Product Details

• Actors: Hiroko Shino, Beat Takeshi Kitano, Richard Kern, Masha Komarinskaya, Bjrk
• Directors: Travis Klose
• Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD, Subtitled, NTSC
• Language: Japanese
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Tartan Video
• DVD Release Date: April 12, 2005
• Run Time: 75 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000FZEQD2
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #239,745 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

"I wish I was a god with a thousand arms, each one with a camera." So says Nobuyoshi Araki, who with more than 350 photo books stakes the claim as the most published photographer in the world. While his work spans varied subjects, his erotic work is what made his reputation, one that is infamous as well as notorious. Provoking the sexual prudery of Japan, his work has shaped an entire culture and made him the country's face of sexual liberation. Filmmakers Travis Klose, Bjork, Takeshi Kitano, Daido Moriyama, Richard Kern and other collaborators and friends give further insight into understanding the life and mind of this artistic dynamo. Arakimentari is not merely a biographical exploration, but more of an attempt to understand one man's artistic life and character - and through him learn something about the nature of genius.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointingly Superficial, January 8, 2006

By 

Ikasumi (Tokyo, Japan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Arakimentari (DVD)

There is potential for an interesting film in Nobuyoshi Araki and his work. The man is a dynamo and comes across as a child who has somehow figured out how to get his way at will. Though the work is broader than Araki gets credit for, including in this film, he is mainly known for photographs that are considered art by some and exploitative pornography by others. Don't expect to hear from the latter camp in this movie, which accepts as a groundrule that the man is a great artist but never attempts to tell us why, and which comes across as merely a publicity effort for a man already holding a black belt in self-promotion.

Various pop culture figures tell us how great Araki is, but the film never gets past the surface nor asks any probing questions. Bjork is understandably infatuated with the lovely portraits of Araki's late wife. But neither that relationship nor the way in which her tragic death has shaped the man are fully examined.

One model places the photographer in the tradition of Japanese shunga (erotic and explicit woodblock prints). While there is indeed such a tradition (which, by the way, makes one laugh at the absurd claim on the DVD box that Araki is "provoking the sexual prudery of Japan." And by whom was this written? An American?), even the most casual viewer can immediately spot a clear difference; while shunga typically portrayed men and women together in erotic scenes, Araki's shots show just the woman, in a position of being dominated (with the photographer himself as the implicit dominator). But the model's comment is not questioned and indeed this film never asks anything serious or challenging. And its allegiance to the superficial is further underscored by its flashing of hundreds of photographs across the screen in rapid-fire succession, which only enhances the viewer's impression of these supposed works of art as cheap and disposable.

A much more interesting film about a troubled and charismatic man, his work, the controversy surrounding it, and its context in Japanese culture could have been made. Compared with what could have been explored, Arakimentari is a mere peep show.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What does it mean to be a photographer?, June 23, 2008

By 

Hiram Gomez Pardo (Valencia, Venezuela) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Arakimentari (DVD)

Irreverent, provocative, iconoclast and genial are some of the virtues more frequent about the significance and transcendence of this emblematic artist of the camera.

This dynamic documental offers us a wide landscape about his works along four decades. The way he got to give the Japanese sexuality a true identity, beyond the prejudices, through his original and sensual images of feminine nakedness. He possesses an admirable sense of humour and good vibrations visibly contrasted around every single frame.

Bjorg, Takeshi Kitano one of the most prestigious filmmakers, as well as other partners of the photography give overtly their opinion about this worldly icon.

A fascinating and transcendent documental that you should not miss it!

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truly a beautiful portrait of a complex man, May 19, 2005

By 

film addict (new york , NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Arakimentari (DVD)

I saw this at IDFA film festival in Amsterdam and have been an Araki fan ever since. I found myself totally amazed with the filmmakers ability to depict the many personalities of such a complex man. I even teared at the end. 5 stars.