Millennium Actress

Kyoji Ida: She must be over 70.
Genya Tachibana: She'll never grow old!

This is a movie I've seen a couple times before but it was recently brought back to my attention in a conversation about animation for adults. It's defiantly beyond a child's understanding, something I should know since I was too young to appreciate it the first time I saw it. Add in the cultural differences and it can be a bit challenging to watch. But there is such a wealth of depth and symbolism that it's worth embracing the surrealist elements and letting go of the need to fully understand what's real and what's not. After all, this character's journey transcends time and space. What is Real matters less what is True.

As a girl, Chiyoko meets an injured painter and revolutionary who is being pursued by the police. She hides him for the night and in return, he gives her a key to "the most important thing there is." After he disappears, Chiyoko becomes an actress so that she can find him again. Over the course of her long career, she searches for him in every country and every film she is in. The desire to return the key to her first love consumes her life and dictates every choice she makes.

SPOILERS AHEAD

This is a story about love but it is not a love story. She spends her life chasing after a man she hardly knows and declares that she will always love him, ignoring the men who are actually present in her life. After all, she is not really in love with him, just the idea of him, a perfect, unattainable love that represents everything she hopes for. This idea consumes her so that she is searching for him not only in her life but in her work and in every story she hears. He is always present in the shape of the key he gave her. After losing the key, she retires and goes in seclusion because the loss of hope is tantamount to death.

But she is not the only person in love. Genya Tachibana, the director of the documentary being made about her life has been in love with her since he was a lowly crew member on one of her films. He worships her as true fan, finds joy in her joy, sorrow in her hardships, and even protects her from the knowledge that the man she searches for is dead. He is also someone who is in love with an idea, as are all fans.

This desire to be loved and the unwavering loyalty from afar has defined the careers of some actresses, most notably Marylin Monroe. Like Chiyoko, Monroe spent her life searching for a perfect love that she was unable to find, or possibly just unable to accept. And like all actresses, she is frozen in film, ageless even in death. Her legacy will last forever. But it is narrow minded to look at Chiyoko's story simply in relation to other actors. We all have an idea of a perfect love that we search for and like Chiyoko, our search extends to all aspects of our lives. The film's blending of fiction and reality echoes our memories of our own lives. We may not remember the facts as they actually happened but we remember the truths that we learned from those experiences and it is those truths that shape us.

Chiyoko journey is the journey of humanity. It is timeless and ageless. It is present in every person, every memory, every story. It will not end even in death because an idea cannot die. It is what unites us and drives us forward, from before the feudal ages of Chiyoko's early films, passed the space exploration of her later work. Satoshi Kon's Millennium Actress explores our quest for love and suggests that sometimes the journey is enough. It is the journey that makes us human.