Gazing at Kaoru: star image in film adaptations of The Dancing Girl of Izu

In star vehicles, such as the serial adaptations of Kawabata Yasunari’s The Dancing Girl of Izu, it is often the image associated with the lead actors/actresses that takes the position of organizing the traits of main character(s). This article examines how and to what extent the star images of the actresses Tanaka Kinuyo and Wanibuchi Haruko have informed the ‘drift’ of alterations to the source in their respective turns of stepping into the role of the eponymous dancing girl, Kaoru. Observing how elements of the star’s real-life persona sometimes crawl into the film will help us to reconsider how the negotiation arising from the problematic fit between a star’s image and narrative character can expand rather than contain the creative possibilities of adapting literary works to the screen.