Review of Millennium Actress (2002) by Leon L — 25 Dec 2007

Sadly, the most underrated of Satoshi Kon's movies, but imho his most mature work so far.

"Millennium Actress" is a bittersweet meditation on obsession, the costs of war, and the fallibility of memory. (Moreover, it's also Kon's de facto tribute to decades of Japanese cinema.).

It's saddening that so many are uninterested in this work, and I wonder if that's because people have certain preconceived notions of what anime/animation should be. Kon is probably better known for his recent "Paprika", and the clever visual tricks and image haemorraging of that film probably fit most people's idea of "anime".

But also recall that Kon started out crafting intimate stories about loss and memory using anime as his clay - he wrote the script for "Magnetic Rose" in "Memories". In "Millennium Actress", Kon improves greatly on those first attempts, and shows the emotional possibilities of the medium.