‘The Contestant’ Director And Subject On The Terrifying and Bizarre True Story
Mary Beth McAndrews
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In 1988, popular Japanese game show Denpa Shōnen aired a segment that revealed a man named Tomoaki Hamatsu, later nicknamed Nasubi, was being taken to a room, stripped naked, and left there with the only instruction to fill out magazine contests. For 15 months, he was filmed, which he was aware of. What he didn’t know what that that footage was being aired for the entire country to see. This is the subject of Clair Titley’s new documentary The Contestant, which is streaming now on Hulu.
But Titley doesn’t aim to make an exploitative story here. Instead, she wants to tell Nasubi’s story in his own words. He is one of her main interview subjects, along with series producer Toshio Tsuchiya, who give an in-depth look at experiencing (and crafting) such a social experiment.
We had the opportunity to speak with both Titley and Nasubi about their new documentary, consent, life after living in such a bizarre spotlight, and more.
Dread Central: Clair, I wanted to start with you. How did you discover Nasubi’s story?
Clair Titley: Well, I was doing research on another project and I fell down one of those internet rabbit holes when you’re supposed to be doing something else, and then you get distracted. You’re like, hang on, I’m to spend five minutes looking at this.
DC: Oh, I know how that goes.
CT: So I did that and then spent a bit more time on it. I was just absolutely fascinated by it. But everything that I’ve found on the subject of Denpa Shōnen, there wasn’t a great deal about Nasubi’s story, and that’s what I was really interested in. On top of that, I felt like a lot of the stuff that had been done on [his experience], and not everything, but quite a few things were quite simplistic. Maybe even potentially derogatory about Japanese culture, a bit kind of point and laugh maybe, and look at those crazy Japanese.
To me, I didn’t feel like they were asking any deeper questions. They certainly weren’t exploring Nasubi’s story. So that’s when I first approached him to say, I’d love to make this film, but I want to make it with you about you and about your story and answer some of those unanswered questions.
DC: Nasubi, what was going through your head when you were approached about this documentary?
Nasubi: I was approached by foreign media pretty often, at least once a year. Every year, magazines, TV, radio, they approached me and wanted to do a story. But most of the foreign press say, were you abused? Why aren’t you suing them? This kind of approach was very normal among the foreign press. But Clair wanted to show the inside of me. She wanted to know more about what went on inside myself. So of course it’s about human rights but it’s not going to be like a whistleblower’s film. It’s something about showing a different side of my story. So that’s why I opened myself to her.
DC: What was that like, that experience of opening yourself up like this again and really going deep about your experience with the show?
N: It was very hard. There was some stuff that I did not want to show, did not want to go there again. So I had to be kind of brave to open up again. But I thought that maybe I myself can find something new about myself, a new side that I wasn’t aware of before. That’s how I felt. And also the relationship with the producer was changing. He apologized to me. So he said that he would help me if there was anything that he could do. So I wanted to see where this new relationship with [Toshio Tsuchiya] might take me. I wanted to see where this new forgiveness could lead me.
DC: Clair, was it like for you trying to both navigate your experience and gain trust with Nasubi while also interviewing other producers? I’m curious for you what that was like to balance these relationships and also come at it from a neutral perspective, even when talking to these people who did some pretty horrendous things.
CT: I think in terms of the relationship with Nasubi, it was all about consent. We were very open from the start about what we were going to do and I talked [him] through every single step. He didn’t have editorial control of the film, but he knew what we were doing every step of the way. I would even ask for feedback or maybe even visual ideas. We would talk about what we were doing and why we were doing it. And with Tsuchiya. obviously, you always have your own personal judgments. I didn’t feel with this film that I really needed, particularly in the edit to turn around and tell an audience that what he did was wrong. They can make their own conclusions from that.
But I have a lot of respect and admiration for Toshio and the way in which he approached this project though, however I might feel personally about what he did, because he was so open. He was very honest. He didn’t hold back. I feel that he did this film in part as his way of apologizing a part of his redemption in some way. We didn’t have to persuade him to do it. Nasubi asked him, and he agreed to do it. He’s a TV producer, he’s a documentary director himself. He wasn’t naive to the way in which the Western world would’ve treated him or reacted to what he did. But he still put himself out there and didn’t hold back.
DC: Were you surprised by that, his honesty?
CT: In hindsight now that I get Toshio a bit more, it makes sense. But at the time when he said that he would take part in the film, I think we were quite surprised, and endlessly anxious that he might change his mind at any point. But in the same way that I was honest with Nasubi the whole way through, I’ve been very honest with [Tsuchiya] and we’ve had that kind of open dialogue the whole way through. So yeah, it’s been a good relationship, I suppose, in that way.
DC: Yeah. Nasubi, it was incredible to see how your life has changed after everything. How has your life continued to change after being part of the show and living in the spotlight?
N: At first I really thought of humans as scary things because in order to make something fun, good TV, a human can do awful things just to make some profit. So yes, in the beginning, I had a hard time trusting people again. But little by little I realized that people cannot live by themself. We all have to live together. And then this earthquake happened in 2011 in East Japan, where I’m from. There were many people who are going through similar struggles and hardships time. So I could relate to the people in a helpless situation, and the people in Fukushima could relate to me and say, oh, you were in a similar situation like this.
We connected on the same level and I could make people smile. They were happy to see me there. So I came to the conclusion, even though it was a hard experience, I could use this and make something positive. And that is woerking with people in tough situations and encourage them and give them new hope. So that’s the new thing that I’m doing right now. Connecingt with the people. I can relate to how vulnerable people could be because I was very vulnerable at that time.
DC: Has working on The Contestant affected your own perception of reality television and America’s obsession with a different kind of reality television?
CT: No. What I think is kind of unique about Denpa Shōnen is that when we look at that, we are judging it with all the baggage and the history that we have. Now we’ve got 20 years of reality TV, whereas at the time it happened, it was one of a kind. It was the pre-Big Brother, The Truman Show, everything. So there was none of that preconceptions that we have now.
What I’d like people to come away with is questioning our own relationship with reality TV, social media, and the crossovers in it all. We give away all our information for free. We take pictures of ourselves, put it up online, and everyone can see instantly. Whereas [Denpa Shōnen] was back in the day when you had to fight for your 15 minutes of fame. The Contestant made me maybe question my relationship with the media. It’s obviously made me think about my relationship with my subjects.
DC: Awesome. Nasubi, I’m curious what you want people to take away from this in regards to reality TV and parasocial relationships.
N: This all happened 25 years ago before YouTube. So I think of myself as a pioneer figure in the reality world. At that time, there was no limit, there was no protection. So I don’t watch reality shows nowadays, but when I look at it, people in the reality shows are protected with better technology and better methods. So they do have some sort of protection that I did not get. For people now, looking back at what I went through, of course it’s awful and it’s incredible, unbelievable stuff. But there are people who have lost their lives even nowadays in reality TV.
So I want the reality TV world not to produce any more victims like that. I don’t want any other people to go through what I went through. I don’t want people to have such a hard time as I had, and that’s my wish.
The Contestant is streaming now on Hulu.
Categorized:Interviews
