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PRODUCTION NOTES

THE STORY     THE PRODUCTION     CAST/CREW

Leading animé artist and filmmaker Satoshi Kon (“Perfect Blue”) creates a blend of fantasy and reality in his latest film “Millennium Actress.” 

In this unique epic adventure, the lines between the past and the present, and truth and fiction, are blurred when a documentary filmmaker fulfills his quest to find the legendary actress Chiyoko Fujiwara and learn why she mysteriously vanished at the height of her brilliant career.  When Chiyoko grants the filmmaker’s request for an interview, he, in turn, presents her with a token—a key she had lost and thought was gone forever.  The filmmaker could not have imagined that the key would not only unlock the long-held secrets of Chiyoko’s life…but also his own.

“Millennium Actress” reunites director/screenwriter Satoshi Kon and screen- writer Sadayuki Murai, who first collaborated together on Satoshi Kon’s award-winning debut feature “Perfect Blue.”  Susumu Hirasawa composed the score, and Takeshi Honda was the editor and director of animation.  Satoshi Kon and Takeshi Honda also collaborated on the character design.  Mad House—best known for releasing such highly acclaimed films as “Perfect Blue,” “Vampire Hunter D” and “Metropolis”—was the animation company for the film.

Since its opening in Japan, “Millennium Actress” has been honored with numerous awards.  It garnered the Japan Agency of Cultural Affairs Media Arts Festival Grand Prize, and was also awarded the Fantasia Ground-Breaker Award for Artistic Innovation.  “Millennium Actress” was also named the Best Animated Film at the FantAsia Film Festival in Montreal, Canada, and it was the first-ever recipient of the 2001 International Film Festival of Catalonia’s Orient Express Award spotlighting Asian genre films.  In addition, the film has been an official selection at some of Asia’s most renowned film festivals, including the Pusan International Film Festival (Korea), the Bangkok International Film Festival and the Singapore International Film Festival.

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THE STORY:

Chiyoko Fujiwara was once a major movie star who dominated the Japanese cinema world. Thirty years ago, she abruptly disappeared from the screen and from public view.  One of her greatest admirers, Genya Tachibana, is a documentary filmmaker who has traveled to the isolated mountain lodge where she makes her home to interview her.  There, he presents her with an old key, and as if the key had opened a door to her memories, Chiyoko starts telling the story of her life, interweaving moments from her past and future and passing through the boundary between reality and the movies that had made up so much of her life.

As her story unfolds, Chiyoko seems to transcend time and space, traveling freely through the corridors of fictional movies and reality.  Chiyoko was born when the Great Earthquake hit Tokyo in 1923, as war is looming in Imperial Japan.  At a very young age, she is discovered as an actress, and soon becomes one of Japan’s most popular stars.  Over the course of her career, her movies and her roles encompass all the epochs of Japanese history, bringing her and her audience back more than five hundred years, and then moving chronologically through the centuries to the present and beyond.  Chiyoko’s first major role finds her in the Warring States Period of the 15^th and 16^th centuries, where we see her as a princess in a burning castle tower.  Her movies swiftly carry her into the Edo Period (1603 – 1868), when the Shogun ruled the country.  In one moment, she is portraying a ninja fighting against samurais, but another role transforms her into an innocent local girl who confronts a group of elite samurai guards.  She runs away, only to find herself being arrested in a scene set against the backdrop of Japan’s Meiji Period (1868 – 1912), at the dawn of a new era when the power of the Emperor was restored.  Chiyoko escapes, but in her next movie, we find her in the pre-World War II and war-torn decades of the Showa Period (1912 – 1945).  As Chiyoko chronicles her life and career, we come to learn that not only was Chiyoko an icon of the Japanese cinema, but her roles also represented feminine icons of Japanese history.

Through each role and in every era, Chiyoko has only one wish—to see her first love, an injured artist and painter she had helped escape from government authorities as a girl.  Chiyoko risks everything to hide the mysterious stranger in her storage house.  Before she can learn his identity and mission, however, he leaves her…but not before he presents her with the all-important key.  From that moment on, she determinedly keeps running—in real life, and in her movies—believing that they will meet again and she will learn the true meaning of the key.

As her identity changes with each movie role, so does that of her true love.  Yet Chiyoko keeps running after him through the passages of time.  Wherever she goes, she also must battle her enemies: a man with a scar and a rival actress, both of whom continue to change their appearances according to the time periods and settings of the movies that make up Chiyoko’s life.

The two filmmakers, Genya Tachibana and his cameraman Kyoji Ida, become so immersed in Chiyoko’s story that they are amazed to find themselves actually witnessing the events as she describes them.  To the astonishment of his cameraman, Tachibana is not only present, but has become a character in her movies, appearing to rescue her whenever she is in danger.

Chiyoko keeps running through the centuries in pursuit of the “love of her life,” as if she had lived for 1000 years.  In what appears to be her final role, seemingly in the future, she rockets to the moon, leaving us to wonder what adventures await her there.

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THE PRODUCTION:

Satoshi Kon brings to his second film, “Millennium Actress,” the visual style that had set him apart in his debut film, “Perfect Blue.”

The director says that he set out to make a film in the artistic style of “trompe l’oeil,” literally translated, “to trick, or fool, the eye.”  In that context, “Millennium Actress” was created from the paradoxical standpoint that “the truth is sealed with lies.”

Just as his first film, “Perfect Blue,” had interwoven the worlds of fantasy and reality, Kon remarks that he “adopted the concept of intricately tangling truth and fiction to make the film more impactful.”

Based on an original story by Kon, the “Millennium Actress” screenplay marks the second collaboration of Kon and his “Perfect Blue” screenwriter Sadayuki Murai.  As the script was developed, Murai recalls, “I wanted to intertwine fragments of Japanese history with the story of Chiyoko’s life.  We wrote the screenplay underscoring the fact that she is the one telling the story.”

Kon acknowledges that the film contains images of different historical periods in Japan, including the Edo Period, the Meiji Period, and even reaching as far back as the Warring States Period.  The director notes, “Most modern Japanese have specific images of the Edo Period, which are not necessarily the actual Edo Period.  Television and movies have created those particular images.  For instance, when Akoh Roushi, a group of 47 samurais, staged a revenge attack for their lord in January 1703, it has been a prerequisite that the scene be snowy, regardless of historical verification.  What we included is our image of history.  I wanted Chiyoko to run through such images.  Historical verification doesn’t really matter in this case.  We created this film with our own vision of Japanese history.  The most challenging part was determining which historical periods and scenes to adopt for the film.  We repeatedly had discussions before reaching the final decision on the screenplay.”

Murai offers, “We adopted many historical events, which were then interpreted in the form of movies.  For example, the reason why we adopted Manchuria in the film is not simply because movies about Manchuria were produced back then, but, also, we wanted to express how vibrant the cinema industry was even during the gloomy prewar days.”

Through all of Chiyoko’s films, and in her life, Kon states, “She is an innocent girl whose first love is the most important thing to her, despite the fact that Japan was in a politically sensitive time of right-wing bias in those days.  Chiyoko never loses her innocence even after she gets older; yet she matures.  Since the length of this film is limited, I couldn’t take time to describe the process of her maturity from a girl to a woman, so I attempted to express it with symbols.”

He continues, “We consider rubble to be very significant in terms of symbolic expression.  The film studio turns into rubble, and this symbolizes the old Chiyoko.  There are also piles of rubble from the Great Tokyo Earthquake when Chiyoko was born.  Then rubble from the studio appears again at the end of the film.  Rubble is a symbol expressing death and rebirth.”

Throughout the film, Chiyoko is seen escaping from many dangers, often with the help of Genya Tachibana, the documentary filmmaker to whom she is imparting her life story.  As Chiyoko’s story unfolds, Tachibana remarkably finds himself in the midst of the drama, in a heroic role.  However, Murai points out, “There is always someone to block Chiyoko’s way…Eiko Shimao.”

Sometimes seen as a character in one of Chiyoko’s films and sometimes as a rival actress, Kon says, “Eiko Shimao represents the general knowledge of life.  We once considered her to be a mother figure to provide an education to Chiyoko.”

There are also two significant male figures in each scenario: Chiyoko’s love, The Man of the Key, and The Man With the Scar, or Scarface.  Kon remarks, “Both have elements of a father figure.  The Man of the Key tolerates and the Man With the Scar always controls.  When we reach a point where the story is about Chiyoko seeking her love, we assume that her family environment is without a father.  Whom did she specifically seek?  It could be her inner father figure—her eternal ideal man.”

Kon worked closely with the widely regarded animation artist Takeshi Honda on the character designs, especially for Chiyoko, who is seen in different stages of her life and career.  To make the character instantly identifiable to the audience in each of her incarnations, Kon offers, “I put a mole on Chiyoko’s face to maintain the consistency of the character, knowing I could not distinguish some details.”

Susumu Hirasawa, a leading Japanese techno artist, composed the music for “Millennium Actress.”  Hirasawa’s unique style of music blends technology and people in an interactive live performance accompanied by computer graphics.  Director Kon, a long-time fan of Hirasawa’s music, comments that his score makes a significant impact on the story of this film, saying, “The story of a thousand years is complete only with Mr. Hirasawa’s music in the ending scene.”

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CAST AND CREW:

About The Voice Talent

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About The Filmmakers

Satoshi Kon (Director/Original Story/Co-Screenwriter/Character Design) made his directorial debut on the widely acclaimed psychological thriller “Perfect Blue.”  “Millennium Actress” is the director’s second feature, and he more recently completed work on his third film, “Tokyo Godfathers,” which is slated for release in Japan in August 2003.

Prior to embarking on his directing career, Kon worked with such respected animé directors as Katsuhiro Ôtomo and Mamoru Oshii and on such films as “Kidô Keisatsu Patorebâ 2,” “JoJo’s Mysterious Adventures,” “Memories,” “Melos” and “Akira.” 

Kon was still attending Musashi Arts of College (Musashi Bijutsu Daigaku) when he made his debut as a cartoonist in a popular magazine called Young Magajin.  In 1990, he published a Manga book called Kaikishen.  Following that he also published a book called World Apartment Horror that was later made into a film by award-winning young director Sabu.

Sadayuki Murai (Co-Screenwriter) first collaborated with Satoshi Kon as the writer of “Perfect Blue,” which also marked Murai’s feature film screenwriting debut.  Following the success of that film, the pair went on to co-write the screenplay for “Millennium Actress.”  Murai’s subsequent writing credits include “Space Pirate Captain Harlock: The Endless Odyssey,” and “Nazo No Tenkousei” (“The Dimension Travelers”).  He also wrote for the television series “Cowboy Bebop” and “Alexander Senki.”

Murai began his career as a television script writer.  He received the 6^th Fuji Television Young Scenario Award for “Tobenai Otome no Jugyochu” (“A Girl Who Cannot Fly in Class”).  He worked on the animated series “Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040” and later went on to oversee the production on the animé series “Boogiepop Phantom: Boogiepop wa Warawanai.” (“Boogie Pop Doesn’t Smile”).

TakEshi Honda (Character Design/Animation Director/Editor) first collaborated with Kon on the director’s first feature “Perfect Blue,” on which Honda received screen credit for original picture (character design).  His extensive credits also include mechanical animation director/series mass production design on “Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion”; and original picture on “Sprigun” and “Hito Ookami” (“Human Wolf”).  Honda also served as animation director for the DVD “Ao no Rokugo” (“Blue No. 6”).

Honda’s first foray as an animator was for the video release “Top o Nerae!” (“Aim For The Top!”).  His other credits include: animation director/original picture for “Fushigi no Umi no Nadia” (“Nadia of the Mysterious Sea”); chief animation director for “Aa! Megamisama” (“Oh! My Goddess!”); and design for “Metal Fighter Miku.”  

Susumu Hirasawa (Music) exploded onto the music scene, forming the techno pop band P-Model.  During the techno pop boom, he became one of the genre’s biggest stars, and launched his solo career in 1989.  His solo albums include “Water in Time and Space,” “The Ghost in Science” and “Virtual Rabbit.”

Following his success as a solo artist, he transitioned into music composition, writing the soundtrack and song for “Kenpû Denki Berserk” (“Sword of the Berserk”).  In 2001, his  “Interactive Live Show 2000 Philosopher’s Propeller” was selected for the coveted music award from the 5^th Cultural Affairs Agency of Media Art Festival in Japan.   The show also received the Economy, Trade & Industry Minister Award, the top award at the Digital Contents Grand Prix 2001, and Japan’s Best Entertainment Award.

MAD HOUSE (Animation) was founded in 1972 and has since become one of the leading animation production studios in the world whose wide variety of projects encompass all forms of media, including films, television, and video.  In 1989, the studio was honored with an award at the 6^th Japan Animation Festival for raising the standards of quality for the whole industry.

Millennium Actress Production Notes

Satoshi Kon Interview 

Q&A

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