“For months, my life has just been a struggle between sanity and madness.” Hulu has revealed an official trailer for a documentary film titled The Contestant, a fascinating, unbelievable true story about a game show contestant in Japan in the 1990s known as “Nasubi”. It’s a bizarre cross between The Truman Show and Oldboy (and predates both of these films), but it actually really happened. 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 & clothing, prompts innumerable questions about our culture of oversharing. Before the reality TV craze, there was this ominous harbinger in Japan of what was to come in oversharing-obsessed culture. The Contestant traces the experience of aspiring comedian Tomoaki Hamatsu, nicknamed Nasubi, who unwittingly became an extreme case study. The doc film brings a revelatory depth of insight by interviewing Nasubi and others, exploring further twists in Nasubi’s life after “Denpa Shonen” to deliver one of the most WTF stories of the year. Wow. A must watch. Narrated by Fred Armisen, along with Takehiro Hira. 📺 // Continue Reading ›
Official Trailer for ‘The Contestant’ Doc About a Game Show in Japan
