Hara Setsuko was so beautiful, and she had so many male fans. I thought she certainly wasn’t like other girls … When she died last year, so many men came to the Bunpaku memorial event, they were standing in the aisles, and there were no empty seats scattered about as usual. She really had a lot of male fans. But I always felt, how would you put it, she was a bit above everything. Maybe there were people like that in real life, you know, well, kind of closing their hearts and living out their whole lives alone. I thought, ‘Well, I guess there is also that kind of way to live’ (sō iu ikikata mo arun da nā to omoimashita). (Koyama san 2016)

The star phenomenon consists of everything that is publicly available about stars. A film star’s image is not just his or her films, but the promotion of those films and of the star through pin-ups, public appearances, studio handouts and so on, as well as interviews, biographies and coverage in the press of the star’s doings and ‘private’ life. Further, a star’s image is also what people say or write about him or her, as critics or commentators. (Dyer 2004: 2–3)