Millennium Actress

Pros: Cleverly conceived, Visually appealing
Cons: Obscure, complex story, Subtitles difficult to follow

Japanese Writer/Director Satoshi Kon followed up on the success of his previous critically acclaimed anime film, Perfect Blue, with the 2001 Dreamworks release Millennium Actress. While considered by some to be a masterpiece in ...

Pros: Beautiful animation, interesting mystery, sophisticated storytelling structure, depth of character and theme
Cons: Sometimes confusing, potentially dated soundtrack

Japanese movie star Chiyoko Fujiwara retired thirty years ago, at the height of her acting career. When Ginei Studios' old properties are torn down, documentary director Genya Tachibana decides to commemorate one of Japan's great studios by interviewing ...

Pros: Brilliant conceptualization and realization: subtle, colorful, full of variety and interest.
Cons: An English overdubbing would have been nice as an option.

Anime has in the past been primarily a vehicle for childrens’ TV and films. Its basic métier has been SF, fantasy, horror, and similar fun things. No matter how much nudity, “bad” language, and violence a given ainime film might ...

Pros: animation, story, all of it
Cons: Nothing

This is an interesting anime that has a bit of an unusual story and some beautiful animation, some of it looked pretty darn real to me. The dialogue of this anime is in Japanese so you are going to have to read the subtitles. The storyline of this ...

Pros: Unique story and nice direction
Cons: May confuse some

Since this was released by Dreamworks and was from the director of the popular film "Perfect Blue." The director and co-writer Satoshi Kon also wrote the popular "Magnetic Rose" section of "Memories." The other co-writer, Sadayuki Murai, wrote the ...

Pros: beautiful art, touching story
Cons: subtitled

I really loved the eye candy that was this movie. It is beautiful to say the least, and it lifts your soul to see all the beautiful eras of Japan. There is fantastic comic timing with the camera man as he follows along through time to create the ...