The Contestant

Sep 8, 2023

1h 31m

★ 6.9

The naked truth about the world's first reality star.

Overview

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

Genres

Documentary

Production Companies

Misfits Entertainment

MRC

The Contestant Trailers

Cast

Self

Nasubi

Self

Toshio Tsuchiya

Self

Kazuko Hamatsu

Self

Seiichi Hirai

Self

Harutaro Kagawa

Self

Juliet Hindell

Self

Ikuyo Hamatsu

Self

Jun Anzai

Self

Kenji Kondo

Denpa Shonen Narrator (voice)

Fred Armisen

Nasubi's Diary (voice)

Takehiro Hira

After the disaster of March 2011, the Japanese authorities decided to build a gigantic 15 meter high, 500 kilometer long, anti-tsunami wall, separating the land and the ocean. But what is the environmental and human impact of this wall? The population is divided on their opinion: should they cut the island off from the sea or stay vulnerable to tsunamis? Is there another way?

8.0

Japan's War in Colour

Jan 17, 2005

Using never-before-seen footage, Japan's War In Colour tells a previously untold story. It recounts the history of the Second World War from a Japanese perspective, combining original colour film with letters and diaries written by Japanese people. It tells the story of a nation at war from the diverse perspectives of those who lived through it: the leaders and the ordinary people, the oppressors and the victims, the guilty and the innocent. Until recently, it was believed that no colour film of Japan existed prior to 1945. But specialist research has now unearthed a remarkable colour record from as early as the 1930s. For eight years the Japanese fought what they believed was a Holy War that became a fight to the death. Japan's War In Colour shows how militarism took hold of the Japanese people; describes why Japan felt compelled to attack the West; explains what drove the Japanese to resist the Allies for so long; and, finally, reveals how they dealt with the shame of defeat.

10.0

Disney: Through the Looking Glass

Jan 11, 2010

Tito del Amo, a passionate 72-year-old researcher, takes the final step to unravel the enigma about the alleged Spanish origin of the American cartoonist Walt Disney, making the same journey that his supposed mother made to give him up for adoption in Chicago. A journey that begins in Mojácar, Almería, Spain, and ends in New York. An exciting adventure, like Alicia's through the looking glass, to discover what is truth and what is not, with an unexpected result.

7.0

The Yes Men Fix the World

Jan 18, 2009

THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLD is a screwball true story about two gonzo political activists who, posing as top executives of giant corporations, lie their way into big business conferences and pull off the world's most outrageous pranks.

No Image Available

0.5

Follow Me

Apr 25, 1969

Documentary about two boys and a girl who travel to surfing spots around the world.

8.0

The Zen Mind

Jan 1, 2007

In the last fifty years the culture of Zen has spread far beyond Japan. Zen centers and zen retreats have sprung up throughout America and Europe. When Dogen, the founder of Soto Zen, brought Zen to Japan from China 800 years ago, it quickly took root and became an integral part of Japanese life. Yet what do we know about zen practice in Japan today? The Zen Mind is a fascinating journey across Japan to explore zen in its natural habitat.

10.0

Hinterkaifeck - Die wahre Geschichte hinter Tannöd

Nov 18, 2009

Still today, people say that during the stormy night from March 31st to April 1st, 1922, the devil had come to Hinterkaifeck. On the farmstead near Schrobenhausen, all 6 inhabitants – 4 Adults and two children – are struck down bestially. The police did not manage to seek out the murderer(s). As the case is still unsolved as of today, the story still lives on in the minds of the people. Motion pictures, theatre plays, and the bestselling novel “Tannöd”, behind all of them stands Hinterkaifeck. Aspiring police investigators and a self-declared “Internet – special commission ‘Hinterkaifeck’” have now once again taken up the trail of the case. This exciting search for traces is followed by the film, and its findings are recreated in elaborate play scenes. Thereby, a picture of an era thought to be bygone and an idea of what really happened back then comes into existence. More precise than any fiction, the docudrama manages to get closer to the truth.

0.0

En Rang Par Deux

Jul 29, 2020

The idea for this film comes from the encounter with two African boys who live in Rome, and is based on their music. Tunisian Afif and Senegalese Aliou tell their different stories, talk about friendship, immigration, freedom and, above all, about the fundamental value of making music together.

9.5

Japan: Memoirs of a Secret Empire

May 26, 2004

Japan blossomed into its Renaissance at approximately the same time as Europe. Unlike the West, it flourished not through conquest and exploration, but by fierce and defiant isolation. And the man at the heart of this empire was Tokugawa Ieyasu, a warlord who ruled with absolute control. This period is explored through myriad voices-- the Shogun, the Samurai, the Geisha, the poet, the peasant and the Westerner who glimpsed into this secret world.

0.0

Life on the V: The Story of V66

Apr 27, 2014

Boston's V66 music video station came and went in the mid-1980s but in the 18 months on the air, it was one of the only over-the-air music video channels ever created. But even popular success didn't mean it was going to last...

7.0

St. Louis

Oct 21, 2019

Hamburg, Germany, 1939. Getting a passage aboard the passenger liner St. Louis seems to be the last hope of salvation for more than nine hundred German Jews who, desperate to escape the atrocious persecution to which they are subjected by the Nazi regime, intend to emigrate to Cuba.

0.0

Music For Psychological Liberation

Jan 1, 1994

A 3 hour Japanese documentary & Live gig video of the Osaka Noise/Weirdo Rock scene in 1994. Includes Boredoms & side projects (UFO or DIE, Hanatarash, Concrete Octopus), Masonna, Incapacitants & lots more! Yamatsuka Eye gives an interview in his apartment and plays a toy guitar in his bath tub.

0.0

Japans tätowierte Helden

Jan 21, 2024

No overview available.

6.4

Sœur Sourire: Who Killed the Voice of God?

Jun 11, 2021

1962. A crystalline voice becomes a planetary tube. A Belgian nun jostles Elvis and the Beatles on the world charts. Her name: Sister Smile. A popstar with the trajectory of a comet who understands her success no more than the double meaning of her words… The harder the fall will be. Even God does not protect sharks' appetites or pretenses of success! Who killed the little voice of God? Here is the tragic story of an innocent voice, of an extraordinary fate, almost of a curse ...

0.0

Education Rebuilt

Nov 7, 2022

In 2018 the 1st & 2nd EPA.L. Agia Paraskevi relocates to a new state of the art building after 20+ years of being in an unsuitable and ready to fall apart one. The situation got so bad that the students where literally hanging out with the chickens next to the building and as the principal of the school council told us they actually felt like they themselves where the chickens. The construction of the new building was held up since the original contractor "ran out of money" and thus the building was abandoned mid construction, the building stayed in this stage for more than 5 years where it was looted and vandalized. The situation had reached an impasse and so the students decided to step up and speak directly to the mayor resulting in getting heard by the secondary school administration, so years later a second contractor was hired to complete this project and finally put into operation.

9.0

Battle of Okinawa in Color

Jun 25, 2017

By mid-1945, Hitler is dead and the war has ended in Europe. Halfway around the world, however, the fighting is still going strong on a small island in the Pacific. Okinawa was the site of the last battle of the last great war of the 20th century, with a casualty rate in the tens of thousands. Through it all, military cameramen risked their lives to film the conflict, from brutal land combat to fierce kamikaze attacks at sea. See the footage they captured and experience this intense battle the way the soldiers saw it -- in color.

6.0

The Back 80

May 20, 2017

Suzanne's life was turned upside down when a Bigfoot ran across the road in front of her one night. As she tries to understand what she's seen the creature arrives at her doorstep and sends her into a downward spiral looking for answers.

6.0

Attack! The Battle for New Britain

Jun 20, 1944

Actual footage by the United States Signal Corps of the landing and attack on Arawe Beach, Cape Glouster, New Britain island in 1943 in the South Pacific theatre of World War Two, and the handicaps of the wild jungle in addition to the Japanese snipers and pill-box emplacements.

8.0

Paper City

Aug 16, 2021

Just after midnight on 10 March 1945, the US launched an air-based attack on eastern Tokyo; continuing until morning, the raid left more than 100,000 people dead and a quarter of the city eradicated. Unlike their loved ones, Hiroshi Hoshino, Michiko Kiyooka and Minoru Tsukiyama managed to emerge from the bombings. Now in their twilight years, they wish for nothing more than recognition and reparations for those who, like them, had been indelibly harmed by the war – but the Japanese government and even their fellow citizens seem disinclined to acknowledge the past.

7.6

Touching the Void

Sep 5, 2003

The true story of Joe Simpson and Simon Yates' disastrous and nearly-fatal mountain climb of 6,344m Siula Grande in the Cordillera Huayhuash in the Peruvian Andes in 1985.