Dr. Nakamats supposedly is one of Japan’s most famous inventors. He claims to have more than 3000 patents registered. This documentary gives an impression of the daily life of this excentric man and shows some of his inventions.
As I’m a big fan of everything Japanese this was a documentary I was looking forward to for a while and was happy to see it broadcast recently. Dr.Nakamats has a busy life. He has to meet his fans, show people his inventions and planning a presentation of a new product. Some of his inventions are a bit strange like a scent which a woman puts on which should result in better sex. He also invented a drink with a number of ingredients which will make you live longer, a bra which makes breasts seem larger, but also the floppy drive, fuel cells and a bike that runs on water.
He describes that his best way to invent is to be on the edge of life and death. He gets to this stage by staying under water and experiences this just before his oxygen runs out. He claims he’s able to think better and that this is the moment he gets his ideas.
Dr. Nakamats is a fascinating man, who knows that image is everything. The documentary shows him negotiating with a hotel to have one of their being named after him for the day he uses it. An example of his excentric ways is shown by the way he chooses his cameras. He doesn’t look at lenses or reads specifications. He tells that he knows when a camera is good by the way it smells. If it smells good it’s a good camera. If there is no smell or a bad smell the camera isn’t worth his money. He photographs his food daily.
Although this documentary is worth watching, there was something missing. Unfortunately there was hardly anyone else talking about him. Dr. Nakamats made a lot of claims, but none of them were checked and while watching this I started questioning some things which the film did not answer.
This was probably done on purpose, but if you look at his page on Wikipedia you will find that quite a few things he says are false, which is a shame. This is the main reason for a slightly lower score, although I was fascinated for the whole running time. So it is a documentary you should watch if you keep in mind that not everything is the truth.
Score: 6
I met The Doctor over 30 yrs ago in west Springfield, MA. when he introduced his Brain Chair and had the honor of spending a lot of time with him in NYC at Columbia University. He is the most talented person I have ever met and looking forward to seeing him again in Orlando this week at a fund raiser for Kids betting cancer.
He sure is a very interesting person.