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

I remember hearing about this show ages ago on an episode of This American Life. Thanks for the heads up, this sounds like a good doc.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

“The Contestant,” directed by Clair Titley, explores the story behind the late 1990s hit reality TV show from Japan, “A Life in Prizes,” in which a comedian nicknamed Nasubi is forced to survive on whatever he can redeem from mail-in coupons, as he is denied contact with the outside world.

Tomoaki Hamatsu — whose nickname “Nasubi,” meaning eggplant in Japanese, refers jokingly to his long chin — never manages to clothe himself and remains naked throughout the show.

The British director Titley said she chanced upon the reality show and reached out to Nasubi because she felt no one had ever told his side of the story.

What makes her documentary more than a just-for-laughs, big-in-Japan satire are the interviews Titley conducts with Hamatsu’s mother, sister and friend, who express outrage, sorrow, pride and a mix of other emotions as the show grew into a prime-time hit.

In a vindication of sorts at the end of the documentary, Hamatsu becomes a climber and conquers Mount Everest, a feat he dedicates to Fukushima.

Many people think the famous show 25 years ago was the high point of Hamatsu’s life, since he is not on TV much anymore, he said.

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