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3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
I think, at face value, it's a great concept, documenting Kabukicho, uncensored in all its glory. But, personal thoughts on sex work and potential power imbalances aside, the idea gets really old, really fast? I respect Araki's body of work but Tokyo Lucky Hole is just... well, it's messy, and all those bodies stacked page after page just becomes desensitising
dark
informative
fast-paced
Should I review what's basically pornography?...
Eh, why not.
"Tokyo Lucky Hole" is a big photo album with a tiny, tiny intro to give you a small bit of context regarding the contents. In short (an even shorter nutshell than the book offers), Japan had a bit of a sex boom from 1978 to 1985, when enterprising people realized that you didn't need to have professional sex workers - amateurs would work as well.
What happened was that someone in Kyoto came up with the concept of a "no-panties coffee shop", where the waitresses wore no panties. Men came and huge lines formed for the sake of novelty. As it became obvious there was a lot of potential there, copycats soon appeared, then tried to outdo each other with all sorts of crazy ideas, then things moved on to actual prostitution - it all ended in 1985, when the professional sex workers struck back with a legal act.
"Tokyo Lucky Hole" consists of hundred of photos dated (about?) 1983-1985, documenting this period and this sex boom. Not surprisingly, many of them are, if not downright explicitly pornographic, then leading up to it - with the exception of a few interspersed street photos which give the reader a breather.
There's all sorts of activities going on, but the album gets repetitive after a while (naturally). If there a few things I've deeply appreciated, they were the lack of mucking about with the photos for glamour purposes, the feeling that the models are enjoying themselves (are they really? That's a question that can't be answered) and, to be honest, the everything about the eighties, from the crazy hair to the old TV sets to the "what the heck is that interior design".
More context would have been nice - what was up with the masquerade with women dressed in the American flag? Why do we get some photos from a normal party? There's little to explain the wider world in which all this took place - so you peep into the world, and draw your own conclusions.
Eh, why not.
"Tokyo Lucky Hole" is a big photo album with a tiny, tiny intro to give you a small bit of context regarding the contents. In short (an even shorter nutshell than the book offers), Japan had a bit of a sex boom from 1978 to 1985, when enterprising people realized that you didn't need to have professional sex workers - amateurs would work as well.
What happened was that someone in Kyoto came up with the concept of a "no-panties coffee shop", where the waitresses wore no panties. Men came and huge lines formed for the sake of novelty. As it became obvious there was a lot of potential there, copycats soon appeared, then tried to outdo each other with all sorts of crazy ideas, then things moved on to actual prostitution - it all ended in 1985, when the professional sex workers struck back with a legal act.
"Tokyo Lucky Hole" consists of hundred of photos dated (about?) 1983-1985, documenting this period and this sex boom. Not surprisingly, many of them are, if not downright explicitly pornographic, then leading up to it - with the exception of a few interspersed street photos which give the reader a breather.
There's all sorts of activities going on, but the album gets repetitive after a while (naturally). If there a few things I've deeply appreciated, they were the lack of mucking about with the photos for glamour purposes, the feeling that the models are enjoying themselves (are they really? That's a question that can't be answered) and, to be honest, the everything about the eighties, from the crazy hair to the old TV sets to the "what the heck is that interior design".
More context would have been nice - what was up with the masquerade with women dressed in the American flag? Why do we get some photos from a normal party? There's little to explain the wider world in which all this took place - so you peep into the world, and draw your own conclusions.