Lucid NonsenseMovies / 1995
Shinjuku Boys
This documentary is set in the New Marilyn night club in Tokyo, Japan - where the hosts are transgender men. They can only make their living as hosts in a nightclub with other wannabes like them. The young women who come there often have relationships with them but the underlying fear is whether such a relationship can withstand the pressures on a girl to get married and have children. All three boys deal with this in different ways. These three hosts, the Shinjuku Boys, take us into their lives.
- Release year
- 1995
- Released
- Dec 7, 1995
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Genres
- Documentary
- Tags
- japanuary2026
Review
Incredibly heart warming. I think it may have worked better focusing on only two hosts or giving more time to Gaish. But yeah, this documentary feels so authentic to these young people's lives and I was struck by how some of them would say the most heartbreaking and most affirming things with the same delivery. Kazuku's call with his mom is so good, couldn't write a better scene in a drama. I hope everyone in this film is happy and well. Seeing a slice of 90s kabukicho is also great, the shots in the club are so fun. Props to Criterion for uploading the crappy hard subbed version of this, genuinely very nice it's accessible.
Consumption history1
Completed
Letterboxd tags: train
External identifiers
- tmdb
- 74124
- letterboxd
- 2Bqy