Millennium Actress is a 2001 anime film directed by Satoshi Kon. The film follows the story of Genya Tachibana, a documentary filmmaker who is fascinated by the life of Chiyoko Fujiwara, a reclusive and mysterious actress who retired from the film industry at the height of her career.
Tachibana is surprised when he receives an invitation to visit Chiyoko's home to interview her. When he arrives, he finds her living in a dilapidated apartment with no signs of her former life as a famous actress.
Chiyoko tells Tachibana the story of her life, which is intertwined with the history of Japan throughout the 20th century. She relates her journey to become an actress and her search for a lost love, a man she met when she was young and who helped her escape during the chaos of wartime Japan.
Throughout the film, the line between Chiyoko's memories and her past film roles become increasingly blurred, with her life story unfolding through a series of flashbacks, each one seamlessly merging with a scene from one of her movies. The film explores themes of memory, love, and the power of storytelling, as Chiyoko's life story becomes a metaphor for the history of Japan.
As Tachibana listens to Chiyoko's story, he realizes that he has become emotionally invested in the actress, and that her life has had a profound impact on his own. In the end, the film's ambiguous ending suggests that reality and fiction are intertwined, and that the stories we tell ourselves can have a powerful and lasting impact on our lives.