The desire to make my film The Great Happiness Space - Tale of an Osaka Love Thief came about whilst I was working as a director of photography on a film about Japanese high school baseball for my friend Kenneth Eng. His film required long hours of shooting these very earnest and well behaved 17-year-old kids in the best Osaka high schools. And at night, to unwind, I would walk around the river and often hang out on this very busy pedestrian bridge in the center of town. I would sit there and watch this strange scene of stylish young guys boldly trying to pick up absolutely any woman that walked by, it was fascinating to me as it made such a sharp contrast to the gung ho sporty world I was shooting by day. It turned out that these guys were hosts at a club making their living by spending their nights entertaining clients, all of whom were women. As a director and cinematographer I was at first drawn to the host boys for their hip Japanese style even before I knew anything about host club culture.

I eventually met some hosts. And after I had been to a few clubs I became very struck by just how charming these people were, it was always very nice to sit down and have a drink with them. There is a raw charisma that through a sort of natural selection tends to be present in a successful host. The hosts experience reminded me of my experience when working with astronauts at N.A.S.A. They were a special and talented group of people who could be counted on to handle intense, prolonged, interpersonal contact and be friendly and cool despite the stress and being in a noisy space ship. Which is a little like being in a host club where the hosts only make money if they can maintain their charm and be engaging while selling champagne at $500 a bottle. As the scene became clear, it became apparent that their customers were also professionals in the charm business. The situation in the club was a new phenomenon. Gender roles are constantly changing around the World and here it was happening in the extreme. It was just obvious that these people were all going to be engaging on camera. I really wanted to make a film. I wanted to make it entertaining, clear and in depth.

The lives of the hosts and their customers at first seemed to be extreme and unfathomably foreign from a western perspective. Although many people in Japan see hosts as despicable I see hosts involved in something that is close to all of our hearts, which is the struggle between making a buck and doing the right thing. There is real fascination in looking at this strange form of emotional pseudo prostitution that caters to some women's desires so successfully that they will got to almost any lengths, and pay thousands of dollars to consume it.

I felt no need to be judgmental. People exposed so much of their lives and emotions for the film that I had only respect for their candor The extent to which there are parallels between female prostitution and male host culture is left up to viewer, but everyone in the film is paying a price one way or another. I think that people come away from viewing The Great Happiness Space feeling that a window has been opened through which one can see culture evolving and a little of ourselves in the people of host club Rakkyo.

Jake Clennell
Osaka, Japan 2005