The Great Happiness Space / 大阪恋泥棒

Despite the fact that I'd only managed to revise my abstract today, I went ahead and rewarded myself with a screening of Jake Clennell's The Great Happiness Space (2006). I can say this: At least now my abstract is pretty darn good, even if it is abstracting a nonexistent dissertation.

I'll be honest: I liked this movie, even though I felt guilty about liking it. I'm glad that I watched it, even though I wished I hadn't. It's not the kind of subject I like seeing picked up and fussed over, glorified, exoticized, or sanitized for consumption by the overseas market. And yet...and yet.

There was something in the development of the story that, I felt, did justice to the conflict presented by the people being interviewed—their emotions and needs as human beings, versus their desires and obligations as people working at host clubs and in sex work. Even though it shouldn't have, I felt more comfortable hearing about the guys working as hosts than I did hearing about the girls working as hostesses or at soap lands. There shouldn't be a difference between the two. And yet...and yet.

These topics are messy, I admit. Money, love, consumption, happiness. Sex, body, solace, comfort. And I guess I appreciated that the film left everything in that complicated heap, didn't try to draw a nice, neat conclusion. It made certain decisions about how to present the interviewers as they talked about their lives and work, different moods and lighting, spliced with giddy girls or with drab salarymen. I suspect there was a bit of moralizing on the part of the creators, but it just so happened that I leaned somewhat close to their way of thinking. If only I were allowed to leave my dissertation as messy and inconclusive...