Millenium Actress

People often think of the love story as stereotypical. Passionate emotion sweeps two people off their feet and they fight heaven and earth to be with one another. Love is a mystical bond; a magnetic force that we never see in real life but desperately want to believe exists. People are in love with the idea of being in love.

Satoshi Kon's animated fantasy "Millennium Actress" explores our obsession with the love story by reflecting back to the golden age of Japanese cinema, its shimmering sentiment and its poetic beauty.

When the prestigious Ginei film studio goes bankrupt a documentary filmmaker named Genya Tachibana and his cameraman seek out the studio's most famous star, Chiyoko Fujiwara.

The actress, who has fled the spotlight and remained out of the media for 30 years, opens up when Tachibana presents her with a skeleton key. This inexplicable memento draws Chiyoko out, causing her to open up and remember a story of a lost love she spent most of her life pursuing.

As Chiyoko unfolds her story, the world around all three of them mystically transforms, and the documentarians find themselves participating in the events of Chiyoko's past. Some of these are historically accurate and others are clearly scenes from the actress's films. Reality blends with memory and folklore – ghosts appear, clairvoyants prophesy the future and mysterious lovers elude each other.

As the storyteller and her audience move forward through surreal settings – from the battlefields of the shoguns to rocket ships in outer space – both the actress and her admirer remain stuck in the past. Tachibana has always been in love with this woman and her cinematic ideal and she cannot forget the nameless and faceless man who first stole her heart.

Truly an animated journey that evokes the work of Yasujir? Ozu, "Millennium Actress" is rewarding for adults and children alike. This film won the Grand Prize at the Japan Agency of Cultural Affairs Media Arts Festival, tying with the "Spirited Away," and the magazine Cinefantastique listed it as one of "10 Essential Animations."

This Blu-ray Combo Pack includes a brilliant restoration of the anime film with both the original Japanese audio and an English language dub. It also includes interviews with two of the producers and two of the English voice actresses.

"Millennium Actress"
Blu-ray Combo Pack $19.97
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