From the visionary mind behind Perfect Blue and Paprika, Satoshi Kon’s Millennium Actress is a love letter to cinema, memory, and the lives we live on and off screen.
As the iconic Ginei Studios prepares to close its doors for good, filmmaker Genya Tachibana sets out to capture a piece of history by interviewing the studio’s most elusive star for a commemorative final documentary. Once one of Japan’s brightest talents, Chiyoko Fujiwara now lives a quiet, reclusive life. Yet, she warms to Tachibana as she begins to reflect on her past, and her stories draw him, his cameraman, and us, into a dreamlike journey through the golden age of Japanese film.
Fact and fiction blur into one, where roles, recollections and real events intertwine. And at the heart of it all lies a mystery: a lost key and a lost love.