Film Review: Arakimentari -- Nobuyoshi Araki Documentary

[NickTrop]

Arakimentari is a 2005 documentary about prolific Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki (aka Araki). Worth watching but just "okay" as a doc. Lowish video-y production values and a little more amateurish, filmmaking-wise, than I expected. (Documentaries - like "Smokers", is another thing destroyed by the horrible video aesthetic...)

Walked away from the film thinking Araki, the photographer, is a somewhat (but not entirely) overrated who became "of note" in no small part to his charismatic personality and the provocative nature of much of his work, which is indistinguishable from porn... Hell - I'll come out and say it, much of what I've seen from him is porn - bondage porn specifically, masquarading as art. However, his earlier Tokyo "street" stuff is truly evocative. Also, Araki's philosophic comments on photography are clearly "real" and quite worthwhile - not the forced and empty artsy sloganeering one sometimes has to endure from photographers and other artists when philosophizing about their body of work.

Early in this film, Araki is clearly elated to receive a "new" camera which appears to be a Canon LTM from the 60's (never stated in the film and you never get a clear look at it... but he does shoot it in several scenes...) Maybe Araki lurked here?

Overall - good, not great, but definitely worth watching... B-
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[David R Munson]

My take on it:

I thought it was great. I saw it in the theater at a Chicago film festival, bought it on DVD as soon as it came out, and have probably watched it 20+ times.

I will say this to those who are curious: if you're not inclined to be into his work or haven't liked it in the past, this film probably isn't going to convince you of anything. If you do like his work, though, and are interested in a bit more insight into the man, then you're more likely to enjoy it.

The video quality could be better, especially in some parts, but in others it's quite good. I thought the editing was very good, and the soundtrack (by DJ Krush no less!) was excellent.

It is probably worth noting that I am a long-time Araki fan. I've loved his work from day one. I genuinely think he's a genius, I enjoy his work thoroughly, and I really enjoyed the film.

Not for everyone, though, and I think that's perfectly understandable. He's exactly the type of photographer that many people will disagree on.

 

[David R Munson]

Has anyone else here seen this film? I'm very interested to hear other opinions about it, whatever they may be. OP - any other thoughts on it?

 

[Tveljus]

I just watched it, and was very inspired!

I stumbled upon Araki today, at a Flickr-post displaying a guy's Plaubel Makina 67 and Pentax 67. I looked him up on wikipedia, found out about the documentary and decided to give it a shot.

At first I felt a bit critical to Arakis pornographic art. I didn't get what he was trying to convey, I didn't get why the seemingly highly intellectual and analytical artists interviewed liked it so much, and I recognized the problems with his work seen from some feminist points of view.

But as the doc went on, and his other photos were displayed, and he talked about his thoughts on his photography and more importantly his life's experiences, I became more and more admiring. It's all very complex and yet simple at the same time, he's doing a lot of things with his art and at the same time just walking around taking photos of what he wants, whatever comes in his way.

A really interesting artist, with great technical as well as creative talents, and after the doc I felt really inspired as I mentioned above. Also, I loved the soundtrack, especially DJ Krush's "WW2"-track together with the atomic bomb anniversary photos. That combo was more moving than anything I've seen for months.

To conclude, I gotta say that this documentary is very worth watching if you are prepared to make an effort looking past the pornographic and nude photos as shallow and shocking. Keep watching, and take into account what the documentary tells about the history of Japanese censorship, as well as the Shunga-references, and you'll hopefully find a whole lot of other aspects of Arakis most famous work.

(Sorry for a huge amount of text, but I can't help myself: I always write walls of text at 2:00 AM)