Millennium Actress (2001)

After watching The Wind Rises, I read some material about the film, and someone made a reference to this film, Millennium Actress, which was supposed to be a great Japanese animated film.  I had never heard of it before, so I decided to check it out.

The film has a bit of an odd feel to it.  The animation was less soft or appealing that is usual with most Japanese animated films.  Still the story, and the constant changing of setting made making this film animated the only way to keep the budget low.  Except for that, there is really no reason this film needed to be an animated film.

The film had really left you lacking as the ending .  It's one of those cases where the so called "McGuffin", the item (or person) people are searching for is supposedly irrelevant.  It's the chase that makes the story.  But we are lead to beleive their is some great significant purpose for that McGuffin.  The real answer comes from the fact that both the character and the director is capable of stating that something is important, when they don't have anything to justify why give it such status.

A friend of mine felt the same way about the ark in Raider's of the Lost Ark, but I only partially recognized her point.  After all, it was one of the greatest chases ever made and you did get to see what the power of the ark was capable of, but if the ark was supposedly left to be used by the America's it would either have changed history or resulted in everyone having to keep their eyes closed for 10 minutes each time it was opened (even the enemy could do that).