MovieChat Forums > The Great Happiness Space: Tale of an Osaka Love Thief (2006) Discussion > I can't stop thinking about this one...

I can't stop thinking about this one...

posted 17 years ago by TracesOfLove
11 replies | jump to latest

What really gets me is that the majority of business for the hosts is like %99 women who are also hostesses or work in other areas of the sex industry. This is so interesting on so many levels! It's so telling of our society. Not just Japan but everywhere. It just seems that here it is spelled out so remarkably! Women so in need for love and companionship, seek out men in the very same way men seek out them. They take the money from men and give it to other men to get the same thing they dish out. It's mind boggling! Much like prostitutes do what they do for their pimps, these women do for their hosts. I would like to know more about this. I did get a book called Pink Box by Joan Sinclair that takes the reader inside Japan's sex clubs. It's really fascinating! One of the scariest clubs I read about are these rooms that guys can watch women through peepholes and the women never know what these men look like. The internet is full of stuff like this. But unlike the internet there is less anonymity. I would imagine it would not be hard to follow a woman after work, stalk her, even 'accidently' meet her in order to pursue a relationship and the woman would never know it. That is so creepy!

The most disturbing club I've heard of, I'm not sure if it is even real but it wouldn't surprise me if it were:

http://inventorspot.com/articles/pork_your_pork_6934

I see no beauty here, nor fit for breeding.

[–] mnoe 16 years ago

One of the most interesting things about the structure of the film is the "reveal" about the women's occupation. From that point on, it seemed to me the film required the viewer to change his/her view more than once, back and forth, about just who is exploiting whom in the rather complicated sexual politics involved in this "lifestyle."

I would have loved to see a dvd extra or two -- mostly an interview with the director and/or the translator working on the project.

In any case, this was a fascinating glimpse into a subculture about which I had not a speck of knowledge before seeing the film.

last 2 views: The Shining Hour (1938) & Arranged (2007)

[–] TeeWee30 15 years ago

I just saw this film. I couldn't believe it when one girl said she broke up with her fiance for Issei. I just paused it in shock. I didn't have a clue about these clubs either until I saw this.

Its just a small slice of the irony of how if it weren't a business transaction they just might find real love.

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[–] strasse3 14 years ago

Nobody seem to have gotten this film. It's not about prostitution/hosts/money etc. at all. It's quite clearly a film about modern society's destruction of the human being; being blinded by everything it has to offer not even stop to think about what it is and what it leads to - in the end, we get lonelier.

[–] MikeAy 11 years ago

Exactly, the story is just an instance of a systemic issue.

[–] IdleFingers 16 years ago

When I was watching this I started to wonder: "Who comes out better in the end?" As in, who is the least lonely, or ends up actually feeling fulfilled. It's not the girls clients... it was their loneliness that led them to prostitutes to begin with. And it's not the girls either... even though they have their hour of being a "princess" in the end it's all for naught. The hosts lie to them and they know it. When they wake up they're still craving that love and attention they were originally seeking. The hosts themselves are no better. They struggle with the same feelings as the prostitutes and johns. In the end, it's all a vicious circle of melancholy and guilt leading to each other.

Very fascinating film.

What is optimism?
Alas! ... It is a mania for saying things are well when one is in hell.

[–] Ciao_paris 16 years ago

I cant stop thinking about it too!! any other movie recommendations? Japanese culture is very interesting.

[–] ecrisisny 16 years ago

Agreed on every point. This is by far one of the most fascinating documentaries I've ever seen. While it was still very engaging at first, the minute we learn that most of the women are actually in the sex industry as well AND are only doing it to afford their addiction to these men, the entire dynamic of the film flipped and it became something far more unsettling.

[–] kristakahashi-1 16 years ago

i'm assuming like porn stars, hookers have a hard time having real relationships. so they undergo this kind of pyrric therapy. they want so desperately to experience real love even if only for an instant, even if it's a lie, regardless of the pain that comes when the truth is revealed.

it is definitely fascinating, because prostitutes are hardly naive. in order for these girls to fall in love, they have to temporarily forget everything they know about the business, about the money they spend, about the tricks of the game. at that point it's almost like a drug - addictive, pernicious, and ultimately unfulfilling.

to put it simply, they're gettin' high on their own supply.

[–] greenredblack 15 years ago

that a lot of their clients are sex workers themselves seemed pretty telling to me. they've sort of eliminated possibility (in their minds) of achieving that pure, romanticized falling-in-love. Or at least, naturally. These staged social settings exist where the girls won't be judged like they presumably would in a normal club.

Also, i caught more than a bit of self-contempt from some of the girls, and the huge spending and financial servitude as indication of their lack of self-worth. it tangentially reminded me the financial domination fetish. that's a sad and scary subject that is rife with documentary potential.

[–] annseton 14 years ago

That is beyond gross.

I will never understand the Japanese culture.

[–] teenasung 12 years ago

what i loved about this documentary was the direction and the way the film was assembled. every host documentary most likely draws the same conclusion, as the things that at first intrigue us tend to become redundant while the subject matter becomes overused. what truly speaks to me is the brutal honesty of the people and how the lines throughout the film are highlighted to emphasize a deeper portrayal of their reality. this film starts by selling the idea that going to a host club is very similar to going to the movies. although we all know what we're in for, the main objective is to get caught up in the moment, and get lost in the illusion. just like going to the theaters, the actors and the viewers are playing a part. a game of sorts. but what sets this one apart from other host documentaries is the underlying message. if the viewer gets caught up in the plot and the idea that the contradictions presented are real, then they have missed the point. the film is designed in a way where the people get caught up in the contradictions, but must later reassess their biases. this film does not focus on who, what, where, when, and why these hosts do this, but it strictly and loyally focuses on the reality of these peoples' lives, and the role-playing they're involved with in this tiny secluded realm. by staying silent and unbiased as the film director, we as the viewer are able to travel through this journey and experience the world of host clubs from the beginning stages of initial infatuation to a tired and worn-out, almost hopeless existence. by straying from the original concept of an otherwise bleak and cliched subject matter, the director creates out of it something mysteriously entertaining.