A couple of days ago, when discussing Hayano Uta's (早野诗) retirement work, a friend expressed confusion: "If an actress can just quit like that, do production companies and agencies treat contracts like a joke?"
Actually, many actresses retire before their contracts are fully completed.
Bstar, an agency alone, has had two actresses prematurely terminate their contracts with S1. One is "Tsubasa," who once shone brightly at AV Open, known for her deadly riding position; the other is Hayano Uta, who recently released her retirement work. Additionally, Sonoda Mion, who withdrew from the TRE Taipei International Adult Exhibition citing health reasons and later retired, also left before completing her contract. In this industry, whether for agencies or production companies, actresses leaving before fulfilling their contracts is a daily occurrence.
So, do they all really treat contracts like a joke?
Of course not. For example, when Mion Sonoda resigned, Presitge sued her for compensation, leading to the dissolution of her agency. Arina Hashimoto's AV career was suspended twice due to contract disputes. This shows that production companies and agencies don't treat contracts lightly...
So, do all retiring actresses have to pay compensation to leave?
Of course not. This industry doesn't operate like a typical business. Even if the relationship is irreparable, everything is still negotiable. For agencies, even if an actress's contract isn't finalized or her exclusive contract with a production company isn't completed, switching to another agency isn't out of the question. The key is how the money is split (the original agency retains the contract fees, and there's a chance for a cut from the new job; it depends on the negotiation. We'll have a perfect example to show you in August), whether to use a new stage name or keep the old one, and even the distribution of screen time for the actress's work... In the past, I wrote articles introducing actresses changing... There's often a perception that new agencies take over everything, but after seeing several contracts recently, I've realized that some actresses only switch agencies after much negotiation between their old and new employers. Things like who manages the work and how the compensation is split are all agreed upon...
And what about the production companies? That makes it even simpler. Generally speaking, if an actress decides she doesn't want to continue, the production company won't make things difficult for her; most of the time, the contract is simply voided. It's not that everyone is merciful, but there are just too many situations involving actresses in this industry. As long as it's not malicious intent to switch to another production company, everyone is accommodating.
However, this also leads production companies to offer very short contracts to prevent significant losses. On one hand, the industry is too competitive now, and actresses' popularity fades quickly; on the other hand, there are too many situations involving actresses, so reducing risk is crucial. Getting a three-year exclusive contract like Yokoyama Miyuki did in the past is a pipe dream. So what kind of things would a production company absolutely not allow and would definitely pursue to the end? The most serious issue right now is exclusive actresses privately taking on doujinshi (adult video) jobs (like uncensored sellers on FC2). The reason isn't hard to understand: I pay a lot of money to sign you, and you secretly go off to do it with other people, which is bad enough, but to film it, and even sell uncensored videos that many people like, is absolutely unacceptable.
This is the current attitude of production companies and agencies towards contracts. Unless a superstar actress disappears without a trace or the production company and agency feel their dignity has been trampled on, everyone can sit down and talk.
