"To girls we are products."
5 Stars
5 Stars
This documentary is like nothing I have ever witnessed. I guarantee no one else has seen this movie and it's contents will make for the best conversation starter.
This compelling film explores the rarely seen world of Japanese host boys, men who are paid to entertain wealthy women in exclusive nightclubs. Almost but not quite gigolos, more akin to male geishas, the host boys of Cafe Rakkyo share their secrets in
Jake Clennell's first documentary.
Purely fascinating. I watched it twice and may have to immerse myself in it one more time.
This boy host thing is a real part of Japanese culture, people just don't talk about it much. Young, well dressed (and tressed) men pick up girls on the streets with lines like "You look like my grade school teacher. You don't understand, I loved my grade school teacher." It looks so strange to see men street hustling for women. Once they lure these girls into the club to have a drink with them, the girl can choose from a photo menu of men as if ordering something from KFC.
And these men aren't cheap. The interviews with some of their female clients reveal that they can have spent $1,000 up to $7,000 in one night! The hosts themselves can make a salary of $10-50,000 a month.
Majority of that money is spent on champagne. These guys (and girls) down the stuff like frat kids!
Issei (above) is heavily profiled in the film and rightly so, he is Osaka's number one host boy. He says about the heavy drinking he does daily while entertaining, "I drink I throw up, I drink I throw up. I think my liver is fucked."
Sex? Yeah, they have it if the girl pays. But that's not their job. As one host put it, "If I have sex with her, at that point there won't be anything else I can give her." They chat, flirt heavily, and are great company for these women. "We try to heal them," they say is their main objective.
Director Jake Clennell does a great job of building this story and the facade of this operation. Showing the realism and guilt that comes along once the glam wears off, and true human emotion is exposed. These hosts are constantly talking about being tired and drained all the time. If you think about how much energy and confusion it takes for one man to chat up a single woman. Imagine if that man had to do that all day long with numerous women and be just as charming as the first time they met. And they are different men to different clients. "I get confused what my real personality is."
I can't stop thinking about these guys. Skinny, pale, and edgy? Where's my checkbook?!
But more than that, the service they provide is much more than some drinks and company for these women. Watch it.
Man, I need to go to Japan.
Plot summary courtesy of Netflix
This compelling film explores the rarely seen world of Japanese host boys, men who are paid to entertain wealthy women in exclusive nightclubs. Almost but not quite gigolos, more akin to male geishas, the host boys of Cafe Rakkyo share their secrets in
Jake Clennell's first documentary.
Purely fascinating. I watched it twice and may have to immerse myself in it one more time.
This boy host thing is a real part of Japanese culture, people just don't talk about it much. Young, well dressed (and tressed) men pick up girls on the streets with lines like "You look like my grade school teacher. You don't understand, I loved my grade school teacher." It looks so strange to see men street hustling for women. Once they lure these girls into the club to have a drink with them, the girl can choose from a photo menu of men as if ordering something from KFC.
And these men aren't cheap. The interviews with some of their female clients reveal that they can have spent $1,000 up to $7,000 in one night! The hosts themselves can make a salary of $10-50,000 a month.
Majority of that money is spent on champagne. These guys (and girls) down the stuff like frat kids!
Issei (above) is heavily profiled in the film and rightly so, he is Osaka's number one host boy. He says about the heavy drinking he does daily while entertaining, "I drink I throw up, I drink I throw up. I think my liver is fucked."
Sex? Yeah, they have it if the girl pays. But that's not their job. As one host put it, "If I have sex with her, at that point there won't be anything else I can give her." They chat, flirt heavily, and are great company for these women. "We try to heal them," they say is their main objective.
Director Jake Clennell does a great job of building this story and the facade of this operation. Showing the realism and guilt that comes along once the glam wears off, and true human emotion is exposed. These hosts are constantly talking about being tired and drained all the time. If you think about how much energy and confusion it takes for one man to chat up a single woman. Imagine if that man had to do that all day long with numerous women and be just as charming as the first time they met. And they are different men to different clients. "I get confused what my real personality is."
I can't stop thinking about these guys. Skinny, pale, and edgy? Where's my checkbook?!
But more than that, the service they provide is much more than some drinks and company for these women. Watch it.
Man, I need to go to Japan.
Plot summary courtesy of Netflix
3 comments:
wow, how interesting. you never know what's out there in the wide world. i had no idea that was going on. accross the universe. great review, tav.
shell
Um, NO, what you NEED to do is break yoself then get yo butt in the kitchen and make me a gotdamn sandwich!!
In other news, this movie was pretty interesting to me as far as how those guys would play the game along with the other whorish women who were playing the game along with them... until somebody would take it too far and actually get too attached and possessive, then the guys would start to get how guys get when a chick is being like that... they start dumping on them and talking shit.
I mean, either you're a whore or you're not. The other person is real and has their own twisted agenda as far as what you are to them, you can't decide that for them. Anyway, other than that, those guys are pretty and now I wanna go to Japan too... *drool*
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