This is the third in a monthly series of reviews suggested by Nick Jobe at YourFace.
With my third selection from Nick’s list of films, I’ve been given something of a poser. I genuinely attempt to go into every film with the anticipation or at least the hopes of liking it. This was certainly the case with Millennium Actress (Sennen Joyu). On the other end of it, I’m left with a complete puzzle. Did I like it? Hard to say. There are definitely things here worth your time. Did I understand it? Almost certainly not. It’s an interesting film nonetheless and I don’t feel as though my time was wasted on it. I should probably watch it again.
I’ll make this as simple as I can. A movie studio is being torn down. One of the former employees, Genya Tachibana (Shozo Iizuka) and his cameraman Kyoji Ida (Masaya Onosaka) head out to locate one of the studio’s former stars. This star is Chiyoko Fujiwara (voiced at different times by Miyoko Shoji, Mami Koyama, and Fumiko Orikasa), who after a long career suddenly vanished and went into hiding. Genya wishes to see her to make a documentary about her life and for personal reasons. He manages the interview by promising Chiyoko something from her past.
