Tokyo Sex Underground [Paperback]

Romain Slocombe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2001

Sex clubs and hostess bars, love hotels and soap parlours, fetish parties and porno factories-photographer Romain Slocombe, a frequent visitor to Japan in recent years, has documented every aspect of this scene. Bondage models, porn actresses, prostitutes and party girls are featured in over 80 revealing photographs.

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Tokyo Sex Underground is a sometimes poignant, always provocative collection of Slocombe's images, forming probably the most fascinating glimpse of Japanese erotic culture ever provided by an outsider.

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Romain Slocombe's other photographic collections include City Of The Broken Dolls (Creation Books, 1997). He has also directed several films about Japan, and his graphic novel Prisoner Of The Red Army is now acknowledged as an S/M classic.

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With an introduction by Peter Sotos. English/Japanese language edition.

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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Romain Slocombe is a leading French illustrator, author and photographer. He has illustrated many book covers and also produced the legendary S/M graphic novel Prisoner of the Red Army and the classic collections of 'medical art', Tristes Vacances. and City of the Broken Dolls. He currently lives in Paris, France.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Creation Books (June 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 184068044X
• ISBN-13: 978-1840680447
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,718,812 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Give this guy his pencils back!, February 15, 2002

By 

Winston (Mempho, TN (A.K.A. Sir Laffs-A-Lot-ville)) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tokyo Sex Underground (Paperback)

Like many of the reviewers for this type of book, I too am not interested in the subject of Japanese pornography because of any personal sexual proclivities - I am merely RESEARCHING the sexual ethos of the Japanese male. I might even write something about it some day.
Mr. Slocombe is, in all seriousness, a truly gifted illustrator but his photography is not compelling. Unlike many of his other projects, the concept for this work is nothing new so it's not worth getting just because of a fascinating main idea. Some of the B&W "snapshots" (it's all B&W) are interesting in that they document the environment these women work in but none are compelling or exciting. The photographer adds nothing of value to the scenes captured and often detracts. As another reviewer stated, the subjects more often than not look like they don't really want to be photographed and I doubt he was trying to capture that feeling (or to raise the issue of photographers affecting the subject or shame at being involved in the sex industry) because about a third of the photos don't have that type of atmosphere at all. Whatever his idea was, he should have drawn it.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Medium is the Message, February 8, 2003

By 

Martin Asiner (jersey city, nj United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tokyo Sex Underground (Paperback)

Those who purchased TOKYO SEX UNDERGROUND by Romaine Slocumbe probably expected a titillating photo expose of the raunchy side of Tokyo at night. The majority of the reviewers listed above were clearly disappointed by what was admittedly a grainy set of pictures of women who seemed unwilling or unhappy about being included. The reviewer for Amazon.Com called this book 'stunning.' Stunning is not the right word although I saw a running theme that the other reviewers may have overlooked. What I did see was not porn although some of the women were porn actresses. The collective image that built over over the course of the pictures was one of sadness and distress. The smiling colorful face of the model on the front cover was obviously a marketing ploy, and I realized that even before I bought it. What interested me was a call for help that I could sense from nearly each woman. The harsh nightlife of Tokyo sex women can not be materially different from women employed in any other sex capital of the world. The stereotyped image of prostitutes as glamorous comes mostly from Hollywood sanitized versions of celluloid hookers like Julia Roberts. The women in this book truly were pretty women, but they were sadfaced women too. The scarcity of accompanying text accentuated rather than hid this subtext of women caught in forces beyond their ken. It is not likely that any reader seeking arousal will find such feelings here. What he might find instead is the more sobering realization that the sex industry is shiny only on the exterior, and even then the grim faces of the women pictured give the lie to that canard as well.

18 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars underwhelming, February 1, 2002

By 

K. Smith "whofartedrecs" (Osaka, Japan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Tokyo Sex Underground (Paperback)

I'm not sure whom these people are who are calling this sorry excuse for a book a masterpiece, but, let me tell you, it's far from. First of all, the photos are poor, grainy, amateurish, rather than stark and beautiful. The reader is given no frame of context. Instead of a book of pictures telling a story, you're given a lot of random images, which apparently aim to get by on shock value alone. Problem being, if it is your desire to see these types of images, you can probably find them somewhere on the Internet for free, with better photography and better sense of place--and in color. Therefore, Tokyo Sex Underground fails on that level. It offers nothing we haven't seen before. My hope from this book was to learn something about a world that I would probably never see, to get the sense that I'm a voyeur in a place I could never have access to. Instead I felt like a sucker who just wasted money on cheap, crappy pseudo porn. Honestly, I saw more Tokyo sex underground wandering the streets of Shinjuku. It was far more interesting and I didn't have to drop 16 bones to see it.