Tokyo Idols
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
An idol and her middle-aged male fans — the economy of gazed-at girlhood.
Tokyo Idols, a documentary by the Japanese film-maker Kyoko Miyake made as a British and Canadian co-production with the BBC, premiered at Sundance in January 2017. It looks at Japan's idols, girls and young women who sing and dance for a mostly male following, through one performer and the men around her. By the film's account, about 10,000 teenage girls in Japan call themselves idols.
Rio Hiiragi, RioRio to her fans, is 19 when the film begins, old for an idol. 'I can't do this forever,' she says; for her the idol circuit is training for a career as a singer. She runs it like a small business from a bedroom of stuffed animals, livestreaming every day, answering letters and packing merchandise orders herself, and she cycles across Japan to perform on makeshift stages for fans who know her only online.
Her core fans, the RioRio Brothers, wave glow sticks in matching yellow shirts and chant together. Their informal leader, Koji Yoshida, 43, spends thousands of dollars a year on concerts and handshake events, where fans pay for a photograph and a minute or two of talk. He calls his own life easy and mediocre, and says that helping Rio chase her dream made him believe he could do more with it. Other fans mention girlfriends they nearly married before choosing idols instead. The film then shows younger and younger performers, among them a ten-year-old meeting her fans, and a fan who says that if the girls were older they would not interest him.
Economists, sociologists and journalists link the fandom to recession and to men who feel unable to marry; the writer Minori Kitahara argues that idol culture teaches women to seek men's approval. By the end Rio is 21. She signs a recording contract, works with the composer Hyadain, and says that as a professional singer she is now an artist, not just an idol.
Starring
Rio HiiragiHerself
An idol, 19 when filming starts, who runs her own career, cycles across Japan to meet fans and wants to become a professional singer.
Koji YoshidaHimself
A 43-year-old who has left his salaried job, the informal leader of Rio's fan club, spending thousands of dollars a year on her concerts and events.
Minori KitaharaHerself
A writer and activist who gives the film its feminist critique of idol culture and the male fantasies it serves.
Why it matters
Tokyo Idols asks what is being bought and sold when grown men pay for time with girls and young women whose value is tied to their youth. It sets out the economy plainly: livestreams every day, CDs, concerts and handshakes for a price, and a career in which nineteen already counts as old. It does not turn its men into monsters. Koji's loneliness, and the brotherhood the fans find in each other, are given room, and Rio is shown as the clear-eyed manager of her own small business. That is what makes it uneasy to watch. It shows a system in which everyone can say they chose it, then lets a feminist critic name what that choice protects. The question it leaves is who decides what a girl is worth, and how early she learns the answer.