THE FOLLOWING WEBSITE IS SUPPORTED BY: 

Back to the interview page

Q&A

August 8, 2003 — The following is an unedited Q&A with Millennium Actress director Satoshi Kon and screenwriter Sadayuki Murai, which has been translated directly from Japanese to English.

Q&A provided by Dreamworks.

Who is Chiyoko and how did you come up with this idea that the heroine's desperately determined wish makes her transcend time and space? Is there an actual actress who inspired you to write this story?

Kon: "It was not something I had thought about for a long time. I came up with this story when we reached the planning phase for the film. I didn't have the image of the heroine with a desperately determined wish from the beginning. I just wanted to make a movie like a "trompe l'oeil". Then I realized that the concept of an actress fit this project perfectly. A heroine with a desperately determined wish became necessary to consummate the episodes with the consistency to be intricately entangled.

There is no specific actress as the foundation of Chiyoko; however, Setsuko Hara is somewhat similar to this concept as an actress who abruptly retires and disappears from the screen. I also had the image of Hideko Takamine, who had offered bright hopes to the nation in postwar Japan."

You adopted a double structure of reality and fiction in your previous film, "Perfect Blue." We can see the same structure in this film as well.

Kon: "I agreed with Mr. Murai that we could have the audience feel the same sense of anxiety or intoxication by interweaving truth and fiction, as the heroine experienced in "Perfect Blue." I adopted the concept of intricately tangling the truth and fiction to make the film more impactful."

In developing the screenplay, how did you combine Chiyoko's story with elements of Japanese history ?

Murai: "I wanted to intertwine fragments of Japanese history with the story of her [Chiyoko's] life. In terms of craftsmanship, I wrote the screenplay underscoring the fact that she is the one telling the story. In other words, what she is telling is more significant than how the actual events took place."

The film changes from present day to different historical periods such as the Edo Period and the Meiji Period, even going far back to the Warring States period. Did this create a challenge for you?

Kon: "Most modern Japanese have specific images of the Edo Period, which are not necessarily the actual Edo Period. Television and movies have created those particular images. For instance, when Akoh Roushi, a group of 47 samurais staged a revenge attack for their lord in January 1703, it was a requisite that the scene be snowy, regardless of historical verification. What we included is our image of history. I wanted Chiyoko to run through such images. Historical verification doesn't really matter in this case. We created this film with our own vision of Japanese history. Obviously, I was very careful in the scenes where historical events took place. Otherwise, we might end up exposing our ignorance of history to the public. The most challenging part was determining which historical periods and scenes to adopt for the film. We repeatedly had discussions before reaching the final decision on the screenplay."

Murai: "We adopted many historical events which were interpreted into movies. The reason why we adopted Manchuria in the film is not simply because movies about Manchuria were produced back then, but, also, we wanted to express how vibrant the cinema industry was even during the gloomy prewar days."

Kon: "Chiyoko is an innocent girl whose first love is the most important thing to her despite the fact that Japan was in a politically sensitive time of rightwing bias in those days. Chiyoko never loses her innocence even after she gets older. Yet she matures. Since the length of this film is limited, I couldn't take time to describe the process of her maturity from a girl to a woman, so I attempted to express it with symbols. For example, Snow White had a coffin made of glass; Rapunzel was confined to a tower and rescued; Chiyoko is confined to a jail and then escapes. This image is of death and rebirth. Chiyoko is held responsible for being a member of society after escaping from the jail. In terms of a fairy tale or old folk tale, I had an image of Kaguya Hime (Princess Moon), who travels far beyond the moon."

It seems that numerous images overlap. Describe how you used images to underscore the symbolic messages in Millennium Actress.

Kon: "We consider rubble as very significant in terms of symbolic expression. The film studio turns into rubble, and this symbolizes old Chiyoko. There are piles of rubble from the Great Tokyo Earthquake when Chiyoko was born. The town is filled with rubble in the postwar, and then rubble from the studio appears again at the end of the film. Rubble is a symbol expressing death and rebirth orsomething like that. I didn't clearly intend it from the beginning. I was not aware but seeking it. While I was drawing the storyboard to embody such images, I realized, 'Oh, I just drew rubble againI see, that's what it means.' This way, I discovered the meaning of the symbols and developed the story while drawing them. This applies to the action of running. At the beginning, a body movement called running is done simply by two legs. As time elapses, the movement shifts to a horse, a bicycle, a car, a train, a boat and a rocket. This is also the history of modern Western science. However, her ultimate destination is somewhere she cannot reach with the help of modern science. The first rocket you see is a symbol of science, but the one that appears at the end of is not. The audience can enjoy it more this way. We have incorporated different layers of events in the film apart from the superficial story. So, I want each audience to find its own viewpoint on this film."

You must have been careful in interpreting the facial expressions and character design according to each different historical period.

Kon: "It is rare to see an animated film about a woman's life. I put a mole on Chiyoko's face as a mark to maintain the consistency, knowing that I could not technically distinguish some details. When I considered a time period of 70 to 80 years, I realized that it would be weird if a person remained completely unchanged. I didn't care for details too much. -- there could be many different Chiyokos."

Murai: "As far as the consistency of Chiyoko's action patterns are concerned, I originally had an idea to make Chiyoko escape from a beleaguered environment. What I mean by beleaguered is when she is incorporated in the system of the film studio, she always finds a way out. Earlier in the film, she escapes in Manchuria. Later when she is a prostitute in the red-light district, she tries to escape. Being in confinement is part of our process to adapt to the social system in the modern society. In the case of Chiyoko, she steps out with the power of love. I wanted to express something like her exhilaration. There is always someone to block her way. That is Eiko Shimao."

Kon: "Eiko Shimao represents the general knowledge of life. We once considered her to be a mother figure to provide an education to Chiyoko. On the other hand, the Man of Key and the Man of Scar both have elements of a father figure. The Man of Key tolerates and the Man of Scar always controls. When we reached a point where the story is about Chiyoko seeking her love, we assumed that she has a family environment without a father. Whom did she specifically seek? It could be rather her inner father figure, her eternal ideal man."

Describe Tachibana's role in the telling of Chiyoko's story.

Murai: "First of all, Chiyoko is the one telling the story. We interpreted her inner self which no one else would have ever known. In addition to that, this interviewer tells his story along with her story. The audience comes to know both stories. We developed the structure in such a way so that only when the two stories overlap, the entire view of this film appears in front of your eyes. When you listen to Chiyoko's story alone, you can see only her subjective view of the story. But, when Tachibana's story comes into the scene, you obtain a full-scale perspective."

Kon: "There is a scene that changes from Chiyoko's memories to Tachibana's. I created that particular moment, telling myself how acrobatic it was to shift her memories to another person's memories. After all, everything was derived from an idea of 'trompe l'oeil", you know."

This is your first original film based on your original story. How challenging was it?

Kon: "I didn't find the process of creating the story and drawings particularly difficult just because it was my original. But it seemed challenging to be accepted. Everyone in the industry responded very low-key without exception when they heard the story of Chiyoko. After its completion, I heard such comments as 'it has the true essence of animation,' and 'its free-spirited ideas are pleasant.' No one says it's extravagant. Since everyone kept asking me, 'why are you making a film which is not even close to animation?', I had this perverse idea that I don't like something if I feel it is like animation'. The response to this film is very encouraging. I feel somewhat like, 'See, I did it!'

Describe your thoughts on the film's upcoming release in the United States.

Kon: "I am well aware that my film is not in the main stream of the animation industry. What makes me happy is that exposing general audiences to films like "Millennium Actress" could lead to endless possibilities for animation. "Millennium Actress" is a film that pursues how each scene is connected to another scene. Given that in the current trend of the industry, animated films with circus-like visuals are admired, I am extremely happy to know that people are drawn to this type of quality in animated films."

Millennium Actress Production Notes

Satoshi Kon Interview 

Q&A

Return to Top