Japanese filmmaker Fukada casts queasy gaze on J-pop idols

Exploitative contracts that force young female Japanese pop stars to forego relationships and sex are at the heart of director Koji Fukada’s latest film, which has premiered in Cannes.

- ADAM PLOWRIGHT

The 45-year-old director said he was inspired by a news report about a Japanese “idol”, as the starlets are known, who was sued by her management agency after breaking a “no dating” clause.

Fukada cast former idol Saito Kyoko in the lead role of his feature Love On Trial which tells the story of a young performer who undergoes a similar ordeal.

“I felt a deep discomfort, a real unease when I found out, and that’s what made me want to look into the subject a bit and then turn it into a screenplay,” he said in Cannes.