Documentary focuses on man behind a cruelly bizarre 1990s Japanese reality show

TOKYO (AP) — Bare and frail, a shaggy-haired man movies himself as he endures solitude in a tiny room for months, and months extra.

“The Contestant,” directed by Clair Titley, explores the story behind the late Nineteen Nineties hit actuality TV present from Japan, “A Life in Prizes,” by which a comic nicknamed Nasubi is pressured to outlive on no matter he can redeem from mail-in coupons, as he’s denied contact with the surface world.

The movie premiered on the Toronto Worldwide Movie Competition in 2023 and can stream on Hulu from Might 2.

Tomoaki Hamatsu — whose nickname “Nasubi,” which means eggplant in Japanese, refers jokingly to his lengthy chin — by no means manages to dress himself and stays bare all through the present. However he dances to have a good time the issues he does get hold of, particularly meals, even when it’s only a pot of kimchi.

Canada’s Nationwide Publish, in a assessment of Titley’s documentary, described the TV present as “‘The Truman Present’ meets ‘OldBoy,’” referring to the 1998 American movie starring Jim Carrey a few man who unwittingly stars in a actuality TV present about his personal life and the 2003 Cannes-winning Korean movie about an imprisoned man.

The British director Titley stated she chanced upon the truth present and reached out to Nasubi as a result of she felt nobody had ever instructed his facet of the story.

“I felt that they had been form of dismissive and even derogatory to an extent about, you already know, take a look at these loopy Japanese. And I actually needed to know Nasubi’s story. I actually needed to know what had occurred to him, why he’d stayed in there,” she stated in a latest Zoom interview with The Related Press.

What makes her documentary greater than a just-for-laughs, big-in-Japan satire are the interviews Titley conducts with Hamatsu’s mom, sister and buddy, who specific outrage, sorrow, pleasure and a mixture of different feelings because the present grew right into a prime-time hit. They stated they felt sorry for what he endured, together with his nudity.

The movie additionally explores Hamatsu’s childhood expertise of being bullied due to his lengthy chin and the way he turned to laughter to guard himself.

Hamatsu says the toughest a part of the present was the solitude, though being with out clothes — and little or no meals — for a 12 months and three months additionally took a toll on him. The comic was moved to tears when he obtained a standing ovation at a New York screening of the documentary.

“I really feel I used to be in a position to relay a optimistic message via the documentary,” he stated.

“The Contestant” raises severe questions on how far society would possibly go for leisure, and the massive audiences and cash it represents.

The present’s producer stated within the documentary he simply needed to “seize the second” and didn’t point out any reservations about producing the present.

“I believe to an extent we’re all complicit in these narratives. I believe that’s one thing to concentrate on. It’s very simple to face again and take a look at all of this, and type of suppose, ‘Oh, take a look at what these producers did.’ However, you already know, as viewers we have to take some accountability,” Titley stated.

The movie explores the assorted feelings of being trapped in several methods, together with in relationships, hardships or simply emotions of meaninglessness.

Hamatsu is from Fukushima in northeastern Japan, which was hit by the March 2011 triple catastrophe, when a large tsunami adopted a 9.0 magnitude quake and devastated the shoreline, setting off the world’s worst nuclear catastrophe since Chernobyl.

Hamatsu, who nonetheless works as an actor, additionally devotes his time to the reconstruction of Fukushima and elevating consciousness in regards to the area.

“I need everybody to know the individuals of Fukushima are working onerous,” he stated.

“Life is step by step returning to what was once within the exclusion zones. In fact, I understand the street to decommissioning the nuclear vegetation remains to be an extended battle. However I would really like individuals to know the Fukushima of right this moment, really feel hope by visiting Fukushima and watch Fukushima rebuild.”

In a vindication of types on the finish of the documentary, Hamatsu turns into a climber and conquers Mount Everest, a feat he dedicates to Fukushima.

Many individuals suppose the well-known present 25 years in the past was the excessive level of Hamatsu’s life, since he isn’t on TV a lot anymore, he stated.

“However it’s simply the other. That was the worst level in my life. I overcame that. And now I’m free to do what I need.”

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Yuri Kageyama is on X