The Contestant

The Contestant_1080P_480P

The Contestant_1080P

I noticed this documentary, half intrigued but horrified by the premise, I'm about 3/4 into the documentary and feel like punching the producer of Denpa Shonen Toshio Tsuchiya who is still pleased with what he did, and doesn't seem to know empathy. With what I know from the afterlife, he will (like everyone) get to feel all the pain inflicted on other living beings, and feel exactly what they went through. This all just makes me feel sad. Some of the things that happened in there will be amongst the worst nightmare people can imagine. The documentary itself deserves an 8, I would probably not rate the original show that high.

Like a good many documentaries, this gets off to a shaky start, feels solid for the bulk of its runtime, and then flubs its ending. I get what the final 20 minutes was trying to do, but jumping forward more than a decade from the show's conclusion to sudden disaster footage, and then we're climbing Everest? I felt like I fell asleep and missed 10 to 15 minutes or something. And it's always risky to say a documentary should be longer, because so many on Netflix (the worst offender) are way longer than they need to be. But The Contestant is a little off with its pacing. There's also the matter of this not being substantially more informative than some of the YouTube videos out there on the story at times, but having proper interviews with the people involved does help, I'll admit. Otherwise, it's a fairly run-of-the-mill documentary. Thankfully not bloated, but also a bit slight in the end, I think.

Wow, I wonder how the creator of the show sleeps at night.. For sure a show not meant for Europe or USA, enough to look at the other show that this was a part of, but come on.. human exploitation on tv, for real?? The creator seems very proud of his work, even today, especially when there was no contract and Nusubi didn't get paid at all, however very profitable for the tv show. So much manipulation and humiliation during the first Japan round, then have the guts to traffic a person to South Korea without their knowledge and convice the guy to stay longer.. This is just mind blowing. Money over basic humanity.. Poor Nusubi, mental health problems for life, and for what? I would like to see the creator put in a room, naked, for over a year and eating dog food... Otherwise the documentary is worth watching once, just mind blowing how this was even allowed.

As "The Contestant" (2023 release from Japan; 90 min) opens, we are introduced to a young Japanese comedian and actor, later nicknamed Nasubi ("Eggplant"), and it is the late 90s. Desperate to get away from Fukushima, he tries his luck in Tokyo, and before we know it, he is entering a wild TV reality show, where he is isolated in a small room and without clothes. He must enter various product sweepstakes to earn food and shelter... At this point we are 10 minutes into the documentary. Couple of comments: as always we need to make a distinction between the subject matter of this film on the on hand, and whether this documentary is any good. As to the former, this borders on psychological bullying, if not worse, and all in the name of attracting higher ratings. Japanese TV has a reputation over pushing the edges, but in my humble opinion, this goes far beyond that. For shame. As to the documentary itself, this is well done, and carefully brought onto the screen. I will admit that I had a hard time watching this. The film makers talk to the main people involved with these events now a quarter century later. The TV producer of this reality show seems to have no, or very little, regrets. As for Nasubi: just watch! "The Contestant" premiered at last Fall's Toronto International Film Festival to great acclaim. It is currently rated 94% Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, which feels very generous to me. It is currently streaming on Hulu, where I caught it the other night. If you are in the mood for a documentary about a bizarre reality TV show in Japan from the late 90s, I'd recommend you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

That's all I need when I'm experiencing a documentary. A producer's cruel but absurdly genius reality TV concept fantasy that's only comparable to Oldboy and The Truman Show. 1-year and 3-month journey of one "LUCKY" Tomoaki Hamatsu-Nasubi delved into writing addresses and was forced to enter sweepstakes to survive an ongoing experiment. With ups and downs producer's making up rules and expanding on ideas as the days went on. Pause I mean having a team of over 6 people to live trace an eggplant censor over his junk is just... No words. The dirty money they made off this show makes me sick to my stomach and beyond. This experiment doesn't age well in any type of situation period. Although broken mentally Nasubi over the years has been holding up strong climbing Everest after 2 earthquake tragedies and Susunu! Denpa Shonen's fiasco takes multiple superhuman feats of courage and strength. The end of the documentary makes it very clear.

After feeling like there's a nap on its way from a late night and early morning I put this on thinking it'd be background noise but instead woke me up and made me share this IMDb link to my friends and socials. As a documentary it does everything right except show us how things are currently for Nasubi (which I can do myself but still) and maybe other peoples whereabouts. Despite that the pacing, production value and story is something I don't think I've ever seen. Maybe if it was in the western world more people would know about this man and what he has been through, because it shocked me for a whole 15 months someone was subjugated to this treatment for entertainment and nobody thought to end it?? It's almost as if this was a real life episode of black mirror and the Japanese public just went along with it. Utter rage for the creator who called himself a "devil" but glad the ending is as bleak as it could've been. Please watch and go on the emotional rollercoaster I went on, I'm going to find out what happened to those in this movie and now will remember him everytime I see the eggplant emoji being used.

I am in shock after seeing this documentary. It's hard to express how I feel, I most definitely want to strangle that disgusting cruel and greedy producer but I also wanna cry with SADNESS....and joy for Nasubi. I mean, you're better going into this not knowing anything and just let it all unfold for you. It's insane, deeply sad, comical, touching, makes you angry, but ultimately you'll be emotionally moved by this unique story that will never be repeated in any way shape or form. What a courageous and humble human being and I hope he never has to worry about money, or anything, for the rest of his life. My god, the barbarity of Japanese TV is boundless. Please watch and be shocked but I hope the decency of this man will touch your soul like it did for me. What a true hero and inspiration. This really is a MUST SEE.

The whole time was watching, I kept thinking how the laws must be very different in Japan, because if this happened in the US, everyone involved would have been sued for infliction of emotional distress and it would have resulted in Nasubi being awarded millions in damages. That public watched this and found it funny (laughing in sympathy" is NOT a thing) shows how big cultural differences can be. We have all kinds of reality shows where people can sign up for extreme deprivation, but they always know that can tap out, and they definitely know that any moment caught on camera might be broadcast. That said, Nasubi is clearly a delightful character and I can understand why people enjoyed watching him. But I wish for his sake that he'd bern so boring that they'd opted to pull the plug early on...