I attended a preview screening of Millenium Actress on Thursday 9/4, and I was absolutely blown away. Millenium Actress is to Dreamworks honestly what Spirited Away was for Disney. The Oscar race is now definitely between Finding Nemo and Millenium Actress.
For any film lover the movie is a gem, since the entire plot revolves around the power of film itself, using the medium as a way to see the entire history of Japan. Because it does so, it incorporates some of the most fascinating transitions I have ever seen in a movie.
Two documentarians set out to interview the legendary actress Chiyoto, who has a film career spanning over thirty years. Through their interview, and Chiyoto's biography, you span the history of Japan, and discover how Chiyoto's search for the one stranger she loves binds all her movies and has always kept her young. The movie is only an hour and a half, yet I felt like I had been through an epic.
The animation is beautiful, the filmmaking stellar (not to mention the editing), and the storyline original in a time when so many aren't. I found myself almost at tears at the end.
Thank god for Japan, because without anime, 2d animation would be dead. Maybe now American studios will take a closer look at what it takes to make a good animated film and turn it into a form for adults as well.
Go see this movie. I know I'll be in the theater for a second round.
-Athena |
