#konsatoshi

I actually liked this a lot better than Perfect Blue!

Pretty straightforward dramedy story of an elderly former actress recounting her career and a pursuit of a man she's always been in love with.

Just. Genya and Chiyoko, while with their flaws, eccentricities, and issues, both are pretty decent people! The two forming a sort of friendship at the end of her life is nice! And I appreciate that Genya tries to be a pretty well adjusted person, returning his favorite actress and life long idol's property to her, and tries to do a positive biography of her while she still has time!

The surreal visuals and way they tell the story is great to elevate what could be an otherwise down to earth movie. And while the movie ends on a sad note, it's actually pretty positive in many respects, as Chiyoko goes out on her own terms, the way she wants, and speaks of a certain idealism and romanticism I think populates Mr. Kon's works.

Uh, not sure I can say anything particularly revolutionary.

Very surreal film touching on the stranger-than-life nature of acting, being a celebrity, and the unreality and dissociative nature of being in such an industry. It also criticizes a certain permanent immaturity, eternal adolescence that was common in Japanese media at the time and arguably has become sort of a plague in modern media.

Though the best message to take from it is don't force yourself to grow up to quickly but don't remain obsessed with a false nostalgia of youth that things were 'better'.