The Contestant

The incredible true story of a man who lived for 15 months trapped inside a small room, naked, starving and alone... completely unaware that his life was being broadcast on national TV to over 17 million viewers a week.

The Contestant traces the experience of aspiring comedian Tomoaki Hamatsu, nicknamed Nasubi, who, in 1998, thought he was going to an audition, when a Japanese TV producer enlisted him to take part in a challenge. He led Nasubi into a room, ordered him to strip naked and left him with a stack of magazines. Nasubi was told his task was to fill out contest coupons to win what he needed to survive - food, clothing, appliances, and so on - until he reached the prize goal of one million yen.
Although Nasubi could have left at any time, he stayed for months, with a fierce determination to complete his mission.

What Nasubi didn’t realise was that his experiences were being broadcast to over 15 million people in a TV show called Denpa Shōnen: A Life in Prizes. Without his knowledge or consent, Nasubi became the most famous television personality in Japan.

Combining clips from the show with previously unseen footage, alongside interviews with Nasubi, his family and Denpa Shōnen’s producer, this is the incredible story of a how one man became a national phenomenon that presaged the global rise of reality TV.