Hollywood Suite announced Tuesday it will present the exclusive Canadian television premiere of The Contestant, a documentary that tells the true story of a Japanese reality TV star who was left naked in a room for more than a year and tasked with entering contests to earn food and clothing.
“Cut off from the outside world, [Tomoaki] Hamatsu, nicknamed Nasubi (Japanese for “Eggplant”), was stripped and left with a stack of magazines. Everything he needed to survive could be won by entering sweepstakes, with sights on reaching the prize goal of one million yen,” reads a description in a press release.
The gripping documentary “sheds light on our cultural fascination with reality television and oversharing-obsessed culture,” the release says.
Directed by Clair Titley and narrated by Fred Armisen, The Contestant had its world premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. It will debut on Hollywood Suite On Demand on July 1, and have its broadcast premiere July 20 at 9 p.m. ET on the Hollywood Suite 2000s channel.
The film was produced by Misfits Entertainment and MRC Television.
“I was immediately charmed and fascinated by Nasubi,” Sharon Stevens, vice president of programming at Hollywood Suite, said in the release. “Shot in 1998, the filmmakers deftly handle this unbelievable story that was a precursor to the reality TV boom that would take over Western culture in the years that followed.”
Image courtesy of Hollywood Suite.
