Everything has a price

Saw a very interesting movie-documentary last night after seeing it recommended on a blog.  The documentary, “The Great Happiness Space: Tale of an Osaka Love Thief”, focuses on a host club in Osaka, Japan and its founder, Issei.  Renowned as the number one host in Osaka, he has an endless list of clients willing to lavish their time, attention, and bank balances on him, raking in at least £15, 000 a month.  Fans of Japanorama will be familiar with the industry, where well groomed blokes tend to women’s needs and try to push them into buying overpriced drinks.

The documentary is shot in a low budget, amateur-ish manner but I found this gave it charm and a realism which is all too easily lost with higher budget productions.  Various members of the host club staff are also interviewed and it’s fascinating to go through such a range of emotions for them, from anger, to envy, to sympathy.  It doesn’t appear to be an easy life, and whilst it is sales, most of the best salesmen I know and work with couldn’t do it.  The customers are equally as interesting, exploring the reasons why they keep returning, and the depths they will go to to get their moments of instant gratification.

Definitely worth a watch, I found my torrent for it on Pirate Bay.

In other news, it seems Aber is finally getting a shopping centre!  Cue all the moaning people complaining that it’s gonna drive people out of business, blah blah.