film in this post alone but I still want to highlight what made it memorable for me. There will be spoilers, of course. If you haven’t watched the film yet, please go ahead and do so. It has my highest recommendation, whatever that might be worth to you.
The film is centred around the life of Fujiwara Chiyoko, a legendary actress who gets a visit from an admirer, Tachibana Genya, who wishes to make a documentary on her. The film uses their interview as a jumping point to take us in a vivid journey through her life, merging reality and fiction in order to tell an extremely unique story. Kon has described Millennium Actress and Perfect Blue to be the two sides of the same coin. Like with Perfect Blue, this movie also explores the relationship between a celebrity and a fan. In a sharp contrast to his previous film however, this relationship is presented in a much more positive light with Chiyoko serving as a source of inspiration for Genya rather than something to be “possessed”. While that was never Chiyoko’s actual aim (as seen with the running gag of her ignoring Genya), the blazing trail that she cut through the film industry had inevitably resulted in her being an inspirational figure for many.
The driving force behind Chiyoko’s life was a mysterious artist that she meets when she was young. The mysterious artist as a person isn’t really important to the film. In fact, the film even makes a point that him being long dead doesn’t really matter. The part that matters about him, and the part that persists even after he is gone, is his very human desire for peace. While Chiyoko was pursuing the artist, the artist himself was in pursuit of peace and ultimately, neither of them were successful. However, that doesn’t mean that their lives were wasted in any way. There was value in their journey itself, even if they never reached their destination. In fact, it was actually because of their pursuit that their influence remained past their deaths.
One of the recurring motifs that is associated with Chiyoko is the Japanese Crane, commonly understood to be a symbol of immortality. While Chiyoko’s entire life was spent chasing an unreachable target, it resulted in her being immortalized through her art. Similarly, the artist wasn’t able to find peace and died a tragic death but he managed to leave a mark on the world through Chiyoko. Despite his death, the ideals that he held were carried on and immortalized in her work. As the mysterious artist was to Chiyoko, Chiyoko herself was to Genya and many others. An unapproachable figure that managed to become a huge driving force. The mysterious artist might have been long gone but his ideals still persisted; through Chiyoko and by proxy, through her fans such as Genya. That is the power of art.
Millennium Actress does a fantastic job of showing the importance of media and how it can impact us. It shows how a simple desire for peace can galvanize people and create amazingly enduring works of art. The film is filled to the brim with love for Japanese cinema and respect for those involved in it, for the hard work and persistence they showed, even in one of the darkest and most violent times in human history. Just like Chiyoko herself, these people have been immortalized in their work they did and their influence will be felt for a long time.
