This is a remarkable film, beautiful and heartbreaking.
Millennium Actress's style is strange, but it works. It is a love story through and through, and a wonderful one at that. Using a remarkably original and engrossing form of storytelling the memories of the main character, Chiyoko Fujiwara, are portrayed through her films as her career, life, and memories, memories that may or may not be as they seem, blend into cornucopia of sights and story. We are guided through this woman's life, her career as a movie star, her feud with jealous older actress, her marriage to a scheming director.... and her desperate search for her love. As a girl, she meets and falls in love with a mysterious painter, a fugitive known only as "The Man of the Key". Her memory of this one meeting and her love for him are the heart of the film. Note how little we know or see of the painter though. It plays perfectly with how this film tells its story, and how it portrays Chiyoko's memories. I don't want to reveal exactly HOW it works here, since that would involve spoilers. But nothing is left unanswered in this film, and it never lets up its pace. It's best just to sit back and let the film tell its story.
It all comes to an ending that is heartbreaking yet uplifting, and totally satisfying. This is easily one of the best films of 2003.
Don't let those who call it overrated deter you from seeing this film. See it and make your own mind up. You might just see why it has its well deserved 8.1 rating.
P.S. Pay attention to the music. It's fantastic.
Millennium Actress's style is strange, but it works. It is a love story through and through, and a wonderful one at that. Using a remarkably original and engrossing form of storytelling the memories of the main character, Chiyoko Fujiwara, are portrayed through her films as her career, life, and memories, memories that may or may not be as they seem, blend into cornucopia of sights and story. We are guided through this woman's life, her career as a movie star, her feud with jealous older actress, her marriage to a scheming director.... and her desperate search for her love. As a girl, she meets and falls in love with a mysterious painter, a fugitive known only as "The Man of the Key". Her memory of this one meeting and her love for him are the heart of the film. Note how little we know or see of the painter though. It plays perfectly with how this film tells its story, and how it portrays Chiyoko's memories. I don't want to reveal exactly HOW it works here, since that would involve spoilers. But nothing is left unanswered in this film, and it never lets up its pace. It's best just to sit back and let the film tell its story.
It all comes to an ending that is heartbreaking yet uplifting, and totally satisfying. This is easily one of the best films of 2003.
Don't let those who call it overrated deter you from seeing this film. See it and make your own mind up. You might just see why it has its well deserved 8.1 rating.
P.S. Pay attention to the music. It's fantastic.