Film · 2001
Millennium Actress
千年女優
Two documentary makers visit retired actress Chiyoko to record her life story. As she remembers, they appear inside scenes that shift between her experiences and her film roles. A search for a man she once helped carries the film through changing periods, genres and versions of her past.
The interview begins because Chiyoko's old film studio is closing. Genya, the documentary maker, arrives with his own attachment to its former star, so he is not an invisible or neutral listener. As the interview carries him into her memories, the film puts the person recording a life inside the story he hoped to collect.
Genya has held on to a key he found years earlier. For Chiyoko, it belongs to the story of why she left acting, so the interview begins with more than a camera and a list of questions. The key gives their conversation a physical connection to the young woman and the pursuit her memories keep returning to.
Standalone film · Approx. 87 min · one film
Standalone Satoshi Kon animated feature, dated 2001; the 2019 restoration is the same film, not a sequel.
