LIFE THRU A LENS : Travis Klose’s ‘Arakimentari’ [6/10]

Published on: July 5th, 2005

Appearing on the UK release-schedules only weeks after Gregg Araki's Mysterious Skin, many people will no doubt presume that Arakimentari is a profile of the American envelope-pushing controversialist. They'd be wrong. Because the Mr Araki in question is no relation – first name Nobuyoshi, he's widely described as Japan's most famous photographer. Not very widely described as the best, however – and, while this documentary provides ample evidence of his eclectic talents, it doesn't suggest he approaches the level of, say, Masahisa Fukase or Naoya Hatakeyama.

But while Fukase and Hatakeyama largely allow their work to speak for itself, Araki is an assiduous self-promoter – in a nation (and indeed a world) where brands are all-important, Araki presents a carefully stylised, instantly recognisable face to the world: a round head bald except for two pointy tufts of grey hair, round Mr Moto glasses, ever-present grin. It's present in cartoon form on the t-shirts Araki wears pretty much throughout Arakimentari as an admiring American crew follows him around the streets of Tokyo, snapping off photos everywhere he goes. He's dizzyingly prolific, with over 350 collections of his work published already – their covers flashing before our eyes in one head-spinning sequence pulsatingly scored, like the rest of the movie, by DJ Krush.

"Araki is friendly, funny, speedy," says one of his models. "He always looks like he's having a really great time," comments a deadpan Takeshi Kitano, who says his own personal experience of artistic endeavour is rather less sunnily upbeat. "He's the most energetic person I know," asserts Bjork, who reckons Araki lives life as "9000 percent." Cultural commentators from Japan and beyond attest to Araki's impact – which is just as well, as the man himself isn't an especially astute analyst of his own work. He airily describes several of his own photographs as 'masterpieces', baffling calls his honeymoon (the subject of his first outstanding photo-series) 'a journey into death', and, describing the appeal of female genitalia, enthuses about the 'gumminess' of the vagina.

Araki's impish persona has long provided him with the license to question many of the stultifying taboos present in post-war Japanese society: before Araki, it was unheard of to show pubic hair in photographs, for example. Unfettered by such concerns, Klose includes many full-frontal shots which may nevertheless cause trouble with certain western censorship bodies. But there's nothing exploitative or pornographic here: Klose must show the full range of Araki's work in order to place him in his social, cultural context. While clearly a fan, Klose manages this while nimbly avoiding the trap of hagiography: naysayers are on hand to diagnose what they see as the misogyny of Araki's S+M portraits featuring women bound in ropes or hanging from the ceiling. One of his own models, however, points out that compared with the tradition of notoriously hardcore old-school Japanese paintings known as Shunga, Araki's work is decidedly tame – although worthy of the title 'neo-shunga'.

Although best known for such erotica (titles mentioned include the intriguing Tokyo Lucky Hole) Araki's most impressive work shown here (apart from one very witty 'Godzilla' photo) focusses squarely on what he himself describes as his other main theme: death. We don't get that much time to contemplate them in this brisk survey of Araki's career, but two images stand out – a portrait of his recently-deceased mother laid out before her funeral, and a close-up of Araki holding hands with his wife Yoko in hospital shortly before she passed away. Just as Masahisa Fukase was devastated by the premature demise of his wife Yoko, widowerhood forced Araki into new, more painful and contemplative territory. These sections of Arakimentari are powerfully moving, and place Araki's japery into a strikingly different, sobering context.

But Arakimentari contains many moods – even for audiences with little interest in photography, it works well as a portrait of an engagingly oddball cultural figure who has no precise equivalent in the West – he comes across as Helmut Newton, Robert Mapplethorpe and Weegee, his non-stop saucy banter suggesting what Blow-Up might have been like if Sid James had replaced David Hemmings in the leading role.

Neil Young
5th July, 2005

ARAKIMENTARI : [6/10] : USA (Jap/USA) 2004* : Travis KLOSE : 78 mins
seen at the ICA, London (UK), 29th June 2005 – press show
originally rated 7/10, but downgraded after further reflection, 10th Oct 2005

* the film was completed in and is copyright-dated as 2003, but was first shown to paying audiences at Slamdance Film Festival, January 2004