What A Cartoon Movie! - Millennium Actress
Added 2021-12-27 05:00:02 +0000 UTCWe close out 2021 with a masterpiece that turns 20 this year, Millennium Actress by the late great Satoshi Kon. First released at the start of the century, this film reflects on Japan's past, its amazing film culture, and the passion that drives so many artists. We reflect on this lovely film and the career of Satoshi Kon that led to it. Listen in to follow this passion for a thousand years!
Comments
We do talk about a bit of this on the podcast, but thanks for providing further background and context on Hirasawa’s work. - Henry
Talking Simpsons
2021-12-30 06:54:52 +0000 UTClink to album https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZ1wj1HLx_TDBPWW6Slf66j12vDjw42P8
marathedemon
2021-12-30 05:54:31 +0000 UTCI haven’t had a chance to listen to the podcast yet so if you mention this I’m sorry: If you like the music in Millenium Actress you should check out the album Philosopher’s Propeller by Susumu Hirasawa. Hirasawa and Kon were buddies and a lot of their work has a lot of similarities. In fact Kon was such a fan of Hirasawas that the now probably never going to happen final Satoshi Kon project Dreaming Machine is inspired by the Susumu Hirasawa song Dreaming Machine. Millenium Actress’s main musical motif is directly from the album Philosopher’s Propeller, and the soundtrack features a number of songs from the album. Its a great listen if you’re into Prog/Electronic/Ambient music. Hirasawa is also a heavy heavy influence on Paranoia Agent, the whole blurring of dreams and reality (a feature of most Kon works) is a thing Hirasawa harps on and the soundtrack from that series was entirely his work, and even features a few deep cuts from his non-soundtrack work. Again sorry if this is already mentioned in the podcast, I just like Susumu Hirasawa’s music a lot and feel like anime weirdos in America should give him a chance.
marathedemon
2021-12-30 05:53:14 +0000 UTCHearing you guys mention the dub made me wish that you played a few clips of it during the podcast. It was a fine listen otherwise.
K-S-O
2021-12-29 14:21:26 +0000 UTCA random thought, but I was struck by some general similarities between this movie and Mulholland Drive. Both films came out around the same time, are created by auteur directors, center around the filmmaking industry, mix reality and dream, and even include a symbolic key! As for Millennium Actress, due to the frenetic pacing of the plot, I found that a lot of the stuff covered in the podcast completely went over my head. I had a hard time keeping track of the order of events and what really happened versus what was part of Chiyoko's movies. I do realize that's kind of the point, and it didn't detract from the poignancy of its central theme, but a little more narrative coherence probably wouldn’t have hurt. I still thoroughly enjoyed the viewing experience and look forward to exploring the rest of Kon's films.
Scott Scallion
2021-12-29 03:35:01 +0000 UTCI love this movie (and every Kon movie), so it was great to hear y'all talk about it. You guys touched on it, but I think the reason that Chiyoko blends her real life with the characters she played so much is that she more or less stumbled across Stanislovsky's acting, and that she is sense-memory-ing her performance to the point that she has trouble separating her life from her roles, which is even harder because her career is full of her playing exactly the type of roles she lives: she's the virginal hero chasing after something desperately, and then ages into the unsatisfied middle-aged actress who's still chasing after something because she's unhappy. The early scene where she's woodenly "acting" is contrasted with her good acting, which is when she's literally just saying what she wants, not even as the character. As she goes on, she's able to take the character's she plays and find the connection to her own life that lets her internalize the character, but it makes it so the way she recalls the roles is very much caught up in her own life: she remembers her fight with her mom as the same fight a character had with Eiko in a scene, because she used the emotional intention and sense memory of the real fight in the acting fight.
Chris Dobson
2021-12-28 22:17:52 +0000 UTCI kinda wish I had more insightful commentary to make on the film but sadly there isn't much to say of it critically. It's a masterpiece of animation and cinema and Satoshi Kon was a genius who was taken from us far far too early.
Devin Hoffarth
2021-12-28 06:31:20 +0000 UTCThe part I really loved was chasing him (Turbo Man)
Scott Scallion
2021-12-28 05:35:57 +0000 UTCThis movie is free with ads on Tubi but word of warning: the ending is slightly ruined by the fact that as soon as it cut to credits the site autoplayed Jingle All the Way.
Matt Quintanilla
2021-12-27 23:02:48 +0000 UTCNot finished the episode yet, but just wanted to say Roujin Z is legitimately excellent- it's no Akira, but it's not intended to be. As a satire of how society treats the elderly, the automation of social care and the militarisation of technology, its perhaps as prescient as it's ever been and well worth a watch.
Adam Elmahdi
2021-12-27 23:01:35 +0000 UTC
