Forum - View topicThe Anime Backlog - Millennium Actress
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Joe Mello
 Posts: 2304 Location: Online Terminal |
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I am extremely due for a rewatch, but my read was exploring how Chiyoko the person, Chiyoko the actress, and Chiyoko the collection of on-screen characters all blend together through the medium of film. So many of Kon's works are about self-identity and how one portrays oneself, I feel like the central mystery is trying to figure out which Chiyoko is running at any given time and whether that answer matters because that's the superpower of both Chiyoko and film itself.
20 years ago, this made a cynical 19-year-old me love anime again, so my opinion of this movies is extremely biased. |
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Gem-Bug
 Posts: 1307 |
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Been meaning to watch this one for a long time now. Maybe this weekend!
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dm
 Subscriber Posts: 1460 |
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Love your introductory paragraph about timezones, Lynzee. Perfect for this movie, which I think may be Kon's finest work.
This piece on Kon from Every frame is a painting is great : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oz49vQwSoTE |
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Slowzhand
 Posts: 124 Location: Texas |
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Great review!
(Millennium is spelled with two Ls and two Ns.) |
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Top Gun
 Posts: 4788 |
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Somehow I haven't watched either Millennium Actress or Tokyo Godfathers, and I kind of hate myself for it because I love Kon's other works so much. I desperately need to check both off.
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FireChick
Subscriber Posts: 2477 Location: United States |
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I saw this in theaters when Eleven Arts was shopping it around and I really enjoyed it, so I got the blu-ray. Definitely recommend this movie to anyone with a love of films and animation.
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ANN_Lynzee
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 3028 Location: Email for assistance only |
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(Thank you, I fixed it ^^T) |
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enurtsol
 Posts: 14886 |
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This was premiered in a NY Times Square theater during BAAF 2002
"Big Apple Anime Fest Hosts Premiere Screenings This Weekend In New York City."
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dm
Subscriber Posts: 1460 |
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Right. One-N-"millenium" means "a thousand anuses". Makes it easy to remember the proper number of Ns, I don't know a good mnemonic for getting the number of Ls right. |
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Triltaison
 Posts: 792 |
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I'm still devastated by losing Kon. I love all of his directorial works and Millenium Actress is my second favorite.
The old DVD release didn't have a dub and I keep meaning to pick up a new BD for the dub. Anyone know if it's decent? This is one of my go-to anime movies for non-anime people and an English dub would make it way more accessible for that purpose. |
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whiskeyii
 Posts: 2267 |
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I don't even quite remember when I saw this movie, only the how--in that my twin sister saw it first and then wouldn't stop raving about it until I finally sat down to see it with her (I think she got it for Christmas?) And that sent me down a whole spiral of Satoshi Kon fandom I've never quite recovered from.
Though it turns out my first encounter with his work was from Paranoia Agent back in the first round of Adult Swim days, I just didn't know it! From Millennium Actress I checked out Perfect Blue, which is still the only "horror" movie I will willingly and happily sit through (I am the the biggest scaredy-cat on the planet, truly) and from then on was determined to spread the gospel of Kon basically every chance I got. College anime club needed a movie? Film studies wanted a presentation on auteur directors? May I present Satoshi Kon--and don't think I didn't see those Perfect Blue references in Black Swan, Aronofsky >.> . I think hearing about his death and reading the blog he wrote before his passing (translated here) about his thoughts on his own work was the first time a celebrity death made me cry; Kon was basically my Alan Rickman. 
It's not bad! They stick pretty close to the spirit and meaning of the script (at least as far as the original subs could tell me), though it's been so long now I can't recall if the dub adds in any extra cultural explanations that the original doesn't really need to. I thiiiink for example in one of the historical films, Chiyoko in the dub specifically calls someone spoiler["a wraith" or "a demon"], whereas in the sub I think she's just referred to as spoiler["an old woman"] or some other vague pronoun, the assumed cultural knowledge being spoiler[that she's implied to be a ghost(?)]. |
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Radrappy
Posts: 78 |
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You nailed it - I don't think her journey was really about pursuing a physical man. He was simply the avatar for hope, youth, and idealism. Plus the final line of the movie is a gut punch that really commits to this idea imo. |
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Lily Garden
 Posts: 65 |
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It's a shame that new anime watchers don't know Satoshi Kon. The man is the greatest anime creator in history, and I do not say that lightly.
He understood anime as medium. I remember checking out a DVD copy of Paprika from my local library years back when I was just getting into anime as a teen. I was mindblown. It still is one of my favorite movies of all time.
This video dm mentioned is great. If you have any interest in cinematography you should check it out[/i] |
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fathomlessblue
 Posts: 384 Location: Manchester, UK |
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I feel like Chiyoko's final line in the film lays bear that she was never truly chasing the man as some sort of true love/only chance at happiness situation. Perhaps at first there was romantic infatuation, but I feel as she grew older those feeling of shifted into something far more abstract representing the unending sense of longing within the human spirit. If her initial encounter carried with it the unspoken desires of growing up and looking to the future, by the end he was probably closer to a dream of the past, a place of boundless possibilities, wonder and mystery. He was an endless horizon to her.
I kind of love that Chiyoko was mature enough to recognize that, but free-spirited enough to want to chase it anyway. It's somewhat heartbreaking that once that fantasy is finally broken a part of her spirit seems to wither, only to be rekindled again for one last hurrah. I could never get into the sobering cruelties of Kon at his angriest & most bitter, so Perfect Blue or Paranoia Agent were never really connected with me. I think Tokyo Godfathers remains the best balance of all sides to him, & is probably my personal favourite. However, Millennium Actress is his ultimate piece. I won't play it every Christmas like Godfathers, but once or twice a decade I'll admire it's genius at a cool distance. In my head the film is his Michelangelo's David. |
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Tenchi
 Posts: 4534 Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer. |
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The first screening of Millennium Actress anywhere in the world was at the Imperial cinema in Montreal during the FantAsia Festival in August 2001. I should know because I was there. However, to split hairs, I remember them saying in the discussion portion of the screening that it was a work print and some of the music tracks were placeholders so BAAF 2002 is where the premiere of the finished version of the film was held but what I saw in Montreal in 2001 still felt like a "complete" film. |
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