Millennium Actress. First time viewing.
This was another detail packed film, again I don't think you could pick out all of the ideas here in one viewing. The closest thing I am reminded of when watching this is something like Cloud Atlas, where the era/setting changes frequently, but it's kind of one story continued throughout time.
I wasn't quite as quick to pick up on what the film was trying to show as quickly as I was with Perfect Blue, but after watching the first 5-10 minutes or so, I got the idea that we'd see how Chiyoko's career would progress through the long years she was an actress across. On top of this it quickly became apparent that this would be shown more dynamically than just flashbacks.
Behind the scenes Chiyoko would have probably just been acting out or telling her story, but as a viewer we got to see a very dynamic telling, and Genya + cameraman-kun were very much swept along for the ride alongside us.
I could tell how much of a fan Genya was from how the film started, and how he was watching the recording of the shuttle launch of Chiyoko at the start of the film. At the time it seemed unimportant to me, but thinking back on it after ending the film, that was the last time he had seen Chiyoko before she vanished into reclusion, and as he left to go and meet her for the interview, he put the recording into rewind as if to set it back to the start again.
As a bit of a side note, Genya was the perfect interviewer given his past history with Chiyoko, and his adoration of her was clear. The returning of the key being the catalyst that unlocked her memories and allowed her to re-live her experiences, in the end we never did learn what the key unlocked. But personally I'd like to say the key didn't unlock anything physical of importance, and instead it unlocked memories, it was a focal point that tied her years and experiences together, and her love for the unnamed man she could never truly find again.
Using a little deduction about the age of the film itself and the supposed age of Chiyoko (70+), If I had to guess she would have been born in the 1930's or thereabouts, as the film was made in the early 2000's, I originally thought this would put Chiyoko at her first acting age at around the time of WW2. However I did research this afterwards, and the Japanese invasion of Manchuria was finished in 1934.
Is the first re-telling some years after this, when rebellion was a problem, and WW2 hadn't quite kicked off? I am not a perfect student of history, especially where Asia is concerned.
After the first era, we enter the second one, this seemed like the Sengoku era. Perhaps earlier still?
Then she became an assassin, then a geisha, finally I think we entered the final era of the Samurai?
After this it seems like we enter the more modern era, with WW2 and the air-raids.
Then we enter more or less modern times, she's a teacher who can't remember the face of the man she loved all this time.
I think at some point the 7 transitions of Chiyoko were mentioned, I guess she had 7 different distinct roles in various eras throughout the film.
Otaki was pretty creepy wasn't he? Interesting to note that the key prevented his first attempt at "seducing" Chiyoko, when she lost the key, probably by his machinations, was when she succumbed to marrying him. She didn't seem happily married, and finding the key again, followed by the accident lead to her escape and reclusion.
I haven't mentioned it until now, but Eiko is, in my opinion just jealous of Chiyoko throughout all this time, in the end she says that she grew tired of even being jealous. But it all started with her giving Chiyoko the hope to chase after the unnamed man by tricking her with the fortune teller, so really she only has herself to blame. In my view she is jealous because she has never found anyone who she would chase after like this for all these years, even when hope seemed lost.
We get a glimpse of the truth when the man hunting the dissidents down finds Chiyoko and gives her the note, although later we learnt that the man had died by his hand under torture. Was it by kindness or cruelty that she never discovered he was dead? Even Genya didn't tell her the truth at the end, after all telling her the truth when she was so old and close to death would just seem cruel to me.
Question about the promised place from me. Earlier on it seemed like the man was in Kyoto. Then at some point Hokkaido. I think it was meant to be his favourite place to paint, and it was described as somewhere cold, where the snow went as far as the eye could see. Not sure if it was ever actually called out directly? was it just more of an idea that Chiyoko had of where it could be?
I loved how it ended with Chiyoko going into space to try and find the man she loved, she literally searched for years, across continents and even worlds, because she knew that this man she barely knew was the one she wanted to find.
At the same time I think she was naïve to be so attached to this man she barely knew anything about, assuming the original contact was genuine and not part of the first film she was in, she met this guy once, helped him out, didn't really see him again, and knew hardly anything about him. All she had was this key and a vague impression of him. Her obsession with this man and the key must have seemed mighty strange to everyone around her.
The ending was very sad
but she seemed happy to have had the chance to re-live the memories at least, and to meet the one who saved her, Genya, who got to save her again!
As a final summary, at least from my point of view, the versions we saw were a mixture of the films Chiyoko was actually in, mixed with real life events going on at the time. I don't think she starred in 7~ films about finding a guy who gave her a key, but it was her way of underpinning the events in her life and linking them with the films she was in.
Edit 1 - Forgot to add that she said at the end that she just enjoyed the chase, I can kind of see that. She must have known that her earlier dream of finding this guy was probably long dead, and instead it became an excuse for her not to settle down, start a family etc, she just wanted to carry on the adventure without shackles. and with no exact destination in mind.
)
