--- title: "Millennium Actress: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/millennium-actress/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/millennium-actress" critics_score: 82 critics_reviews: 7 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Millennium Actress (2002): what the critics said Critics' score 82 from 7 reviews: 7 positive, 0 mixed, 0 negative. The reviews are uniformly favourable; all seven land on the positive side. Praise clusters on Satoshi Kon’s handling of the shifts between an actress’s life and the films she appears in, with most critics singling out how history, fantasy and memory run into one another across Japanese film genres without the story losing its thread. The animation itself draws admiration for its fluidity and its transitions between scenes; several reviewers treat the film as a tribute to Japanese cinema, and more than one finds it romantic and gentle rather than merely clever. Reservations are mild and cluster on pacing and tone. The AV Club finds it melodramatic and at times disjointed, and Variety, writing from a festival screening, feels the invention flags after the first hour. The spread is narrow, from good to strong, with no dissenters; the disagreement is about how far the film’s playfulness sustains itself, not about whether it is worth watching. ## Slant Magazine — Ed Gonzalez Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 14 December 2019. Satoshi Kon’s landmark anime is a radical, Mulholland Drive-like work that masterfully blurs reality and fantasy through meta-cinematic conceits, a sweeping love poem to cinema itself, and Chiyoko’s eternal romantic quest across history and film genres. The review praises its infinite genius in palette, transitions, emotional depth, and the new 4K restoration that highlights its beauty. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/review-satoshi-kons-millennium-actress-on-shout-factory-blu-ray/) ## The New York Times — A. O. Scott Rating Critic’s Pick. 12 September 2003. The critic praises the film's sweeping, beautifully drawn blend of fantasy and history as a love letter to post-WWII Japanese cinema. He highlights its mythic dimension through the actress's intertwined personal quest and on-screen roles across eras. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/12/movies/film-review-to-the-samurai-and-godzilla-with-love.html) ## The Times — Ed Potton Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 1 October 2005. The critic calls it another absorbing yarn from Kon that makes full use of animation’s narrative as well as visual possibilities. It praises the swirling kaleidoscope of history and fantasy rooted in Japanese culture, with hints of Sunset Boulevard, and finds the voyage beguiling to the end. [Read the review](https://www.thetimes.com/travel/destinations/asia-travel/japan/millennium-actress-9vtjnhgz95d) ## Little White Lies — Kambole Campbell Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 25 January 2021. The critic praises Satoshi Kon’s film as a gentle, romantic meditation on cinema, memory and identity that turns the reality-bending style of Perfect Blue into something beautiful. It singles out the fluid animation and homages to Japanese film history for making the story of an actress’s life feel spiritually timeless. [Read the review](https://lwlies.com/home-ents/millennium-actress-satoshi-kon-cinema-love-letter) ## Los Angeles Times — Kenneth Turan Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 12 September 2003. The critic commends the inventive shredding of space and time in this animated feature, where past, present, fantasy, and reality merge through the documentary framing of a legendary actress's life and films. He singles out its visual legerdemain and rumination on movies' place in personal and collective memory as fascinating. [Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-sep-12-et-kenny12-story.html) ## The AV Club — Tasha Robinson Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 9 September 2003. Kon’s follow-up to Perfect Blue is more technically ambitious and sophisticated in its exploration of truth versus fiction and art’s blurring of reality, following an aging actress whose life story merges with her film roles across Japanese history in a meta love story and homage to cinema. The film is a visual feast and mental gymnastics routine with warm sentimental charm, humor, and powerful emotions despite its melodramatic and occasionally disjointed qualities. [Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/millennium-actress-1798198866) ## Variety — Derek Elley Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 14 December 2001. Festival review. The critic calls it a boldly conceived set of playful variations on Japanese film genres and the transparency of celebrity and memory, with brilliant invention amid some duller stretches. He notes the first hour's roller-coaster ride with memory and genre conventions before it loses some inventiveness. [Read the review](https://variety.com/2001/film/reviews/chiyoko-millennium-actress-1200552245/) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/millennium-actress.md