"Star" is a short story by Yukio Mishima. It was originally published in the November 1960 issue of Gunzo, a literary magazine published by Kodansha. It was later included alongside "Patriotism" and in the short story collection of the same name,, which was published on 30 January 1961 by Shinchosha. Published shortly after Mishima had his first starring role in a film, "Star" tells the story of a popular young actor disillusioned with fame and the anxietes he has over his with his career and public image. Relatively forgotten in Japan and overshadowed by Mishima's other works, "Star" was later translated into English by Sam Bett. Bett's translation was published as a standalone novella in paperback format by New Directions Publishing on 30 April 2019 and through the Penguin Modern Classics series of Penguin Books on 4 April 2019. Bett was awarded the 2019–2020 Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature for his translation of Mishima's short story.
Background
"Star" was written either during or shortly after Mishima acted in the film Afraid to Die, a Yakuza film directed by Yasuzo Masumura. In the film, Mishima played a young gangster recently released from prison, where he served time for avenging the murder of his mobster boss father. It was his first starring role in a film. The process was physically and mentally draining for Mishima. Masumura was unsatisfied Mishima's acting skills, and demanded many retakes as a result. Production of the film was further marred when, on 1 March 1960, Mishima fell down an escalator and injured his head. He was hospitalized for nine days. Filming concluded on 15 March 1960, and Mishima told reporters the next day he "had had his fill of appearing in films." "Star" has been described as being "mostly forgotten" now in Japan and overshadowed by Mishima's other works. In Bett's translation, he changed the protagonist's original name, Yutaka, to Rikio, in part to help English-language readers "access the symbolism" of the story but also due to the phonetic similarity between Rikio and the name Takeo, the name of Mishima's character in Afraid to Die.
Plot
The story centers on Rikio "Richie" Mizuno, a twenty-three-year-old actor disillusioned with fame and the film industry. He acts in a series of films where he plays a tough and hardened Yakuza gangster. Rikio prides himself for his appearance and physical build, and is adored by crowds of obsessive fans. However, in the story, Rikio is dominated by an anxiety about himself and he repeatedly expresses both fear and excitation over the inevitability of his aging. He finds emotional and sexual release through his relationship with Kayo, his personal assistant and lover. She is an unattractive women, but Rikio is drawn to her authenticity. She is honest in her characterizations of herself, including her physical appearance and her age, especially when compared to the youthful Rikio. She often mocks Rikio to his face about his body, his flamboyant and flirtatious lifestyle, stardom, copious letters of fan mail as well as the starlets he acts alongside in films. Her authenticity contrasts with Rikio's inauthenticity, with the masks he wears as an actor daily and the false public persona and bravado he has carefully cultivated for his fans and the media. In one scene, an aspiring actress ambushes Rikio while his filming on set. She succeeds in persuading the director of the film to write a role for her into the script. However, her charm wears off on the director as she messes up the part and reveals herself rather unskilled in acting. After being cut from the script, she escapes to the dressing and attempts suicide. In the dramatic scene, everyone on the set witnesses as she is saved by a doctor who she repeatedly attempts to push away to stop interfering with her suicide attempt. The studio's public relations team spins the story as Rikio intervening to save the woman's life. Kayo and Rikio later laugh about the incident, with Kayo mocking the actresses dramatic flailing and protestations.
Reception
Translation
Bett's translation, published in 2019 as the novella Star, received mostly favourable reviews from critics. At the review aggregator website Book Marks, which assigns individual ratings to book reviews from mainstream literary critics, the novella received a cumulative "Positive" rating based on 7 reviews: 3 "Rave" reviews, 3 "Positive" reviews, and 1 "Pan" review. Publishers Weekly wrote, "Mishima is a master of the psychological: he blurs distinctions between Rikio's identity and the characters he plays in disorienting but never jarring transitions between movie scenes and reality." In a less favourable review, Kirkus Reviews wrote that "the weightless story is mercifully brief." In the Los AngelesReview of Books, Jan Wilm wrote, "Even if Star is a relatively minor work in the pantheon of Mishimas greatness, it is an exquisite contemplation of existence and death, and Mishima's prose is extremely powerful and the translation finely executed." Thomas Gebremedhin of The Wall Street Journal called it "pitch-perfect novella" and "a stunning addition to the oeuvre of one of postwar Japans greatest storytellers." In The New York Times Book Review, musician and writer Patti Smith called the novella "a startlingly modern, hypervisual jewel." In his review in The Kenyon Review, Daniel Felsenthal wrote that Bett "manages to preserve a difficult balance of precision and lyricism that captures Mishima's coldly ecstatic voice". Bett's translation was also reviewed in The Times Literary Supplement, The Japan Times, The Japan News, Booklist, Complete Review, PopMatters, Columbia Journal, and Spectrum Culture.
