Tokyo Idols

Girl bands and their pop music permeate every moment of Japanese life. Following an aspiring pop singer (Rio) and her fans, Tokyo Idols explores a cultural phenomenon driven by an obsession with young female sexuality, and the growing disconnect between men and women in hyper-modern societies.

To the western world, Japanese culture is quite a mystery, especially the sexual aspects. This is a country that sells used underwear in vending machines and makes animated pornography featuring squids. Even the school "sailor" uniforms have become highly fetishized (though, in fairness, so have Catholic skirts in America).

"Tokyo Idols" does not explore a topic that is explicitly sexual, but does seem to have that aspect lurking just below the surface. Die-hard fans of grown men called "otaku" practice what they call a religion of following young women around as they sing and dance. One man, a transportation worker, comes across as especially creepy, paying $2,000 each month to follow a teenager he admits he is romantically interested in.

Critics of the otaku say Japanese men "worship virginity" and "fear strong women"; but, again to be fair, this is not all that different from American pop stars and beauty pageants. The film is fascinating in how it covers so many angles of what could be a simple topic: the path to success for young women, whether the fans are creeps or father figures, and just the sheer abundance of idols (10,000) in Tokyo alone! "Tokyo Idols" screens July 26, 2017 at the Fantasia International Film Festival. For those who love cultural documentaries, this is a must-see. Japan is a strange place, and this film only adds to the mystery.

This documentary casts a balanced eye over a very strange phenomenon I had never even heard of, the Idol culture of Japan. This essentially amounts to teenage girls who double as pop singers and objects of idolisation for a fan-base. So far, not very strange, but the catch here is that the biggest percentage of the fans are older men, many in the 40s. It is a very strange spectacle to see older men faun over teenage girls in quite this way. Clearly, by this very fact this is by default a pretty controversial subject. In the west, such young girls would have fan-bases of even younger girls, not older men. So, there is a troubling aspect to the whole phenomenon where the motivations of many of the fans must clearly by somewhat dark in nature. While the sub-culture involving the even younger pop idols definitely seemed to be coming from a questionable place. But when watching this I couldn't help but sense a cultural gap that I could never quite bridge. I could never really understand the motivations of the men who followed these teenage girls, it remained very odd indeed and it did seem to stem from a Lolita sub-culture which is embedded in Japan in some complex way. It was partially disturbing, yet bizarrely innocent on a different level – I essentially left the theatre baffled by it all.

This is a good documentary movie. It really reflects the real life of an "average" idol in Japan.

However, there are much more to discuss about this "Idol Phenomenon" in Japan.

Unfortunately, this film didn't discuss much more beyond what other Japanese documentary has already covered. But for English speaking audience this may be their first time understanding a small part of this unique social event in Japan.

I did a bit studies in this phenomenon.

AKB48 is briefly mentioned in this film. As a milestone of idol industry, their new approach to audience and business model are already deeply discussed in many Japanese documentary movies. This is probably

There are also many "underground idols" struggle very hard to get more fans and publicity. They have to live a ghetto life because they aren't making enough money while they are chasing their dreams. A couple of Japanese documentary has revealed it.

Until now, there are only books but not yet a film discuss two new phenomenons in this industry.

The first one is the impact of the social network. It burst a huge change to this industry. And there are always new things changed every year. For example, SHOWROOM, which showed up during this movie, was a mainstream "idol-focus" live streaming website. It's the most important live streaming website for idol industry in year 2017.

The second one is how "local idols" start to really mean it. NGT48 was not the first idol group focus on local audience and work with local enterprise. But NGT48 was the first idol group actually boost up the GDP of the local area(Niigatta Prefecture in this case), acknowledged by local government, residents, and enterprise.

Japan is the only country that has so many idols and mascots that many festivals and conferences have audience and participants for more than 10,000 people, thus budget and income.

An interesting glimpse to businesses, market, culture and a demographics by the accounts of the people on it. The documentarian is barely there, never to be heard. However the camera speaks by moving portraits of the people and the city. The comments of the executives are cold and brash compare to the hype and alacrity of the young women they work with, as well as the melancholic hope evident in the fans. Overall the documentary conveys a portrait of isolation and loneliness, a glimpse of how patriarchy and market can exploit both genders most sublimes human characteristics.

Will spark jealousy in Western Karens and those stuck with Western Karens.

I bet people do not surmise that the director is likely a femcel who sports short hair. And I say this not even knowing her.

To hate on a whole class of talent and despise nature, natural attraction and love for the opposite sex takes some kind of a temerity and that kind of temerity manifests itself in the form of a so-called documentary here.

For the rest of us normal, natural and seeing people: The film depicts idols (Japanese pop stars) who are attractive, sport healthy body types and work on their talents and for their audiences 24x7.

The film tries on a line of attack. It fails. No montage can stand in the way of beauty.