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Before reading further, I will point out that my actual review is found here, while this post will contain spoilers as well as my general impressions of the film’s plot and ending.  I should also mention that my “top ten anime list” has been modified to include Millenium Actress.  I thought long and hard about what it would replace, and finally had to decide on the removal of Ookiku Furikabutte.

I usually make it a habit of checking IMDB comments on films that I have just seen, and I was a little surprised to see some negative comments from people who felt like the last line of the film ruined the story.  This is because they thought that what the last line implied was that her quest to find the artist, which seemed to drive much of the film, was actually just a superficial “thrill of the chase”, without any more meaning, and that this made Chiyoko look like a vain person.

I don’t think that’s what Kon was aiming at, and I had a completely different interpretation of the film.  In the second half of the film, Chiyoko is already revealing the fact that she doesn’t even remember any firm details about the man, her memories of him are faint and inconsequential.  At the beginning, we may be driven into the idea of Chiyoko on a life-long quest for love, but the truth is that she didn’t really get to know the man well at all, not enough to sustain such a quest.  I think that what Kon is trying to build at, and what is so wonderfully summed up in the final line, is that Chiyoko wasn’t longing for the man she had met, she was longing for the childhood in which she had met him.  She was longing for her old, young, innocent self that could be so easily swept up in such feelings.  Trying to interpret the film as a straight love story, in my opinion, ignores a lot of the other layers that Kon added.   And it was that multi-layered approach which impressed me far more.

Of course, there are some pretty major symbols that Kon threw into the film to make us aware of it.  The one that sticks most in my mind is the old witch (wraith) who seems to haunt Chiyoko in several of her memories.  Late in the film, she looks into her reflection and sees the old woman looking back at her.  The “hag” was, of course, a projection of herself, or at least, Chiyoko’s view of herself.  This was her constant, looming fear – of becoming old, of losing her youth, of changing into something she didn’t wish to be.  This is why the dissident artist was so important to her, because it was the one remaining thread of her childhood and innocence, and by searching for him so fervently, she could remain bound to her youth and passion.  She had become a movie star, but it had never satisfied her.  What she longed for was to be able to remain as the girl who had dreamed of looking at the stars from the snowy fields of the artist’s imagination.

This all makes the wraith’s final line, as she looks at Chiyoko, that she “loves her and hates her more than she can bear”, such a poignant one.  Being a reflection of Chiyoko herself, the quote reflects her inner longing for that young, pure, optimistic girl she loved, versus the weary, aged actress who had pointlessly chased a faint memory that she was becoming.  When it is revealed that the artist had died many years earlier, we realize that the search itself had been futile and hollow.  In some ways, it extends beyond the film and speaks to everyone’s need for some greater, more satisfying goal or purpose in their lives that may not ever exist.  When I next watch the film, one of the things I will looking out for specifically is the moment or period in her life where her longing to find the man had subtly transformed into a longing for her old self.

It’s strange, in a way, how there is a great deal of sadness in this film, but it nevertheless leaves you with such a positive feeling once it’s over.  I found myself sympathizing and feeling sorry for Chiyoko for having what was essentially a fairly unrewarding life, yet her very existence, the culmination of everything she had went through, all of it seemed to come together to leave a distinctly affirming and positive impact on me.

Anyways, it’s a really wonderful film.  I think I had delayed watching Kon’s other films because they had often been described as “trippy”, which didn’t really sound very appealing to me, but what a mistake that was.