Chiyoko Fujiwara and Genya Tachibana, the protagonists of MILLENIUM ACTRESS. |
[SPOILER ALERT] This analysis naturally reveals a lot about the storylines of the works discussed.
The first page
Novelists usually introduce us to characters, settings, conflicts and tone of a novel in the first few paragraphs, quite often on the very first page. Most of the time we do not consciously take in all of this information. It nevertheless shapes our expectations and influences our decision to read on. Sometimes a narrator even foreshadows the outcome or parts of the narrative arc as can be seen on the first page of two of my favorite novels:
Harper Lee: To Kill a Mockingbird |
In Harper Lee's
To Kill a Mockingbird the first three paragraphs tell us that the narrator is
relating events that happened some time ago in her childhood. The first
sentence belongs to her older brother who used to be a primary source of
knowledge to her at the time and whose broken elbow marked the end of a chain
of "events leading to his accident" - in fact, the events that make
up most of the novel's storyline.
Already in the
second sentences she addresses the recurring motif of fears that are finally
assuaged but define much of the atmosphere, especially in connection with the
Ewell family as well as the children's interest for their reclusive neighbor
Boo Radley. By the end of the third paragraph, the narrator's father Atticus -
the novel's most beloved character - is introduced as a wise but unconventional consultant on what
is right or wrong
Only then the
narrator delves into the quasi-prologue of the family history and the Southern
sense of ancestral roots. But now the reader is already hooked and at least
wants to know why Jem broke his arm and why both Jem and the narrator can be right about who
started what.
Many of the
same narrative devices can be found in a much more recent and experimental
novel like Paul Auster's City of Glass:
Paul Auster: City of Glass |
The narrator is
again concerned with how "it" all began and how much time has passed
since then. In fact, the key to the whole book is right there at the end of the
first paragraph: "The question is the story itself, and whether or not it
means something is not for the story to tell." Even though the second
paragraph begins with "As for Quinn, there is little that need detain us.
Who he was, where he came from, and what he did are of no great
importance.", the reader is provided with information about Quinn's age,
relationships, work, personal interest and that "what he liked to do was
walk".
The opening scene of MILLENNIUM ACTRESS
A similar
interplay of parallel realities and subjective perception is at work in Satoshi
Kon's anime MILLENNIUM ACTRESS. When you see the film for the first time, you
only gradually realize how great this opening scene was:
If we take into account all we know by the end of the movie, we see how well this completely mysterious scene prepares us for the following story:
Synopsis: A beautiful girl named Chiyoko Fujiwara falls in love with a mysterious stranger she has only met briefly. Searching for her long lost love defines her adult life as a travelling actress. At least in her memories she practically acts out her own story in films set in different historical eras and genres. After 30 years of living in seclusion, Genya Tachibana – a former employee of her film company who she did not remember but who saved her life and has been secretly in love with her for decades – is granted one last interview and thereby learns that she is still driven by her yearning for the stranger.
The moon and beyond
The moon as a visual motif. |
Plant: Chiyoko meeting the stranger who links the moon to hope. |
In a subjective flashback that mixes blurred memories, fever dreams and scraps of a movie plot Chiyoko even travels to the moon - only to find that her lover has already left.
The "lonely white landscape" later on changes between moon and snow. |
A final farewell
In the best dramatic tradition, we enter the scene in the last possible moment when the astronauts
say goodbye. Soon we realize that MILLENNIUM ACTRESS on the whole is about an
actress' farewell. From the sparse dialogue we overhear, it becomes clear that
the woman is looking for another man while the astronaut on the platform would like
her to stay knowing that she may embark on her last journey. So we already know
that Chiyoko is determined to sacrifice everything in order to be with her
object of desire.
Doppelgänger and Alternate Realities
Then we get a
closer shot /reverse shot situation when the young man on the platform tries to
hold her back by confessing his true feelings. More importantly however, Kon
cuts to an extreme close-up of an older man mimicking the young man's words we
now hear coming from a video tape creating an audiovisual link between the two men while doubling the hint that this will be a story about longing for someone who will be out of reach forevermore.
In a film titled MILLENNIUM ACTRESS we most
likely expect to see scenes of movies within the movie. So it only takes a few
sounds, bluish color and fragments of VHS cassettes in the background for us to understand that he is watching a movie. Apparently this man has seen the
scene many times before.
Much later, Chiyoko learns that Genya was a young assistant who once saved her life. |
The
following group of shots emphasizes the connection between the young astronaut
and the old man in front of the tv screen. But then Kon creates an impossible
shot - reverse shot juxtaposition of the old man in his room and the astronaut
actress.
Top: reflection; middle and bottom: a shot/reverse shot across time and space. |
Since lonely
middle aged men gazing at beautiful movie actresses has become such a well-worn
stereotype, we might not yet understand that Kon has just established not only
the actual male protagonist (Genya) of MILLENNIUM ACTRESS but also the core
relationship that motivates the whole movie. This setup emphasizes the fact,
that - as we later find out - the relationship is basically one-sided with the
man gazing at an inaccessible object of desire.
Moreover, we
are getting prepared for the movie's formal structure of seamlessly matching shots
across time and reality levels in a rather unobtrusive, comprehensible way. When this farewell scene recurs in the last part of the film, Genya as a middle aged man will actually be there in the frame which by then we have learned to accept as Chiyoko's memory filtered through the interviewer's own perception and imagination.
And if
you pay close attention you can see the reflection of the young man (above) observing
the rocket launch. Reflections are fairly common in subjective films about
self-reflexive characters. But as you can see in the pair of screenshots below
(from later in the film) Kon draws parallels between Chiyoko's life and her
movies by exchanging characters from her life (in this case her mother) with
characters/actors from her movies (her senior rival Eiko). Although Chiyoko
herself is in both scenes, first we see her real reflection and in the
soundstage scene we see the ghostly reflection that haunts her.
Genya in the frame during an intense re-imagining of their shared memory. |
Later in the film, reflections are not always what they appeared to be. |
Earthquakes
Then the take off
does not only shake the frame within the video but metaphysically affects the
viewing situation as well - or so it seems. Even the tapes and discs around
Genya fall off the shelf as if he were close to the rocket.
But what could easily have been an expression of the emotionally agitated protagonist's
subjective perception is finally revealed as an objective earthquake.
Unfortunately, I do not know what the actual Japanese wording is but the
English and German subtitles imply that earthquakes are quite common to these
characters because when the lights go on again, Genya does not say "oh, an
earthquake" but rather "That was a big one!"
It
later becomes clear that earthquakes have been pivotal in both Chiyoko's life
(e.g. being born during the 1923 Great Kanto earthquake) and in Genya's relationship
with her.
Then
we really see Genya's office for the first time and from the dialogue we learn
that he is the long haired young man's boss and that they are about to leave
for an assignment. As it turns out, they are about to interview Chiyoko, the
very actress we have seen as an astronaut.
Non-Linear storytelling
There
is one last formal information left, however: just before Genya leaves his office, he
rewinds the VHS tape in play mode and primes us for the fact that MILLENNIUM
ACTRESS will not only seamlessly alternate between reality and film but jump
around in time. As it later turns out, this space adventure was Chiyoko's very last film before her withdrawal into seclusion for 30 years. And the image below will be one of the last shots of MILLENNIUM ACTRESS as well. While it is not uncommon to begin a film full of flashbacks with an enigmatic scene the significance of which will be understood only after it is replayed at the end, here we are introduced to both Genya's story about interviewing Chiyoko (forward) as well as Chiyoko's trip down memory lane (backwards) in the same frame.
During the immediately following credits sequence everything around Genya triggers memories of Chiyoko's films which Kon juxtaposes based on visual connections. |
Within less than
two minutes, Kon has introduced the protagonists and their relationship as well as the setting, tone and narrative
structure while planting bits of information that only pay off up to 70 minutes later.
Hold back the key!
However
much is alluded to in the opening scene, the narration holds back one crucial
piece of information until an excited Genya meets Chiyoko face to face: the
literal key that triggers her memory, has guided her life for many years and is
instrumental in revealing Genya's true feelings for her.
Thank you for writing up a post about this wonderful film. Kon was a fantastic filmmaker whose works deserve more study.
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