{"id":21984,"date":"2024-02-13T11:16:41","date_gmt":"2024-02-13T16:16:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=21984"},"modified":"2024-02-13T11:16:41","modified_gmt":"2024-02-13T16:16:41","slug":"the-contestant-about-a-japanese-reality-tv-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=21984","title":{"rendered":"THE CONTESTANT : About  a Japanese Reality TV Star \/ Hulu May 2"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This true story of a Japanese reality TV star left naked in a room for more than a year, tasked with filling out magazine sweepstakes to earn food and clothing, prompts innumerable questions about our culture of oversharing.<br aria-hidden=\"true\" \/><br aria-hidden=\"true\" \/>Before the onslaught of reality television in the West, there was an ominous harbinger in Japan of what was to come in our oversharing-obsessed culture.\u00a0<strong><em>The\u00a0<span class=\"marki9ktwqigx\" data-markjs=\"true\" data-ogac=\"\" data-ogab=\"\" data-ogsc=\"\" data-ogsb=\"\">Contestant<\/span><\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>traces the experience of aspiring comedian Tomoaki Hamatsu, nicknamed <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Nasubi\">Nasubi<\/a>, who unwittingly became an extreme case study.<br aria-hidden=\"true\" \/><br aria-hidden=\"true\" \/>In 1998, Nasubi thought he was attending an audition when a successful Japanese TV producer, Toshio Tsuchiya, enlisted him to take part in a challenge. Tsuchiya led Nasubi into a room, ordered him to strip naked and left him with a stack of magazines. Nasubi\u2019s task was to fill out contest coupons in order to win what he needed to survive \u2014 food, clothing, appliances, etc. \u2014 until he reached the prize goal of one million yen.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Although Nasubi could have left at any time, he stayed for months with a fierce determination to complete his mission. He was cut off from all contact with his family and the world except for occasional interactions with Tsuchiya.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">What Nasubi didn\u2019t realize was that his experiences were being broadcast to over 15 million people in a TV show called\u00a0<strong><em>Denpa Shonen: A Life in Prizes<\/em><\/strong>. Without his knowledge or consent, Nasubi became the most famous television personality in Japan.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">While parts of Nasubi\u2019s infamy have been recounted before on YouTube and\u00a0<em>This American Life<\/em>, director Clair Titley and producer Megumi Inman bring a revelatory depth of insight by interviewing Nasubi, Tsuchiya, and others close to them. The filmmakers explore further twists in Nasubi\u2019s life after\u00a0<strong><em>Denpa Shonen<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>to deliver the most WTF story in this year\u2019s documentary selection.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The film was showing at <a href=\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?s=Doc+NYC\">Doc NYC<\/a> last Year. The show will release on May 2nd on Hulu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This true story of a Japanese reality TV star left naked in a room for more than a year, tasked with filling out magazine sweepstakes to earn food and clothing, prompts innumerable questions about our culture of oversharing.Before the onslaught of reality television in the West, there was an ominous harbinger in Japan of what&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21985,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[20307,20532,20295,20538,20535,20536,20537,20533,20534],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>THE CONTESTANT : About a Japanese Reality TV Star<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Contestant : A Japanese reality TV star left 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