THE CONTESTANT - Mark Reviews Movies

The Contestant, Hulu

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Review by Mark Dujsik | May 1, 2024

The concept of reality television wasn't really a thing when Tomoaki Hamatsu, a Japanese comedian better known as Nasubi, "auditioned" to take part in a popular TV show, and that makes "Susunu! Denpa Shōnen" worthy of some note in the history of entertainment. The Contestant, director Clair Titley's account of Nasubi's ordeal on the show, makes a good case that reality TV probably should have died before it actually started, because this recounting of what amounted to physical and psychological torture in the name of mass entertainment makes for a notorious start to what has basically become the norm of modern television.

Imagine if people back in the late 1990s knew about Nasubi's experiences then as this documentary reveals. On TV and in the studio audience of the show, people were treated to the supposedly wacky exploits of a man, shut up in a small room and trying to survive with the only the hope that some things might be delivered to him. The gimmick of the segment, called "A Life in Prizes," watched as Nasubi tried to win things from magazine sweepstakes in order to live.

Yes, this included food, which technically was initially given to him by the show's producers, if pieces of cracker throughout the day can be considered any form of real nutrition. As soon as Nasubi won his first food item, though, the crackers stopped, so the message was clear: He'd have to earn his own meals from now on. Prisoners are treated better, but apparently, struggling comedians who are willing to participate in such a show are seen as less than that by TV producers.

Nasubi recalls his story or as much as he can remember of it, since he was stuck in one room for almost a year—before the big "twist" the show had in store for him—and was clearly suffering from malnutrition, depression, and other physical and mental ailments. Watching clips from the show, which would edit down 24 hours' worth of footage over the course of a week to six-minute segments, makes these signs apparent, but the program was so popular that the audience either didn't notice or didn't care what Nasubi was going through for them to laugh at him.

This was abject cruelty, beginning with jokes about Nasubi's long face (his nickname is Japanese for "eggplant") and ending with a final televised appearance that looks as if the man is suffering from literal, medical shock. It's as much on the audience as it is on the show's producer Toshio Tsuchiya, whom the filmmakers also interview 25 years after the experiment, joke, or torture—depending on one's perspective—started. If one's expecting any sort of awareness or admission of wrongdoing or apology on Tsuchiya's part, it comes only in vague terms.

In a split-screen moment of the two main interview subjects, Nasubi explains that he continued this ordeal past his breaking point in part because he saw the producer as a kind of god in his cramped-up world. Now, he sees Tsuchiya as a devil. Sure enough, the producer, seemingly unprompted, says he's not any kind of a god, but he definitely sees himself as a devil. He's proud of the fact, because that way of thinking made for popular television.

Tsuchiya has some clarifications or excuses. For example, Nasubi was never locked in a room, contrary to press coverage at the time and urban legends after the fact, but that doesn't alter Nasubi's perspective of the stunt. He was told he had to stay in a room until he could earn a million yen in those giveaway prizes, and if the show would blindfold him and tell him to strip naked and deny him food even if he needed it, what else would they be willing to do to keep the thing going?

He had no idea, because Nasubi never signed any contract for his participation. If that seems wrong, it gets worse. When asked, Tscuhiya made it clear that none of the recorded footage in the room would be broadcast. Before the 11 months—and then some—were finished, the clips would make Nasubi a national celebrity, a bestselling author (since his private diaries in the room were published), and the subject of one of the earliest examples of a 24-hour internet livestream. He didn't agree to any of that, and if his mother's sole warning before heading from Fukushima to Tokyo to pursue an entertainment career, it's almost a guarantee Nasubi definitely wouldn't have agreed to appear naked on any of those platforms.

The film is at its best simply showing us what happened and allowing Nasubi to explain what he was thinking, how he was feeling, and why he continued going along with the setup as the days, weeks, and months progress. His words often sound like those one might hear from someone who was a hostage, because he essentially was one—even if technically and legally he presumably wasn't. When possible, the televised segments are translated into English, but in either language, the way the show frames Nasubi as the target of mockery, with a complete disinterest in him as a person, is obvious.

The Contestant is much weaker in actually confronting the ethical failings and eventual consequences of Nasubi's experience, especially by the end, when it attempts to put a positive spin on his celebrity. He may have learned some things and gained a greater appreciation for other people, but that's not the main takeaway from watching this story unfold in this way. There are many questions left unanswered or, particularly when it comes to Tscuhiya, unasked, but as an account of the inhumanity of the exploitation of a real person for questionable entertainment, the film is harrowing.

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