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On Saturday I went and saw “Arakimentari“, a documentary on the Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki, at Cinema Rise in Shibuya. I came away from the film agreeing even more with Arak in that he is indeed a genius. And a monster.
The word “monster” probably has too negative of a connotation in the way that I want to use it… He is a Monster in the sense of how he works and devours the life that he lives. Originally I used to have a hard time with him and his work- I think it was the content that was preventing me from dealing with what he all was about- but in the context of how he works I began to understand more. I have never met Araki, but a guy in my camera club at Senshu University once ran him over with a bicycle (by accident) while he was photographing around Setagaya-ku, and Aya’s dad went to elementary school with him from 1st through 6th grade in Minowa. This does not give me any special insight to his work, it’s just something interesting to say.
The movie is a chance to see Araki at work, and his mania for photography and life overwhelms the screen.
While the main strength of the film is simply letting you see Araki, how he moves, photographs, talks, and laughs- the biggest faults of it as a film fall on the shoulders of the Director (Travis Close) and Cinematographer (Brian Burgoyne). The camera work, the shaking, zooming, sped up, slowed down nonsense seems to be a trendy attempt to “caputre” or match Araki’s pace as an artist. The result is an unfortunately trite film that reeks of hipster-ness and amateurism. The film is not really all that bad, or all that great. If you come away from it feeling moved or with a deeper understanding of photography and life, it is certainly not because of the Travel Channel-esque sped up blurry night shots of Shinjuku crosswalks. The screen time of Araki makes up for all of it though and it is because of his spirit that the movie does not noticably suffer from the lack of sensitivity and “hey aren’t we cool?” attitudes of the film makers.
Wait- I guess I ought to take that back. I was impressed by the way that the subject of his wife and their relationship was done. The Sentimental Journey photographs and the text from Yoko’s diary were handled quite well.
Overall the film was worth seeing… The dj Crush soundtrack was a nice touch, too.
I wish that the subject of Araki could be handled by a more photographically-competent director someday. By “Photographically-Competent” I mean more than just shoddy and predictably trendy camera work. A lot of the take on Araki by the American photographer whom they interviewed was unnesessarily shallow, and missed the point of Araki’s work. Despite the fact that Araki’s photographs test what we can really ever see, and if we can ever see enough, the American contends that Araki’s popularity comes from the fact that men (and some women, he adds) simply like to see women tied up. Actually.. I guess that is probably so. . .

For now, this is what the West will have to settle for; A hacked and blurry mess of a film that takes on one of the most important working photographers in Japan today. But I am glad I went! If you are reading this in the States, I think the dvd of the film is out already. If you are in Tokyo- take 1800 yen to Cinema Rise and get in before the film ends on April 5th- or see it on dvd in May.