The Great Happiness Space: Tale of an Osaka Love Thief

A host club called Rakkyo in Osaka. Issei, who is twenty two, runs it, and around twenty young men work for him. The job is this: to sit with women customers, drink with them, pay attention to them, and have them run up large bills in return for that attention. Issei is the highest earning host in the city. How most of the women who come to the club earn their own money is another story. Jake Clennell's documentary got almost unrestricted access inside the club. The most striking thing about it is that the same people say two different things in front of the camera: first they describe how enjoyable the work is, then the loneliness and the exhaustion. Both the hosts and the customers explain their own situations, and both sides know they are being deceived. The film was named best documentary at the Edinburgh Film Festival in 2006.