Despite the clean cut and healthy appearance of the hosts staring back from the posters, their working lives are little more than one long drinking session after another. Basically, the more they drink, the better off they are, as their earnings are based on what female guests spend on them. A lifestyle that slowly but surely must take its toll — both mentally and physically.
It’s a situation that’s the same for a good number of host club customers too, as many of the young women who frequent such places are hostesses or other red light district workers in need of some fun and affection once their own, similarly soulless work shifts are over. A sad cycle of money and dependency that is expertly documented in the film, The Great Happiness Space: Tale of an Osaka Love Thief.
The man drunk and asleep in the photo, however, very likely isn’t a host. His appearance simply doesn’t match the profession’s very distinctive look. Instead, it’s probably just a fella who attempted to do what the men in the posters do most nights, but unfortunately he came out the other end looking rather less clean cut and healthy.
Jenn says
That does NOT look comfortable! 😮
Lee says
No, it really doesn’t. Dare say he felt even more uncomfortable when he woke up too…
Tobias says
A wonderfully interesting image AND a recommendation for a movie? I’m sold! 😀
Lee says
Haha, you are welcome.
Very sad, but a truly fascinating film. A real eye opener. Personally it offered a genuine insight into lives I only see from a distance.
yuiny says
The Great Happiness Space is a really good documentary, I agree! Before I watched it, it hadn’t occurred to me that the primary customers of host clubs would in turn be hostesses/sex workers.
Lee says
I was exactly the same. Assumed some of the customers would be, but not the majority. It came as a real surprise.
cdilla says
That is such a busy scene and you have put so much into the frame.
The crumpled guy seems almost incidental. What grabbed my eye first was the unusual metalwork on the left in front of the yellow panels.
Sorry to say that amazon is all out of that documentary and our Netflix doesn’t have it either. It sounds worth a watch. Some of the films I have watched have hints about the industry, but it’s not the central theme and doesn’t have the weight of a documentary. It’s a clever way of extracting the most profit from the brief life of pretty young things with an internal feedback loop like that. Those responsible must be deeply abhorrent human beings.
Lee says
Yeah, there’s a lot to take in. The metalwork it part of a bar’s exterior.
The documentary shows the sadness of the whole industry very well. A real insight into a world that I often see, but only from the outside. Definitely worth getting hold of if you can.