Friday, July 24, 2015

Today I: Started and Announced a Project

I am about to embark on a HUGE journey. A journey I don’t think I’m really worthy to take. But I’m going to anyway. You see, deep in the recesses of nerdom, in geeky pastimes. There exists a story, a story that far surpasses anything else. Here, in the attic of dorkdom, lies a movie, a very odd movie. Everything from it’s soundtrack, to it’s ending, to it’s presentation, to it’s reception. But I believe this is a masterful movie. A movie that any fan of storytelling should see, and own. This movie, is Millennium Actress.

Let’s back up a second, what is Millennium Actress? Who made it? Why is it special? This posts’s purpose is to answer these questions, convince you to watch the film, and introduce my series of posts fully devoted to this movie. So let’s start with the basic information.

What is Millennium Actress? Millennium Actress is a 2001 Japanese animated movie by Madhouse, and directed by Satoshi Kon.

Well, ok, but what is Millennium Actress about? The basic synopsis is this: “A documentary director and his cameraman interview a former movie star about her life.”

Wow, that sounds boring, so why is this film so special? Well, Millennium Actress is a simple film. It has a simple cast, simple premise, simple story, with simple visuals. What makes this movie so impactful is how much meaning and how many themes are packed into this story. And, of course, how this story is presented.

I’ve gotta be honest, I am incredibly biased, regarding this movie. This movie is my absolute favorite movie of all time, I believe it to be the best film I have ever seen. I know, I know, big words. But it’s my hope to prove my thoughts about this to you in the rest of the video series. But, I’m getting ahead of myself.

Should you watch this film? Maybe because is the greatest single piece of art every to have put upon this earth? In my opinion... of course. Especially if you want to read the posts about it, which are coming, because I’m going to break down anything and everything in this film. We will be swimming in spoilers. It goes without saying that I adore this film, and will show it to anyone willing to listen to my ranting.

Speaking of my ranting, why am I ranting about this film in the first place? Because I feel like this film is criminally underrated. Which is odd, especially when you look at the critical ratings. So let’s first look at my favorite sites when it comes to anime reviews.

First we have THEManime.org, these guys have great informative and objective reviews. This is a site I highly respect and recommend. And, THEManime gush about this film. Giving it a 5/5, and calling it “One of the best anime of all time,”

Nihon Reviews, another great site. Gives this movie a 10/10, calling it “As good as it gets.” Saying, “For those craving a touching, poignant and moving anime, Millennium Actress is sure to satisfy that wish. With powerful emotion and genuine drama, Millennium Actress will take your breath away.”

And finally, thepantslessanimeblogger.com gives the most negative review out of the three, giving it a 9/10, and saying, “A great story of love told in a great cinematic masterpiece.”

However, Millennium Actress has extended far beyond just anime-centric reviewers.

The NY Times Magazine, while not providing a score, speaks highly of the film, saying, “To watch 'Millennium Actress' is to witness one cinematic medium celebrating another, an expression of movie love that is wonderfully eccentric and deeply affecting.”

Millennium Actress ranges anywhere from 50 to 35 on top animated films lists on IMDb. And has a 92% ‘fresh’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Millennium Actress received the Grand Prize in the Japan Agency of Cultural Affairs Media Arts Festival, tying with Spirited Away. Additionally, it won the awards of Best Animation Film and Fantasia Ground-Breaker at the 2001 Fantasia Film Festival. It was awarded the Feature Film Award at the 8th Animation Kobe. The movie took home the prestigious Ofuji Noburo Award at the 2002 Mainichi Film Awards, and was honored with the Orient Express Award at the 2001 Festival de Cine de Sitges in Spain. The film was nominated for four Annie Awards in 2004, including Outstanding Direction and Writing. It was also promoted by its studio as a contender for the 2003 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, but it was not nominated.

So, why do I believe this film to be ‘criminally underrated’? The problem is, while this movie is a critics favorite, nobody else has really seen it. This movie is oft compared to Spirited Away, because they were released the same year, and tied for the Grand Prize as mentioned earlier. But if you were to go on the street, far more people would know Spirited Away than Millennium Actress. Millennium Actress just isn’t popular.

And there is a good reason for that. Millennium Actress is... kinda confusing. Not like, Inception “Dream within a dream within a dream within a dream” confusing, but in order to really appreciate the film, you have to think about it. It is my belief that American movies do too much ‘hand-holding’, we Americans are used to being spoon fed information. Millennium Actress does not do this, and it has turned people off because of that.

There is also the problem of the presentation, Millennium Actress is unique, to say the least. It is not a straightforward story, not in the way it’s presented to us anyway. And while that gives Satoshi Kon miles of space and plenty of freedom to pack in all these amazing layers of character development and storytelling, I have had a few people dislike this film because it ‘didn’t make sense.’ This is the film’s, only real flaw. The fact that this film isn’t all that accessible, not the good, juicy stuff anyway.

And, that’s kinda why I’m doing this. There is so much to be uncovered in Millennium Actress, the movie is a goldmine of storytelling.

So in this series, each post I will cover a main theme or aspect of the movie, rant about how amazing it is, highlight another analysis usually on the same topic. And at the end of every episode, I’m going to point out a favorite moment of the movie in chronological order. So as we progress through this series, it’ll feel like we are progressing through the movie once more!


So that's my what I'm going to cover, this is how I'll do it:

Every month, starting the 24th of August, I’m going to post one of these articles by myself. The date every article comes out on will have meaning. The first one is coming August 24th because that’s the 5 anniversary of Satoshi Kon’s death. The other articles will come out, on his birthday, or release date of one of his movies. If I enjoy this enough, I might do other films and stuff, but that’s at least a year away. So... expect that!

EDIT: Link to the first post!

- The Madman


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