True Films

The Great Happiness Space


great-happiness-space

Unblinking access to a strange underworld in Japan. It’s a story about professional pretty boys who are paid a lot of money to be platonic friends to pretty young girls, who are paid a lot of money for sexual favors by Tokyo salarymen. The boys are bored pretending to be friends to the girls who are bored having to pay for friendship. This circle of broken hearts, each unhappy soul trying to buy happiness or “healing,” is mesmerizing, and in the end heart-wrenching. Because their roles allows no one in the “great happiness space” to develop real relationships, they pay high dollars for fake friends and “healing.” Yet all of the “healers” need to be healed. As one reviewer on Netflix said, “I wanted to give them all a hug or send them to summer camp or something.” But the honesty and candid peek into this private world is totally captivating. An invisible subculture illuminated.

— KK

The Great Happiness Space
Directed by Jake Clennell
2006, 75 min.
DVD, $35

Official website

Read more about the film at Wikipedia

Rent from Netflix

Available from Amazon

Posted March 10, 2008 at 9:17 am | comments



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