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Daily Mail
10 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
CHRISTOPHER STEVENS reviews Storyville - The Contestant: The game show so cruel it left me wondering at the depravities of TV
The Contestant - Storyville (BBC4) Back in the days when we laughed openly at foreigners and their peculiar ways, the strangest sight on television was a Japanese game show called Endurance. Contestants, all of them male, volunteered to undergo inventively sadistic tortures, with Clive James On TV airing the goriest excerpts every week to the astonishment and delight of ITV audiences. Some of the punishments, filmed all over the world, were merely brutal: cannonballs were lobbed at their testicles, and platefuls of frozen spaghetti were served to players immersed in ice baths. Others were Freudian nightmares. In one, they were tied to crucifixes before rats were released into Perspex boxes on their naked chests. At the same time, Dutch children fired tiny wooden clogs at the men's legs with powerful elastic bands. Those children looked traumatised at what they were being made to do. In 1982, Clive and his millions of viewers (and yes, of course I was one) thought this was hilarious. Producer Toshio Tsuchiya (pictured), a man who gleefully compares himself to Satan and revels in the fear and hatred he inspires in everyone who works for him, smirked as he described how in 1997 he created a format so cruel, it must surely be outlawed by the Geneva Convention After a few years, British TV executives began to feel squeamish about this and Endurance vanished from our screens. But in Japan, as The Contestant (BBC4) revealed, ever more extreme torments were being devised. Producer Toshio Tsuchiya, a man who gleefully compares himself to Satan and revels in the fear and hatred he inspires in everyone who works for him, smirked as he described how in 1997 he created a format so cruel, it must surely be outlawed by the Geneva Convention. He tricked a 21-year-old wannabe stand-up comedian, Tomoaki Hamatsu, into tackling a solitary confinement challenge called A Life In Prizes. Trapped in an apartment room, he had no clothes and no bed, and nothing to eat but crackers and water. Whatever he needed to survive, Tomoaki had to win by entering magazine competitions. He spent his days filling in forms and sending off entries, while slowly starving and going out of his mind. Although he knew there were cameras in the room, this gullible and desperate young man had no idea that footage from his cell was being screened weekly on one of Japan's biggest game shows. Soon, as he became an international celebrity, his life was livestreamed around the clock via the internet. Part of his appeal to audiences was his unusual face, with its long jaw. Bullied all his life for his appearance, Tomoaki's nickname was Nasubi, meaning 'aubergine' or 'eggplant'. To hide his naked genitals, the Japanese broadcaster used a cartoon aubergine. Incredibly, Nasubi lived this celebrity hermit life for 15 months, oblivious to his fame — eating whatever he could win, whether that was rice or dog food. The moment when he was set free, in front of a howling studio audience that included the BBC's Tokyo correspondent, Juliet Hindell, was one of the most excruciating scenes I've ever watched. Tsuchiya claimed this was a momentous episode in TV history. I was left, not for the first time, wondering at the depravities of the small screen.
Daily Mail
16 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
'Devil' behind the most horrific reality TV experiment ever: Producer locked a young comedian in a tiny apartment without food and clothes - and secretly broadcast the graphic footage
Reality shows are, today, an inescapable cornerstone of television - with long-running shows like Big Brother, Love Island, and Survivor firmly ensconced in popular culture. And while they considered extreme, they have nothing on Susunu! Denpa Shonen - the Japanese show that premiered nearly 30 years ago and remains one of the most drastic series to be produced. Although it was taken off the air in 2002, the world's 'sickest reality show' is still for its A Life In Prizes challenge - and the young comedian who endured 15 months without food or clothes in a tiny apartment in Japan. Instead, Tamaoki Hamatsu, then 22, was tasked with surviving solely off his winnings from magazine competitions while he was placed under the watch of a camera. However, in a twist that sounds like the plot of a Black Mirror episode, Hamatsu - better known by his nickname 'Nasubi' - had no idea the graphic footage was being broadcast to 17 million viewers across Japan. Nor the extent to which he was being manipulated by the show's producer - Toshio Tsuchiya, a man he idolised and looked up to as a 'god' before discovering he was the 'devil' in disguise. Recalling the moment he first brought Nasubi to the tiny apartment that would become his prison - although the door was never locked - Tsuchiya said: 'I told him that most of it would never be aired. 'I was smiling whilst saying it.' These sadistic tactics are described - sometimes, proudly, by Tsuchiya himself - in the 2024 documentary The Contestant as the now-68-year-old looks back on his most successful - and cruel - project yet. The harrowing production reveals how Tsuchiya, now 68, oversaw a production that failed Nasubi on every level - from the crew 'abandoned' him to the doctor, who gave Nasubi a clean bill of health - even though he was evidently suffering extreme psychological distress and malnourished. And Nasubi's well-being was a price Tsuchiya, still an influential figure in Japan's TV industry, was willing to pay as he became 'consumed' by the prospect of creating an extraordinary, unprecedented show that pushed its contestants to the brink. Under his obsessive direction, Nasubi became suicidal, emaciated, and so disconnected from reality that he, at one point, believed he had been 'abducted by aliens'. Japan watched as Nasubi tried to live off the prizes from magazine and radio contests, with the aspiring entertainer sending postcard after postcard until he reached the contestant's goal of making one million yen (or $8,000) in winnings. All he was given to cover his modesty was a thin, dirty pillow as Nasubi was filmed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for 335 days, as he tried to hit his target of one million yen in prizes won while also trying to find the 'enjoyment in every day'. 'Nasubi didn't know that we had rented the room next door,' the show's director, Harutaro Kagawa, revealed. 'To film Nasubi waking up in the morning, the assistant had to sneak into his room early to press record on the camera.' This footage was then whittled down to a six-minute edit - a patchwork of Nasubi talking to the camera, eating dog food, and dancing around the room naked - that had to be approved by Tsuchiya. The producer decided to use an eggplant cartoon to cover Nasubi's genitalia - no doubt because his nickname translates to 'aubergine'. By day 10, Nasubi had submitted a total of 963 applications without winning anything - meaning he hadn't eaten anything apart from the crackers the production team supplied him with intermittently because 'we couldn't let him die'. While Nasubi was growing more frail as the days went by, the production team - undoubtedly on Tsuchiya's instructions - was superimposing light-hearted captions, slapstick noises, and suggestive censoring onto footage he didn't know was being aired every night. His family, on the contrary, was painfully aware of what was happening as his sister, Ikuyo, recalled their shock at seeing Nasubi naked on national TV. 'When I saw it, I thought, "What are you doing? You're joking!" I felt both angry and sad, as well as embarrassed. A grown man naked on TV, with his privates airbrushed. 'And it was my little brother.' Watching Nasubi on TV, she realised how 'cruel and awful' Denpa Shonen - described in the documentary as the 'naughty boy' in the 'school yard' of Japanese TV. 'Denpa Shonen is easy to laugh at if you're an outside but if it's you, or someone you're close to, you see that what's happening is really cruel and awful.' Clips of Nasubi 'farting', holding up women's lacy underwear, and dancing around the room after winning bottles of sake, were all included in the final edits. After Nasubi hit his goal of earning one million yen in prizes from various contests - a feat that meant he spent 335 days naked and alone in the tiny room that saw him become increasingly detached from real life - Tsuchiya picked a particularly painful way to break the news to him During the documentary, Nasubi revealed no one from the crew would speak to him as he became increasingly cut off from the rest of the world. At this point, Tsuchiya added: 'But I told them to never engage with him, because the challenge was about being alone.' Nasubi felt his intentions were more sinister than that, adding: 'He thought that keeping me isolated would make the project more interesting.' Buoyed by the success of his show, which predated Big Brother by a couple of years, and to prove to his detractors that the film was not scripted, Tsuchiya made the decision to live stream footage from 'Nasubi's room' for internet users around the world. 'Not just every week, but every day, minute, and second, this craziness totally consumed me, wondering what I could do next.' After Nasubi hit his goal of earning one million yen in prizes from various contests - a feat that meant he spent 335 days naked and alone in the tiny room that saw him become increasingly detached from real life - Tsuchiya picked a particularly painful way to break the news to him. He woke Nasubi up in the dead of night by bursting party poppers - while shining a bright light - on his face as the frightened 22-year old was crouched in fear with streamers all over his body. But he wasn't done yet. Tsuchoiya decided to fly Nasubi to South Korea for what the frail comedian believed was a 'celebratory' trip - only to push him into repeating A Life In Prizes for an international adaptation. 'Aftrer raising him up, we dropped him right back to rock bottom,' he said. 'When you drop someone, they feel a shock, right? I thought I could capture that moment. 'That's such a cruel thing to do, isn't it,' Tsuchiya continued. This was the moment Nasubi realised the producer was the 'devil' as he told British filmmaker Clair Titley: 'At the audition, a year earlier, Tsuchiya was like a god to me. 'But from that point on, in a flash, he became the devil.' Nasubi ended up competing for several more weeks, taking him to 434 days in isolation. He then returned to Japan, where he entered another apartment and stripped naked thinking he was about to be subjected to the same turmoil again. However, the walls then collapsed to reveal a TV studio with a live audience of fans, with him becoming aware for the first time that his ordeal had been seen by millions. 'That people could push others to such limits, plunge them into despair, it's the same with bullying. 'I realised how cruel people could be,' Nasubi said. Today, Tsuchiya continues to work in the entertainment industry, with The Cinemaholic reporting he has served as the owner-operator of TV production firm Gontents LLC since 2022. He was previously appointed Senior Creator as well as President of the Research and Development Lab at Nippon Television Network Corporation, the organisation that produced Susunu! Denpa Shonen. Does he feel any remorse for the way he treated Nasubi? Cryptically, the producer said: 'What we captured in those 15 months was extraordinary. I thought it was more interesting the more I pushed people. 'If the person on the receiving end had been pushed too far, and didn't want to live, I'd have gone too far. 'But it's hard to know at the time.' He conceded, however, that Nasubi had been instrumental to his success, admitting 'I'd do anything' to help the comedian-turned-activist recover from the trauma he inflicted all those years ago. 'Even if he asked me to put my life on the line… I might even consider that,' he continued. 'If he said, "I need you to die to get closure.' I would seriously think about it.' Fortunately, Nasubi has managed to turn the negatives of his time on the series into positives. He completed his goal of climbing Mount Everest in 2016 saying that the resilience he gained from reality TV had come good for him in the climb. Tsuchiya helped him fundraise for the expedition as part of his redemption but Nasubi shared he could not forgive the producer for tricking him into thinking he was only being filmed as an experimental pilot and never told that instead he would be broadcast to all of Japan. During an Ask Me Anything on Reddit last May, ahead of the release of The Contestant, he confessed: 'It would be a lie if I said I'm not regretting, even though I learned to live with the past. Did I forgive Tsuchiya, the producer? To be honest, in my heart, there is still something that is hating the person.' He explained: 'But then in 2011, a big earthquake happened in Fukushima. I could really relate to the people who are struggling. 'So without my experience in the past, I might not have been able to resonate with people in the tough situation. That's when I realised my past struggle could be something useful. He completed his goal of climbing Mount Everest in 2016 saying that the resilience he gained from reality TV had come good for him in the climb 'So I realised that instead of regretting my past, I have to learn to live with my past and turn this around to make my negative past into something positive.' Nasubi's Everest expedition was a bid to raise awareness about the Fukushima disaster and, when he contacted Tsuchiya about his fundraising bid, the producer reportedly apologises for his past actions. "I didn't have contact with him for more than 10 years and, during that time, he was a symbol of hate for me, someone I really despised," Nasubi told TIME. 'But when I decided to climb Everest, I contacted him for the first time and he said, 'I would do anything to help you,' and apologized for all of the awful things he put me through.' In addition to his work in the TV industry, Tsuchiya is a part-time lecturer at the Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Tokyo. He is also the author of three books, including his most recent work - We Love Television - that was published in 2017.
