Japanese Documentary - Urisen

[Guest Ikuiku]

 

 

 

[GachiMuchi]

A Peek Into the Secret World of Japan’s Male Geishas and Sex Workers (Video)

At the Outfest LGBTQ film festival, the documentary Boys for Sale unveiled the secret world of the urisen, mostly straight-identified Japanese boys who sell sex to older men. It’s a secret world because these bars typically don’t open their doors to gaijin (non-Japanese foreigners).

The film follows 10 urisen and covers their common experiences. In an interview with C. Brian Smith of MEL magazine, Ian Thomas Ash, the film’s executive producer, says:

“Japanese men can’t traditionally live openly as homosexuals. Many carry with them a great deal of shame, self-hatred and other negative feelings. So a large portion of what these boys are doing is more than just a sex act, which may only last for five minutes. In these moments — bathing with someone, being held by someone, having them wash their back and stroke their hair — customers are made to feel like everything is okay. That’s a big part of the urisen experience.”

Ash is right. Unlike American homophobia (which is largely religious-based) and Asian homophobia (which derives from a sense of familial obligation), the urban Japanese variety can have a tinge of corporate influence. Men are expected to find wives and have children that they financially support — if they don’t have these things, they’re seen as immature playboys and not seen as serious candidates for promotion to higher paying managerial or executive positions.

Thus, a combination of familial expectations and corporate pressure compel many Japanese men to marry out of traditional social conventions while still longing for male companionship. This is where the urisen come in.

See the trailer for Boys for Sale below:

 

 

The world of the urisen

Ash says that the 2011 Fukushima earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disasters (all of which were inter-related) compelled many young men into large cities to survive via sex work.

At an urisen bar, a man will come in, choose his preferred escort and chat with them for 30 minutes (a five dollar charge) to decide whether he’d like to get intimate. Customers can then order sex or even kink ranging from BDSM to water sports to diaper and scat play, though Ash says that most prefer standard sex.

The boys live in on-site dormitories where up to eight other urisen will sleep in a single room filled with bunk beds. The boys interviewed in the film say that they liked the camaraderie with their co-workers the most.

On the downside, some of these boys complained about their client’s hygiene, most were asked to engage in condomless sex, some felt pressured to endure sex acts without their consent and most earn only about $40 to $80 max per sex session, sessions which can occur multiple times a day.

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Taikomochi: The historic and well-cultured male geisha

In 2015, The Daily Beast looked at the world of male geishas (courtly entertainers usually hired for special group events, like banquets and business scenes) and male hosutos (or “hosts,” male companions commonly on the arms of patrons within Japan’s many chat and host bars).

A male geisha, (or taikomochi) as they are known, are skilled in various conversational and performance arts: They know jokes, charming witty sayings, are well-read on current events and are skilled at singing, dancing and playing a stringed Japanese instrument known as the shamisen.

Mostly, they are relied upon for their comedic humor, a tradition dating back to the earliest geishas from around the 13th century — all of whom were male. (Women began working as geishas around the middle of the 18th century and became infinitely more popular than their male counterparts, reducing taikomochi to dwindling numbers in the modern day).

By taikomochi are not sex workers. The most popular are experienced performers in their 50s and 60s who are hired for events through an official booking agent. Taikomochi would also find suggestive sexual innuendo or propositioning offensive. One writer says that it would be like asking a ballerina to sleep with an audience member.

Hosutos: Male companions in the urban jungle

In contrast, hosutos are typically younger men in their 20s and 30s who work in host bars (a sexually-tinged and booze-infused trade known as “mizu-shobai” or “water trade”).

At host bars, patrons can select their preferred men or “host,” and have this attractive companion sit with them while pouring drinks, ordering food, lightly conversing (flattering and flirting) and maybe singing a little karaoke — the hosuto can make 40 to 50% of all the booze and food ordered by the table.

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Some hosts go even further by bonding with a single patron who takes them out on dates to dinners, movies, lavish them with small gifts (often watches and clothing) and have sex with them in local “love hotels,” a short-stay hotel for private sexual activity.

Hosutos are often slimmer with more feminine or androgynous physiques, meant to reduce any sense of physical intimidation. The long hours and constant use of cigarettes and alcohol can also speed up their aging (and some spend hours grooming and even resort to plastic surgery to maintain their appearance).

Few hosutos continue working as such after age 40. Most become club managers, authors or media personalities, says Laura Miller, a leading professor of Japanese Studies at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

[GachiMuchi]

Tokyo ‘Boys for Sale’: Straight Lads Need To Pay the Rent, Too

 

 

So how does a heterosexual hustler copulate with another guy?

07/19/2017 10:31 pm ET | Updated Jul 22, 2017

 

“I believe that sex is one of the most beautiful, natural, wholesome things that money can buy,” Steve Martin has noted. The comedian’s not alone in his praise for the oldest trade, causing one to wonder if cavemen gleefully paid with five rocks for oral and ten for anal, or if they were like priests, and got it for free.

Narrative cinema with a gay bent has long plowed this pay-as-you-go aspect of life with applaudable results (e.g. Mysterious Skin (2004); Eastern Boys (2013)), and even academia has recently explored this topic with Victor Minichiello and John Scott’s Male Sex Work and Society, a truly engulfing work that includes chapters on “Male Prostitution from Ancient Times to the Near Present” and “Mental Health Aspects of Male Sex Work.” There is also coverage of the carryings-on in Africa, China, Russia, Latin America, Germany, and Northern Island, but not in Japan.

Director Itako’s highly detailed and engrossing documentary, Boys for Sale, which just had its North American premiere in Los Angeles, thanks to Outfest, remedies this omission.

The action takes place in the Shinjuku 2-chrome section of Tokyo, which one male prostitute or urisen notes is “the gay center of Asia.” Someone adds, there are over 800 gay businesses in Japan.

We then we meet the “boys” ranging in age from 19 to 30 who are interviewed, apparently for cash. Some don sparkling, Mardi-Gras-like masks to hide their identities. Others don’t care. The majority here insist they are either straight or bi, often with girlfriends. (Please note: all their reminisced sex acts are depicted with animation.)

So how does a heterosexual hustler copulate with another guy? “I’m detached. My mind goes blank” is one response.

An alternative reply: “When I sleep with men, I remain composed, and satisfy them in various ways. But when I’m with a girl, I get so excited, my mind goes blank, and I obsessively play with their tits. . . . Just the fact [girls] don’t have dicks excites me. ”

As for the reasons the boys went into prostitution: they weren’t dating at the time, they needed the money, they were homeless, a parent died, or their villages were devastated by a tsunami, a nuclear disaster (Fukushima), or an earthquake.

One young gay man, Tamura Hisanori, 28, in fluent English, notes why there is such a big need for male prostitutes: “Japan is an island with a very conservative kind of mentality. If you are ethnically or sexually different, they tend to discriminate against you, but not in a homophobic way as we know in the Western countries. They won’t hit you. They won’t aggress you, but they will morally aggress you.” Hisanori then explains how his teacher mistreated him on learning of his sexuality.

Shinjuku 2-chrome, by the way, ironically became a gay mecca after the 1964 Olympics when the government outlawed heterosexual brothels in the area. Man-on-man lovers quickly moved in along with these “bars” where the boys are lined up, a customer picks one to have a drink with, and then if all goes well, the sex follows in small, bare rooms.

“We are something like products, and that is how I conduct myself,” a cynical chap reflects.

For the lads, the anticipation of the first time is the most anxiety-ridden. What if we can’t get it up? they ask on getting the job. “Making money will get you hard” is the reply.

Some opening nights went smoothly for the guys, just oral sex or masturbation. However, one, who wasn’t ready for anal sex, stated he was raped. Other encounters also had their ups and downs. One sex worker admits that a 63-year-old customer gave him the best blow job he ever had, better than the ones from the girls he dated. Another recalls how he was handcuffed and blindfolded then brutally gang-raped.

A wall in the Shinjuku 2-chrome section of Tokyo.

As for safe sex, one fellow had no idea how AIDS is transmitted. Others admitted they started out bare-backing, then switched, but it’s hard for some to insist on condoms when the customers are adamant, stronger, and pay more. The revelations mount up. “Sex is still something the Japanese cannot talk about. . . . This is one of the only developed where HIV is growing,” an interviewee explains.

Without argument, here’s an eye-opening, unflinching take on the exploitation of sex workers, even though admittedly several admit they enjoy the job and the money. In the end, Boys for Sale delves into its chosen topic with unbridled finesse, unearthing the country’s hypocritical attitude towards gays and sex in general.

(Winner of the Fox Inclusion Feature Film Award at Outfest 2017.}

(Boys for Sale will be screened at the following film festivals: Durban Gay and Lesbian Film Festival in August in South Africa; Camera Japan in September in Holland; and Playa Pride in November in Mexico.)

 

 

[GachiMuchi]

Boys for Sale – gaining a community’s trust to shoot a two-year documentary project in Japan

 

POSTED ON 22ND JUN 2017 8:00AM BY UCHUJIN

 

Boys for Sale is a feature documentary about urisen, mostly straight male sex workers in Tokyo’s Shinjuku 2-chome, an area with connections to the sex trade dating back to the 17th century. The film features candid interviews interspersed with animations developed specially for the documentary to give a voice to the stories of these young men’s lives in the Tokyo underground.

 

 

The idea for the film initially came about because the executive producer, Ian Thomas Ash and I were looking for a long-term project to do together. Ian had heard about these urisen bars and it seemed like no one else had covered the topic, so we decided to try to make the film.

 

PATIENCE WAS THE KEY IN GAINING TRUST

Initially we started going to the Shinjuku 2-chome area of Tokyo, effectively Tokyo’s gay quarter and supposedly the largest concentration of gay and lesbian bars anywhere in the world. We started researching not just the urisen but all of the issues affecting the community and trying to find people who would talk to us on camera.

 

For the first year I never even took a camera. Given the nature of the subject, and Japanese society’s attitude to homosexuality, a lot of people were understandably reluctant to talk to us. At this stage possible locations and subjects were photographed only with a phone. Slowly over the course of almost weekly visits for a year we made contacts and gained the trust of many individuals who were to be invaluable in making the film, even if they do not appear in it, some just by vouching for us to the community.

 

Production began initially with interviews with an NGO working with the whole community on many issues including sexual health and general filming of the area. It was designed to get people used to seeing us there filming.

 

The production team consisted of just two of us, the executive producer as interviewer and myself. Whilst I was nominally the DoP I wore all of the technical production hats – camera, sound and lighting as well as co-producer for what turned into a year-long on-and-off shoot.

It was a challenge to fulfil all of the roles while still being able to physically carry everything, remain mobile and be able to put up and break down the gear quickly.

 

KEEPING THE GEAR LIGHT AND PORTABLE

All of the main interviews in the film were shot on my Canon C100, mostly using the Canon 17-55 f/2.8 IS lens. This was just barely wide enough as a lot of the spaces we filmed in were very cramped. I also used a Canon 70-200 f/4 for some shots, particularly in the streets to get shots of bar signs. For most of the interviews the C100 was locked down on a Sachtler Ace tripod and I used a handheld or monopod mounted Canon 5DmkII with a Canon 24-70 f/2.8 as a B-cam.

Sound was recorded straight into the C100 with a RODElink wireless film maker kit lav mic, and backup sound from a RODE Videomic Pro mounted on the camera.

 

Lighting was a single Pergear MTL 900 which has a great form factor with a nice soft light, isn’t heavy, fits in my tripod bag (with the tripod and a light stand) and can run off external batteries. That and a reflector, sometimes augmented with a Yongnuo 300III LED light as a back or hair light served as my lighting kit. Despite seeming like an out of date camera now, the C100 is a fantastic ‘straight out of the bag’ camera with really good low light capabilities and excellent audio preamps making it a great choice for this kind of shooting.

 

TIGHT FILMING LOCATIONS

The interviews with many of the boys were filmed in a room barely bigger than a single bed in the “sex rooms” above one of the urisen bars and as they were on the clock and were paying for their time we had only an hour to set-up, do the interview, break down and get out without being seen by other customers. This was often a… ahem… challenge, but I had the set-up and break-down down to a fine art. We went in well prepared with the C100 fully built, wireless receiver and shotgun mic already mounted, so all I had to do was pull it out of the bag (a Thinktank Airport International with all the dividers taken out so the camera would fit) and stick it on the tripod.

 

The room where those interviews was filmed was also ridiculously hot with three people in there. It often reaches 35+°C during Tokyo in the summer  but we turned the air conditioning off due to the noise. Added to this, the walls were paper-thin, making recording sound quite challenging. Despite this, the Rode wireless setup performed flawlessly, aside from a little clothes rustling which was my fault due to the hasty set-up.

 

In one way the room was a gift as a DP due to the floor level mirror that stretched down the whole of one wall, that allowed me to film the subject and his reflection in the mirror – a useful visual metaphor for the duality of many of the topics discussed with the boys and their lives in general.

 

PROTECTING PRIVACY

All of the interviewees were asked if they wanted their faces and/or voices disguised and those that chose to hide their identities were given a choice on how that would occur – by choosing from several masks we had brought with us, or in post by blurring out their faces and altering their voices. We were extremely careful to make sure that no-one outside of the immediate crew ever saw the raw footage. Protecting the boys was a very important consideration.

 

 

ILLUSTRATING SENSITIVE TOPICS WITH ANIMATION

A conscious decision was made to not film anything salacious as we felt this would alienate many viewers and cheapen the film, but some of the stories the boys told still needed to be illustrated.

The illustrator N Tani Studio and animator Jeremy Yamamura did an amazing job of translating the stories into Japanese style animé that allows the stories to be told without the ethical or moral dilemmas that would be inherent in filming live action.

The music in the film composed by Kazaguruma also adds a distinctly Japanese feeling whilst remaining contemporary and helps bind the film together with a common musical theme.

 

Some of the interviews were very challenging emotionally because of the sometimes disturbing stories the boys told us and some of the issues surrounding sexual health and its education that were raised. The executive producer and I were often close to tears after an interview.

 

BOYS FOR SALE: THE FESTIVAL CIRCUIT

It was a fascinating two years, one that I feel honoured to have participated in and I’m very proud of how the film turned out, especially now as it is starting to screen in festivals and people are finally getting a glimpse into this rarely talked-about side of Japan.

 

Lastly I’d like to thank everyone who participated in the film for trusting us and allowing us to film their stories. Boys for Sale had it’s sold-out world premiere at the Nippon Connection Film Festival, in Frankfurt on 24 May 2017.

 

Boys for Sale will also screen at LGBT Film Festival Outfest 2017 LA on Wednesday, 12 July at 5pm in the Director’s Guild Of America (Theater 2). For further screenings and more information about the film visit our website – www.boysforsale.com.

 

Edited August 7, 2017 by GachiMuchi