Millennium Actress

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Okay. I really don't know how to start this review. It's much easier to review something that you hated because you just rant, rant away. When I get fan-girly over something, that's easy too. I just squee and gush. It's not often that I actually encounter something that can elicit a silent appreciation from my usual fan-girlish ways. It's not often that I encounter something that makes me say, "Man, I wish I wrote this."

The film revolves around a documentary on famous retired actress Chiyoko. It weaves archetypal characters, present time, flashbacks, and scenes from her movies to tell her story─her lifetime chase after a man that left her with a key when they first met, a man she loved so much but barely knew.

I have never watched a story within a story within a story within a story that's so neat but still wonderfully complex until I finally got to watch Millennium Actress. It philosophizes filmmaking, love, and hope (but isn't hope just a spawn of love... or vice versa?) without being too incoherent (as other stories usually are when trying to highlight form and content at the same time).

However, I believed the ending line of the movie ruined its perfection. It felt as if the movie was spoon-feeding and summarizing the whole point of the story for the audience. One, duh, I get it already. Don't rub it in. And two, telling the audience what the main character felt sort of limits a more fruitful debate on what love and hope is all about in her life.

Still... 9/10