Tokyo Idols
Part of the Documentaries Strand
Kyoko Miyake
PG
89 mins
2017
Canada, UK
Japanese
Director of Photography: Van Royko
Editor: Anna Price
Produced by: Kyoko Miyake, Bob Moore, Felix Matschke
Music: David Drury
Screenplay by: Kyoko Miyake
Director Bio
Kyoko Miyake
Director Bio
Japanese director, Kyoko Miyake moved to Britain to research History of Witchcraft at Oxford, having read History at Tokyo University. Her latest documentary film, Brakeless, was supported by BBC/ITVS/IKON/NHK/DR and won the prestigious Peabody Award 2014. Hackney Lullabies won the Berlin Today Award 2011 at the Berlin Film Festival.
An eye-opening delve into the uniquely Japanese phenomenon of ‘idols’, the thousands of teenage Japanese girls who favour manga-style attire and sell themselves as pop stars – both live and on-line – and the largely middle-aged men – or ‘otaku’ as they are known – who obsessively follow them around and pay to have their photos taken with them. Kyoko Miyake’s striking film is non-judgmental in its wry approach, and while some of the men’s obsession with the very young idols is disturbing, the lines are never crossed and sex is never mentioned, despite being the subtext.
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