Nobuyoshi Araki is one of Japans leading still photographers: his work ranges from his wifes terminal illness and their cat through clouds, flowers and celebrities to an enormous amount of porno, featuring schoolgirls in bondage or erotic housewives.
by Kim Newman |
Published on
Release Date:
05 Aug 2005
Running Time:
75 minutes
Certificate:
18
Original Title:
Arakimentari
Araki’s a character who relishes his own sleazy image, claiming all art must focus on the vagina, but documentarian Travis Klose gets beyond the act, and backs up the claims of Araki’s admirers that he venerates women in general and his late wife in particular.
Among the talking heads are colleagues, models and celebs (Beat Takeshi, Björk), and Klose – who signs the film with a snippet of him attempting karaoke – presents imaginatively-scored montages of different strains of Araki’s work that show he’s not just about tying up girls in artfully-gaping kimonos.
Limited appeal, by definition but a rare documentary which will genuinely make you change your mind about its subject.
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