{"id":619559,"date":"2024-05-02T23:48:39","date_gmt":"2024-05-02T20:48:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/watch-documentary-on-vintage-japanese-reality-show-2\/"},"modified":"2024-05-02T23:48:39","modified_gmt":"2024-05-02T20:48:39","slug":"watch-documentary-on-vintage-japanese-reality-show-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/watch-documentary-on-vintage-japanese-reality-show-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch Documentary on Vintage Japanese Reality Show"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3a1c9e699a4\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3a1c9e699a4\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/watch-documentary-on-vintage-japanese-reality-show-2\/#%E2%80%9CWatch_Online_Documentary_on_Vintage_Japanese_Reality_Show%E2%80%9D\" >&#8220;Watch Online Documentary on Vintage Japanese Reality Show&#8221;<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-2' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/watch-documentary-on-vintage-japanese-reality-show-2\/#%E2%80%9CDocumentary_on_Vintage_Japanese_Reality_Show%E2%80%9D\" >&#8220;Documentary on Vintage Japanese Reality Show&#8221;<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9CWatch_Online_Documentary_on_Vintage_Japanese_Reality_Show%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>&#8220;Watch Online Documentary on Vintage Japanese Reality Show&#8221;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9CDocumentary_on_Vintage_Japanese_Reality_Show%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>&#8220;Documentary on Vintage Japanese Reality Show&#8221;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n    His name is Nasubi. He sits alone and naked in a small apartment for months on end, trying to win food and clothing as mail-in sweepstakes prizes. He doesn\u2019t quite know it, but his strange predicament is being broadcast to 17 million people. It sounds like a work of fiction about a torturous psychopath \u2014 something out of a \u201cSaw\u201d film \u2014 but in 1998, it was the premise of a Japanese reality TV show, and is now now the subject of documentary Clair Titley\u2019s wildly intriguing (if often imbalanced) \u201cThe Contestant.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n    The British documentary, now available on Hulu, chronicles the inception of this cruel and unusual <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/game\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"7\" title=\"Game\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">game<\/a> through the eyes of not only its subject \u2014 wannabe co<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">media<\/a>n Tomoaki Hamatsu, a.k.a. Nasubi \u2014 as well as TV super-producer Toshio Tsuchiya, who created the bizarre challenge for comedy\/prank reality <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/watch-movies-tv-seriess\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"8\" title=\"Watch Movies &amp; TV Series\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">series<\/a> \u201cSusunu! Denpa Sh\u014dnen.\u201d Starting with six-minute segments of Nasubi\u2019s life, the broadcast eventually evolved into an early, round-the-clock live-streaming event in the vein of Peter Weir\u2019s \u201cThe Truman Show,\u201d which the challenge pre-dates by several months, but which makes for a fitting comparison on several fronts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n    In Weir\u2019s film, Ed Harris plays the god-like creator Christof, whose benevolence is questioned. In \u201cThe Contestant,\u201d people seem to revere Tsuchiya in similar fashion, though he eventually reveals his methods and intentions to be chillingly manipulative, if not downright devilish. Both he and Nasubi sit down for talking-head interviews in the present, framing the film as a retrospective on the then-nascent reality TV boom with the wisdom of hindsight (today, we have internet celebrities and COVID lockdowns to compare), and the ability to see the cracks in its design.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n    For those unaware of the show or its chronology, the documentary lays out the parameters early on and mostly re-purposes the series\u2019 footage, presenting a montage of Nasubi\u2019s isolation and steady descent into hunger and confusion. (He can technically leave anytime he wants, but coercion is part of the equation too). However, just when it seems like the movie may simply be a condensed re-telling with occasional external context, it drops a bombshell revelation halfway through its runtime \u2014 revealed much the same way Nasubi experienced this twist in the show\u2019s format, with no prior knowledge or set up \u2014 that induces nauseating whiplash. All of a sudden, the film goes from mildly interesting to downright gut-churning, an emotional territory it seldom leaves from there on out.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n    The colorful on-screen subtitles of \u201cDenpa Sh\u014dnen\u201d (a flourish typical of Japanese variety television) have been neatly re-formatted in English for a Western audience, though there\u2019s a flaw in the way its voiceover has been transposed. Its boisterous narrator (another common element of such shows) has been replaced with English-language voiceover too, from comedian Fred Armisen, whose wry, soft-spoken tone doesn\u2019t quite capture the manic energy of the original. However, this is but a minor issue in the film\u2019s cultural translation. Otherwise, Titley proves adept at finding the right balance between Japanese and British commentary (from Nasubi\u2019s own family, and from a BBC correspondent in Japan) in order to illuminate the story\u2019s hidden contours, and its decision-making behind the scenes.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n    There\u2019s a miniseries\u2019 worth of plot to be found in \u201cThe Contestant,\u201d so information flies at the viewer on a constant basis. But on the flipside, its attempt to bring Nasubi\u2019s story to a point of catharsis clashes with a series of concluding scenes that feel played on fast-forward. Ironically, despite occasionally embodying the sensation of time stretching outward infinitely, the movie doesn\u2019t quite capture the years-long fallout of the game on Nasubi\u2019s psyche the way it intends. Instead, it rushes past its most difficult emotional beats, in pursuit of an upbeat conclusion that can\u2019t help but feel unearned.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n    However, Nasubi\u2019s charm and candor (and on the flipside, Tsuchiya\u2019s quiet menace) prove alluring enough to ensure that \u201cThe Contestant\u201d is never boring. Titley consistently anchors her unfolding chronicle to the kind of backstage emotional truths often hidden from the audience, and in the process, she crafts something halfway between sensationalist expos\u00e9 and intimate confessional \u2014 a remedy to reality TV based on its own format \u2014 co-authored by her subjects.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMN63nwsw68G3Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more Like this articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/watch-movies-tv-series\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Watch Movies &#038; TV Series <\/a><\/span>category<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2024\/film\/reviews\/the-contestant-review-reality-tv-documentary-1235990361\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Watch Online Documentary on Vintage Japanese Reality Show&#8221; &#8220;Documentary on Vintage Japanese Reality Show&#8221; His name is Nasubi. He sits alone and naked in a small apartment for months on end, trying to win food and clothing as mail-in sweepstakes prizes. He doesn\u2019t quite know it, but his strange predicament is being broadcast to 17&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":619560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/contestant_2024_nca_1_mov_clip_3149_502828-3150_348026.jpg?w=1000&h=563&crop=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-619559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-watch-movies-tv-seriess"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}