Millennium Actress

Retired from public life, the famous Japanese actress Chiyoko Fujiwara accepts filmmaker Genya Tachibana’s invitation to collaborate on a documentary about her life. As she revisits the past, she guides us through her memories and the roles she has played, traversing different eras, from ancient Japan to a distant future. As the narrative unfolds, memory, fiction, and reality begin to merge: the films blend with real-life experiences, and the characters seem to traverse staged universes. In a nostalgic tribute to Japanese cinema—and to the very magic of cinema itself—Satoshi Kon once again crosses the boundary between reality and illusion, this time in a more melancholic tone.