In a world where any feckless tosspot can become famous usually via social media, new documentary, ‘The Contestant’ takes us back to what is essentially patient zero, a wannabe comedian Nasubi. At the time one of the biggest shows in Japan was produced by Tsuchiya who created a segment of one of his shows that he called ‘A Life in Prizes’ to be played by one person chosen by lucky draw which turned out to be Nasubi. Nasubi would soon look back on it as being anything but lucky. Taken to a small room with shelves of magazines and a stack of postcards he was told to remove all his clothes. Fed crackers for a the first few weeks he was told to enter the magazine competitions to win food, clothes etc and that his only escape was when the value of his prizes totalled one million yen. After one week, naked and having submitted 963 competitions entries he had won a grand total of nothing.
The Contestant tells the story from both his and the producers point of view with contributions from the TV staff and the BBC’s Japan correspondent and it makes sobering and at times almost unbelievable viewing. The segment, initially was not that popular but soon took off and became an international topic of conversation reported on by news networks around the world watching the turmoil of the contestant naked for the year that he spent there and the producer capitalizing on it further all with the fledgling dawn of 24/7 webcam.
The documentary soon makes clear that there was little positive to come out of this apart from huge viewer ratings. His family were in turn sad, angry and embarrassed by his humiliation, older audiences, who had lived through Hiroshima, were unhappy about his constant state of hunger and Nasubi himself grew lonely, depressed and believed that death was his only escape. Except he could escape: all he had to do was say he wanted to leave and the documentary doesn’t really get a satisfactory explanation from him as to just why he stayed. It got even worse for him when the producer introduced what can only be described as the most damaging of psychological twists.
Director Clair Titley’s documentary has you unable to take your eyes away from it, certainly for the first hour after which it flags dramatically. The segment turned out to be remarkably prescient when Big Brother was still a couple of years away and The Truman Show would be released in the same year but quite some months after A Life in Prizes had already started. It’s just as unsettling though to see what they put a lone, naked man stripped of his dignity through and often seems unbearably cruel with a producer obsessed with getting the shot of his face when he was released rather than the wellbeing of Nasubi. What it does miss is at least one person analysing the effect it clearly had on his psyche and calling out the show for what it was which even went to the point of humiliating him about having a long face. And perhaps worst of all is that it gave us fame obsessed members of the public prepared to go through anything to get themselves on TV. Perhaps the one high point is that we’ve managed to pitch our own spin on the show in which Meghan Markle is also locked in a room alone and to escape she has to send out letters to companies pitching what she believes she can offer whatever launch events they have. The twist being that the companies don’t exist. And nor do the cameras.
related feature : ‘One of these days’ – touch the truck and win it!
related feature : ‘One Life’ stars Anthony Hopkins in a true life story. Director James Hawes chats to us….
Here’s The Contestant trailer…..
The post The Contestant – REVIEW appeared first on Any Good Films.
from Any Good Films https://ift.tt/L3xG94Y
