The late Anime autor Satoshi Kon's film was inspired by the lives of two popular 1950's Japanese actresses Hideko Takamine and Setsuko Hara. This movie tells the story of the career of composite actress Chiyoko Fujiwara from a child actress of the 1930's, to a major starlet of post war cinema, to decades of reclusive retirement starting in the 1960's.
Chorizo tells her story to a documentary film crew at the turn of the millenium, and through animation that crew is depicted as interacting with and filming Chorizono over the course of her life. Throughlines include Chorizono's mother never fully approving of her daughter's life choices, a decades long riverly with another actress, a complicated relationship with a director she would later marry and divorce, and a life long obsession with a man she meet once as a teenager and who she would regard as the love of life.
There is a lot I like here, but it never fully came together for me as I hopped, so I didn't get to the point where I could say I loved it. I liked it. Kon's next picture however, 2003's Toyko Godfathers, is a film I grew to love over my first viewing. There are four other films that Kon either wrote and/or directed before his death in 2010 from prostate cancer at the age of 46. I hope to get to those eventually. ***
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