May 3, 2024
FILM: THE CONTESTANT
DIRECTED BY: CLAIR TITLEY
STARRING: TOMOAKI HAMATSU
RATING: 3 out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
Reality TV. Does it make average people celebrities? Is there something coming from within those new stars that drives and keeps them in the public eye? That may be the ultimate message of this fascinating if frustrating documentary now streaming on Hulu. The Contestant concerns Tomoaki Hamatsu, known as Nasubi (Japanese for eggplant.) The man’s one goal early in life was to make people laugh to defend himself against those who made fun of his long face (that some believed looked like an eggplant.) In 1998 he won a lottery drawing to become a contestant on a Japanese reality show called A Life in Prizes. Without knowing what was in store for him, Nasubi is blindfolded and brought to an apartment where he would live for the next 15 months, naked, attempting to live off the prizes of the mail-in competitions he enters. All the while he is unaware that what he is doing is being watched by people all over the Japan. He even becomes the subject of world news in Britain and the U.S.
You might think this sounds a bit like the Jim Carrey film, The Truman Show which was released later that year. In part, it is similar, except that Nasubi is alone with no clothes on for the duration of his time on the series. Viewers don’t see him 24 hours a day like they do in Carrey’s film but rather they see an edited version of what he experiences each week. An entire audience is brought in to view these truncated moments in Nasubi’s life and they howl with laughter at everything he does. Bookending this is the bigger story featuring interviews with the man, his producer, and director years later. It seems as if this big joke of an entertainment show might have led to resentment, anger, and perhaps embarrassment on the part of Nasubi but where this documentary takes us is a bit surprising.
It’s hard not to watch what he experienced and feel the cruelty involved in putting someone through this much public exposure. It raises a lot of questions concerning the ethics of reality TV. It also says something about the audience so glued to what Nasubi is doing and finding it all so hilarious. Are they that cold that they don’t find some of this pretty degrading?
Nasubi later mentions the moments he was losing sanity, contemplating suicide, and experiencing times of loneliness and self-hatred. Yet, this is where his story turns in an unexpected direction, at least according to filmmaker Clair Titley. There’s a major gap in the timeline here between 1998 and 2010 where we really only see his post-reality show public persona. What’s missing here are the true psychological effects of this type of sudden and questionable rise to fame. As such, Titley doesn’t really get much of his inner struggle at any time during and after the reality show. He remains a celebrity figure.
Does this take away from the power of the film? Not entirely because it appears that both Titley and Nasubi are interested in expressing something more: the fighting spirit and perseverance of the man. Perhaps he always needed to be in the spotlight. That’s where he survives best. He entertains and helps the world in a very public manner. Whether there are lingering resentments or not are overshadowed by Nasubi’s positive exterior. He gets the attention, needs it, and does good things for the culture because of that need.
He’s a reality star that may always be a reality star and that seems to be fine by him. I’d just like the film to go a bit deeper into the man behind that public persona.
The Contestant is now streaming on Hulu.
FILM: THE CONTESTANT
DIRECTED BY: CLAIR TITLEY
STARRING: TOMOAKI HAMATSU
RATING: 3 out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
Reality TV. Does it make average people celebrities? Is there something coming from within those new stars that drives and keeps them in the public eye? That may be the ultimate message of this fascinating if frustrating documentary now streaming on Hulu. The Contestant concerns Tomoaki Hamatsu, known as Nasubi (Japanese for eggplant.) The man’s one goal early in life was to make people laugh to defend himself against those who made fun of his long face (that some believed looked like an eggplant.) In 1998 he won a lottery drawing to become a contestant on a Japanese reality show called A Life in Prizes. Without knowing what was in store for him, Nasubi is blindfolded and brought to an apartment where he would live for the next 15 months, naked, attempting to live off the prizes of the mail-in competitions he enters. All the while he is unaware that what he is doing is being watched by people all over the Japan. He even becomes the subject of world news in Britain and the U.S.
You might think this sounds a bit like the Jim Carrey film, The Truman Show which was released later that year. In part, it is similar, except that Nasubi is alone with no clothes on for the duration of his time on the series. Viewers don’t see him 24 hours a day like they do in Carrey’s film but rather they see an edited version of what he experiences each week. An entire audience is brought in to view these truncated moments in Nasubi’s life and they howl with laughter at everything he does. Bookending this is the bigger story featuring interviews with the man, his producer, and director years later. It seems as if this big joke of an entertainment show might have led to resentment, anger, and perhaps embarrassment on the part of Nasubi but where this documentary takes us is a bit surprising.
It’s hard not to watch what he experienced and feel the cruelty involved in putting someone through this much public exposure. It raises a lot of questions concerning the ethics of reality TV. It also says something about the audience so glued to what Nasubi is doing and finding it all so hilarious. Are they that cold that they don’t find some of this pretty degrading?
Nasubi later mentions the moments he was losing sanity, contemplating suicide, and experiencing times of loneliness and self-hatred. Yet, this is where his story turns in an unexpected direction, at least according to filmmaker Clair Titley. There’s a major gap in the timeline here between 1998 and 2010 where we really only see his post-reality show public persona. What’s missing here are the true psychological effects of this type of sudden and questionable rise to fame. As such, Titley doesn’t really get much of his inner struggle at any time during and after the reality show. He remains a celebrity figure.
Does this take away from the power of the film? Not entirely because it appears that both Titley and Nasubi are interested in expressing something more: the fighting spirit and perseverance of the man. Perhaps he always needed to be in the spotlight. That’s where he survives best. He entertains and helps the world in a very public manner. Whether there are lingering resentments or not are overshadowed by Nasubi’s positive exterior. He gets the attention, needs it, and does good things for the culture because of that need.
He’s a reality star that may always be a reality star and that seems to be fine by him. I’d just like the film to go a bit deeper into the man behind that public persona.
The Contestant is now streaming on Hulu.