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At its core, Millennium Actress is a simple story about a simple desire. How far will you go to grasp it within your hands? How much will you sacrifice, how long will you wait, how fast will you run to see it come to life? It doesn't have to be a shadowy figure on the run from the law, his face glimpsed for just a second, it could be anything. I'm reminded of Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet: "Ask yourself in the stillest hour of your night: must I write?" It's a compelling question, and Kon paints his response through his dazzling storytelling, blurring the lines between fiction and reality and sometimes dashing them completely. Most of the narrative is presented through Chiyoko's memories and recollections of the movies she's done over the years. Art reflects life as her tireless quest for the "most important thing in the world" takes her through decades of Japanese film history, a kaleidoscopic array of sounds and colors. It's easy to get swept up, as the hapless director and his cameraman do, in the rushing force of Chiyoko's tale. It's almost jarring when we return back to the present day.
The crux of the story, Chiyoko's relationship to the man, may come off as superficial and contrived, but here's my interpretation of it. I don't believe that she falls in love with the man at first sight, but it's clear she's intrigued by him and wants to see him again. As she gets older and comes closer and closer to reaching him, only to be disappointed every time, that initial desire becomes a sort of love, maybe not for the man himself, but as the elder woman says at the very end, for the chase. She needs it; the chase for that man is the only anchoring point in her life. Without it she's a plaything to external forces, from movie studios to directors to domineering rival actresses. Time magnifies and distorts the feelings that may have been clear long ago, and this is how Chiyoko chooses to remember her past.
I'm a big fan of this movie, for both the central themes it addresses and the dream-like trance it sort of induces. It's certainly Satoshi Kon's most focused, vibrant effort.
