Arakimentari is a documentary about Nobuyoshi Araki, a somewhat controversial Japanese photographer best known for his erotic work, but who has also shot a very large variety of other subjects in his career.

Nobuyoshi Araki is not controversial so much for shooting erotica, which these days has become a very common occupation and hobby pursued by millions around the world. Araki is controversial more because he is a photographer that has achieved fairly broad artistic respect and he shoots erotica. Due to his notoriety, displays of Araki's work can be seen in prestigious locations, and these exhibitions can include erotic imagery.

The fact that some of Araki's erotic work deals with bondage scenarios causes some persons to find his sexual imagery especially objectionable. One story is recounted in Arakimentari about an exhibition at a European museum where the female security guards refused to have anything to do with the exhibition because Araki's work did not meet their standards.

I am sure there will be many who find some of Nobuyoshi Araki's photography displayed in Arakimentari to be distasteful, and probably even more people will find Araki's personality a little irritating. Though I am someone who is intrigued and even interested in fetish art, I admit I was not particularly aroused by or interested in the majority of Araki's erotic images. Curiously, though Araki does not come across as an intentionally mean person, it seems that Araki himself is possibly more crass than his sexually themed photos.

I am sure in his mind Araki is "just joking around" with his crude behavior in the presence of models, but it is still a little obnoxious and unpleasant to see. Exposing that part of Araki is the duty of this documentary and Arakimentari exposes Araki's often annoying but jovial personality very well. However, in general Araki is presented in a positive light.

Perhaps the director decided during the production that Araki's own behavior provided enough negative perspective. The fact that the director does not ever seek to observe Araki's work from the viewpoint of his detractors is this film's most glaring weakness. Arakimentari is absolutely devoid of any negative commentary on its subject. There are some references to Araki being a monster, but it is a title assigned to him with affection by those who use the term in the documentary. There are absolutely no negative critical discussions of Araki's work.

Amazingly, in part of the commentary recorded by the director and one of the producers, it seemed to be suggested that Araki might have had final approval of the film. If that was a legal condition of the production, then it is partially understandable why substantial criticism was left out. It is still strange for all criticism to be missing. In the commentary, the director said Araki approved of the first cut when submitted, which suggests that no attempt whatsoever was made to introduce even gentle opposing commentary to Araki's own literal self-assertion of being a photographic genius.

In fairness to the producers of this product, it was acknowledged in the commentary that Arakimentari was an extremely low budget production. I can sympathize with the producers' predicament if they had fear of angering Araki and possibly not being able to complete the project in a timely fashion. If Araki indeed had final approval, there may have been the fear that he would choose to become a permanent obstacle to the documentary's completion. This fear could have resulted in very little enthusiasm for presenting a first cut with any content that might upset Mr. Araki and subsequently risk the death of the project.

The complete details and story concerning the omission of negative counterpoints in Arakimentari was not included in the documentary's commentary, so I want to clarify that I am mostly speculating as to the reasons for this unfortunate omission.

Philosophical Musings
Though not an overtly explored theme in Arakimentari, this documentary awakens the question of whether or not art created by consenting adults should be limited for the benefit of the ignorant and less intellectual. Though obviously many are able to view and pursue diverse (even perverse) erotic creativity as an enjoyable and intellectual interest, do the intellectuals have an obligation to refrain, censor, or restrict their own activities and not indulge for the sake of the less intellectual and less socially mature who may very well confuse such creative pursuits with other harmful emotions?

In other reviews at Savage Japan Movie Reviews, I have written at length about my distaste for extreme violence in films, and many of the people that object to Araki's erotic work would argue that his photography often illustrates and even promotes violence towards women.

For me there is a big distinction between close-ups of people blowing themselves up with hand grenades (Letters from Iwo Jima review) and two adults engaged in mutually satisfying and sensually creative play. I understand that others may not agree with my simplistic attempt to separate the issues of sexuality and violence. Maybe another film review will one day give me the opportunity to ramble on a bit more on those specific issues.

Back to the Sociological Question
Are those who understand erotic pursuits and their artistic representations under some societal obligation to refrain because others who are unable to process such emotional complexities might be negatively influenced?

For myself, I am not willing to give up the pursuit of a creative and personally fulfilling life simply on the chance that the restriction of my freedoms might benefit the mentally unbalanced and intellectually disadvantaged. I do not believe the progression of society is served by those who endeavor to keep the world manageable and within the mental processing limitations of the least evolved among us. However, I do understand and appreciate the argument, and I do not discount the value of debate on the subject.

You may at times find yourself wishing the documentary was just a slide show of some of Araki's best work. But wait, there is a slide show in the special features section on the DVD. Unfortunately that slide show turns out to be just a small display of only a few images. And confusingly, these images are reduced and compressed into a window smaller than the constraints of the television screen's aspect ratio. On a large HD television with a progressive scan DVD image, I could see the photos only moderately well. Why were they presented so small inside a reduced box frame? The overscan area required to avoid unintended cropping of images is not nearly as large as the buffer designed into this presentation. It makes me wonder if the director acquired some or all of these images with his DV camera, instead of through higher quality scans (understandable if higher quality scans were not easily made available by Araki). There might have been an attempt to conceal the low quality of the DV captures by reducing them for the DVD (complete speculation). It should be noted that only 36 images are provided in this poorly prepared slide show, and a few of them are personality shots of Araki in the world. In fairness to the documentary, the slide show presentation is merely a DVD extra and not a part of the actual film.

Araki's personality is one that suits the media and he, like many artists, assists his commercial success by being a clown. I don't think Araki's clown act is insincere though. It is just a part of him that works to his advantage in his pursuit of notoriety.

Though I am a photographer in my work, I have not made it my singular creative obsession, so I don't like to call myself a photographer. As an artist I am presently attempting to define myself as a filmmaker. The majority of my still photography work (not my film work) has been in sensual and glamorous categories. I have shot more women in my career than any other subject and I can confidently tell you the nice little comments the models make about Araki's bedside manner as he shoots are mostly meaningless.

The models are being generous in their praise of Araki's method and personality for the benefit of the documentary. I assume that the personality revealed in this documentary is real and Araki does actually behave like an ass during his erotic shoots. I can tell you from experience that you certainly do not need to behave like an obnoxious clown to get great results from a model. Humor can help relax and is often necessary, but Araki's obnoxious and crude personality serves the media better than it does his photo sessions. He gets away with it only because his overall demeanor is non-threatening.

Araki does not seem to be a smarmy photographer. In the scenes shot for the documentary, you don't get the feeling that he would pressure someone to do something they did not want to do. He is just simply rude, juvenile, and often comes across as an irritating, hyperactive pest.

Watching Araki and his prolific tendencies to shoot everything all the time, I am reminded of something a friend once said jokingly about how many pictures I used to take in and around rivers when I was documenting my progression as a whitewater kayaker. He said after seeing me shoot, that he thinks the secret to being a good photographer is to simply shoot a lot of pictures, meaning that the more you shoot, the greater chance you have of something good resulting.

There is really quite a bit of truth in that statement, especially with moving subjects. Though a good photographer possesses creative ability, technical skill, and good judgment that increases with experience, a good photographer is also someone who has the commitment and willingness to shoot a lot of pictures. Though Araki's skill and abilities can definitely be seen in the old non-erotic photo series featuring his wife from decades ago and maybe in some of his more recent work, after watching this documentary one gets the impression that Nobuyoshi Araki primarily lives and works now in the role of a dirty old clown with a trigger happy shutter finger.

In this documentary, Araki seems very happy and content with himself in that role, so who am I to judge.

Savage Japan Misc. Tidbits
Arakimentari will be censored in Japan. All of the explicit details (and there are quite a few) will be edited, blacked out, blurred, or hidden with mosaics. Japan introduced censorship laws decades ago that are more humorous than effective as applied to modern erotica. Borrowing from a famous Japanese expression, the Japanese do not seem inclined to rise up and challenge their censorship laws and risk the chance of being "hammered back down."

The citizens of Japan have amazingly endured their silly censorship laws much longer than other advanced cultures might. One must wonder how long the silliness will be allowed to continue. My guess would be for a few more generations. I hope I am wrong.

Have your remote control in hand during viewing. Some of the more interesting erotic images flash by rather quickly during the documentary part of the DVD. You may occasionally want to pause and back up to catch individual photos.

Final Notes
I think Araki is a generally capable photographer, even if he may not be a superior erotic photographer. Though Araki enjoys proclaiming himself a photographic genius, it needs to be mentioned that almost anyone who shoots 40 rolls of film every day (an exaggerated claim Araki makes for impact I'm sure, but it does seem obvious that he shoots a lot), even a camera novice with a professional assistant to constantly adjust camera settings (as Araki apparently has at his disposal as shown in the documentary), would likely end up with at least a few decent photos by the end of each week. Maybe even enough to fill a few hundred photo books with fairly decent pictures and a smattering of real gems after 40 years.
[Many insecure professional photographers (including some of my friends) hate to be confronted with simple truths like that.] :-)

That is not a really fair assessment of Araki because some of his early work does not fall into the category of production I just defined, but one must not discount hucksterism and the inflammatory nature of much of his chosen subject matter when contemplating Araki's notoriety.

If Araki is indeed exposing dozens of rolls of film (or the digital equivalent) to be processed and evaluated each day, the real artistic geniuses in Araki's projects are the assistants who sort and pull the wheat from the chaff after his trigger happy shoots.

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Arakimentari as a documentary is not bad. The additional commentary audio track on the DVD was also interesting in parts, but more for its occasional discussion of the struggles of pulling off this low budget production in Tokyo than for additional enlightenment about Nobuyoshi Araki. Oddly, the main audio track was dropped to a level of absolute zero for the commentary, making the commentary seem awkward and unprofessional. It was especially odd when the music elements were being discussed and there was no hint of music to be heard.

There is one very long scene of Araki being interviewed that is provided as a special feature on the DVD. This long interview was used to draw clips for use in the completed documentary. After writing the above review and before returning the online DVD rental, I decided to sit through the very long bonus interview so I could claim to have watched everything possible on the DVD. Towards the end of that piece, it was interesting to hear Araki acknowledge his clown role and how it works to his advantage in his career as I observed earlier. He did not use the exact term clown as I had, but he jokingly compared himself to the cartoon character Pikachu at one point. Araki is at least self-aware and honest enough to realize and admit the promotional benefits of his quirky behavior.

Hearing from even just one of Araki's detractors and then allowing Araki a chance to respond to the charges would have added a little depth to this project. Maybe that desperately needed material was indeed recorded, but the results were not satisfactory enough for it to be included.

Ultimately this production turned out to be more of a fun fluff piece that seems intended to entertain by sharing several snippets of Araki's hurried life. The documentary is only 75 minutes long and it is worthwhile if viewed as a visual and lightweight biographical curiosity. If you want a taste of Araki and are not looking for anything too substantial, you may very well enjoy this ride.

If you are a fan of Takeshi Kitano or Björk, you might have extra incentive to pick up this DVD. They both make appearances in the film discussing their favorable views of Araki. Björk praises Araki, but insistingly refers to his diverse subjects and older work. I do not recall her ever specifically praising Araki's erotic work in the film. Assuming that such complimentary statements did not get edited out, her avoidance of the topic would not necessarily mean Björk is disapproving of Araki's erotic work. It could likely mean she is aware, as many must be, that what Araki is most well known for (erotica) is not what stands out as the true highlight of his career.

"Final" Final Note: My evaluation of Araki's work comes only from what is presented in the documentary. I should acknowledge that I have not studied any of Araki's more than 350 photo books that he cranks out in Japan so regularly.

If you are curious to see some of Nobuyoshi Araki's work in detail, a fairly broad selection of his photo books are available at Amazon. I have included some direct links to Araki's books on the right side of this page.

I will attempt to peruse several of Araki's photo books in Japanese book stores when I return to Japan for my upcoming language immersion study program. I assume Araki's books will be readily available. Maybe after viewing some of Araki's printed photo collections up close, I will be tempted to add another paragraph or two to this already too long review. If this is the first film review you are reading at Savage Japan Movie Reviews, rest assured that most of the other reviews on the site are not nearly this long!
Click here for more about the reviews at SJMR.

For Japanese Language Students
If non-traditional sexuality does not violate your comfort zone, then I would say Arakimentari is very good for Japanese language listening comprehension practice. There are plenty of modern Japanese conversations and interviews to pull words and phrases from. It is also moderately interesting culturally to take a peek into Araki's life and world within Japan.