Before Big Brother kicked off the global (and ongoing) reality-TV phenomenon at the dawn of the new millennium, Japan was already well-versed in this kind of televised entertainment. We’ve all seen footage of these extravagant gameshows where ‘regular’ people compete in absurd, often demeaning ways cheered on by roaring crowds. In 1998 one of the more popular programs called Denpa Shōnen aired a segment where Tomoaki Hamatsu, an aspiring comedian who came to be known as Nasubi (Eggplant), was selected to stay in a room deprived of all luxury (meaning no clothes, no food, no connection to the outside world). His primary objective was to survive solely on prizes he won by participating in various contests he found in piles of magazines and to keep this up until he had reached earnings amounting to ¥1 million.
The door was never locked, mind you, so he could have left whenever he wanted. But having been bullied as a kid which had caused him to turn to comedy and performance as a form of self-defence, Hamatsu was a man eager to please and very much looking for a platform to launch his career. As such, he willingly agreed to participate and stuck through it till the end. He was not fully aware of all the specifics going in, though. For one, he had no idea how long this whole thing would actually take. Nor did he know the footage would in fact be aired on national television. And obviously no one could have predicted the immense popularity he would gain while inside. After about 15 months he exited the room on live television – notably skinnier and obviously in a state of severely deteriorated mental health.
The British documentary The Contestant (2023) features current day Hamatsu recounting how he lived through this period and describing the impact it has had on him. While he has mostly recovered from the traumatizing experience and went on to do some wonderful things later in life, the film inevitably gets under your skin. An important contributor to this sensation is Toshio Tsuchiya, the producer of the show who is also featured extensively. His reminiscence is quite disconcerting as he appears mostly proud of what he has achieved. And I guess having helmed this hugely popular – dare I say historically relevant – project can indeed be seen as a stroke of tv-making genius. But, if you ask me Tsuchiya is a megalomaniac sociopath and the embodiment of everything wrong with the human tendency to perpetuate reprehensible conduct for the sake of mass-entertainment. This film is pretty wild. Check it out on Disney +
