Arakimentari Movie Review

While Nobuyoshi Araki's claim that he's the world's most published photographer is debatable, he's definitely the photographer with the most published photos of Japanese girls' crotches.

Whether tied up and hanging in a doorway, covered in sushi, or merely on the floor on all fours, Araki (typically sans first name) captures all manner of semi-perversities, and you'd think a guy with such a penchant for softcore porn would be a little more rough-and-tumble. But as revealed in this straightforward documentary, Araki is a genial, rather impish little man who couldn't seem nicer, even while he's carefully arranging pubic hair and playfully groping his subjects.

Araki is interviewed directly here, as are some curious subjects, the most notable of which are Björk and Japanese movie director Takeshi Kitano, but their insights -- as the film's in general -- are fairly staid. Comments about Araki being a genius and virtuoso are thrown out, but they aren't really backed up by anything other than footage shot during a number of Araki's studio shoots and endless inserts of his finished works. If Araki is a genius, you get the sense that somewhat might ought to explain why.