Original subtitles

If you put what we're about to show you in a movie,

I doubt anybody would believe it.

It centres on a man trying to win his way out of a tiny apartment.

Surviving just on the prizes from magazine sweepstakes.

It's the hit of the season.

Every week, more than 30 million people tune in

to watch some young hopeful endure intense hardship.

Japan's latest human experiment

in popular television.

MAN GROANS

SPEAKING JAPANESE

SPEAKS JAPANESE

AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

The producers say, he doesn't even know he's on television.

- TRANSLATION: - He could leave at any time. The door isn't locked.

- REPORTER: - His delight at winning is apparently genuine.

Even if it's dog food or something inedible.

- TRANSLATED: - We're trying to show the most basic primitive form of human being.

LAUGHTER

DEVICE BEEPS

AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

MUSIC: Way Out, by Miho Hatori

# How many days?

# How many lies?

# Oh, na, na, na, na, na, na

# Na, na, na, na, na

# Is there a way out?

# Is there a way out?

# Is there a way out? #

BIRDS CHIRP

Hmm.

DRAMATIC MUSIC

CROWD YELLS

AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

SHOUTING IN JAPANESE

SHOW THEME MUSIC

AUDIENCE APPLAUSE

CONTESTANTS SCREAM

The show has become hugely popular.

It's a show dedicated to putting

young people through endurance tests.

In the late 1990s,

I was the BBC Tokyo correspondent.

It just so happened that the BBC bureau was in the same building

as the production company that was making Denpa Shonen.

So it was kind of in the air, the success of this programme.

And all my Japanese colleagues were watching it.

OMINOUS MUSIC

Whenever the producer Tsuchiya came into the room,

you knew something big was going to happen.

AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

It was a show where unknown people...

...could make their name and become celebrities practically overnight.

It was astonishing.

DRAMATIC THEME MUSIC

- HOST: - Prize competitions.

People pin all their hopes and dreams

on just one postcard.

But whether you win or lose

is in the lap of the gods.

Now, at the end of the 20th century,

for the first time in human history,

a man will attempt to live on competition prizes alone!

It's a snowy day in Tokyo.

January 1998,

somewhere in the city...

- HOST: - What does Tsuchiya, the producer,

say to these expectant participants?

Luck?

AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

And then...

..a lottery box is wheeled in.

Meticulous preparations have been made for this audition.

But for these young hopefuls, it is still shrouded in mystery.

EXCITED CHATTER

Who is this very lucky man?

Nasubi!

And this guy's face is...

..long!

He's excited, shocked, and happy to have drawn the winning ticket.

HE EXCLAIMS

AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

Woo!

NASUBI LAUGHS

CHEERING, CLAPPING

- HOST: - He thinks he's used up all his luck.

He has no clue that luck is the key to this challenge.

HE EXCLAIMS

AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

HE LAUGHS

AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

- HOST: - Susunu! Denpa Shonen Challenge Number 1

will be...

..Denpa Shonen's A Life In Prizes.

JULIET: At the time when there were all these competitions

in magazines, usually, all it consisted of was sending in

a postcard with your name and address on.

Whether you would win or not was in the hands of the gods.

- HOST: - Let's recap, there's a room

and inside the room, a table,

a pile of new postcards, a ballpoint pen,

a telephone, a radio, a floor cushion, an air conditioner

and lots of the latest issues of magazines.

The challenge is to see whether someone

can survive on competition prizes alone.

Nasubi starts totally naked.

Using magazine and radio competitions,

he will diligently apply for prizes by postcard and phone.

As Nasubi's wealth grows and the room fills with prizes,

this programme will bring you weekly progress reports.

The ultimate goal is to win prizes worth a total monetary value

of one million yen.

Only then will Nasubi's challenge come to an end.

A Life In Prizes! Go!

BELL DINGS

AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

- HOST: - A diary!

AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

HE SINGS INDISTINCTLY

- HOST: - He enjoys himself.

Nasubi was completely naked, so they had to cover up his genitalia

with something.

They started with a big black dot.

But Nasubi's name means eggplant,

so they quickly switched that out for an emoji

in the shape of an eggplant.

AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

Which, as years have gone by, has now become

completely current parlance in emoji for penis.

So that's probably where it all started.

AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

HE SINGS

- HOST: - A total of 963 applications

and he has won...

..nothing!

LAUGHTER

SILENCE

- NASUBI: - My head is full of thoughts of food.

It doesn't matter what,

but please let me win something.

I'm begging you.

- HOST: - Nasubi is intently writing his application postcards.

And then...

Hai?

DOOR OPENS

AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

Hai?

HE SQUEALS

HE SQUEALS

AUDIENCE LAUGHS

- HOST: - What has he won?

AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

HE EXCLAIMS AUDIENCE LAUGHS

- HOST: - Could it be rice?

- SING-SONG: - Dun-dun-da-da!

- HOST: - It's rice!

AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

HOST:

LOUD CHEWING AUDIENCE LAUGHS

- HOST: - Next day...

- HOST: - Three hours later.

HE MUTTERS

- HOST: - And what's the result of this experiment?

Ooh!

AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

AUDIENCE EXCLAIMS

Oh. Hmm.

Mm.

AUDIENCE EXCLAIMS

- HOST: - Success!

AUDIENCE EXCLAIMS

AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

- NASUBI: - Normally my thoughts are how to survive this ordeal.

And I don't have enough nutrition

going to my brain to think of anything else.

But recently, my thoughts keep wandering to the outside world.

Scenes of what it was like to be an ordinary person.

The smiling faces of my family.

It hurts my heart to think of my parents back in the countryside.

I'm worried that my mum is shedding tears.

Worrying about her shabby naked, idiotic son.

- HOST: - Nasubi does this week's winning dance with sake.

AUDIENCE APPLAUDS

Ooh, ooh, ooh!

AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

JULIET: You just were rooting for him.

You were rooting for him to make it to the end.

NASUBI HUMS AUDIENCE LAUGHS

Nasubi. Nasubi. Nasubi. Nasubi...

Nasubi. Nasubi.

- HOST: - It's sake!

Boiled beans,

chocolate,

a Pokemon desk mat.

AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

AUDIENCE LAUGHTER APPLAUSE

HE CHUCKLES

AUDIENCE LAUGHS, APPLAUDS

CRUNCHING

- HOST: - And then...

..a miracle has happened.

CRUNCHING CONTINUES

AUDIENCE LAUGHS, APPLAUDS

MUSIC: New Wave Jacket by Polysics

SONG FADES OUT

TENSE MUSIC

- NASUBI: - I'm proud of all the loot

I've acquired, sitting behind me.

I concentrate on writing postcards as if my life depends on it.

I see the shadowy figures of people outside my window.

And hear the murmur of voices.

I'm lonely.

I feel like I want to cry, I'm so miserable.

Being alienated from human contact for this long,

makes you absolutely long for human warmth.

Nasubi. Nasubi. Nasubi...

..Nasubi. Nasubi. Nasubi. Nasubi. Nasubi. Nasubi. Nasubi. Nasubi...

..Nasubi. Nasubi. Nasubi...

- HOST: - A globe!

A face pack.

Shoes.

This week's winning dance.

NASUBI SINGS ERRATICALLY

TENSE MUSIC PLAYS

MUSIC STOPS

NASUBI EXCLAIMS

CRUNCHES

HE SIGHS AUDIENCE LAUGHS

JULIET: Denpa Shonen had a pretty good audience

but this segment was totally different

than anything they had done before.

And people started talking about it, and it gradually grew and grew.

And it became this sensation.

And it was one of the most successful

and popular shows in Japan at the time.

Reality TV was not yet a thing.

The Truman Show, which was that same sort of concept,

didn't come out till later the same year.

And Big Brother was a couple of years in the future.

Japanese television has always been famous for its extreme programmes

in which participants undergo

some fairly unusual acts of endurance.

Well, now the most popular programme

has come up with a really bizarre feature.

He has no food and he only wears clothes

when he's won enough competitions to earn them.

- NASUBI: - I'm cold.

- REPORTER: - Another televised moment in the life of Nasubi.

It's all part of a new phenomenon which is called webcam.

- REPORTER: - Nasubi does know he's

being filmed but he doesn't know why.

The audience aren't laughing at him.

They're laughing in sympathy.

- REPORTER: - Every week, more than 30 million people tune in.

- REPORTER: - The highlights of Nasubi's life

are broadcast once a week.

The studio audience roar with laughter

at each new mishap or triumph.

When he reaches the target,

or he gives up, or goes crazy,

it's sure to be on TV.

Videos of his life and his diary are now bestsellers.

But not everyone in Japan is fascinated.

I think it's a rather bizarre and grotesque programme.

Younger people seemed to find it funnier than older people.

People who had experienced hardship in their own lives,

you know, people who'd lived through the Second World War in Japan,

didn't think it was funny that he... The only thing he had to eat

was uncooked rice or dog food.

SPEAKS JAPANESE AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

GRAND ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYS

- HOST: - This is the control room.

50 staff wearing special T-shirts

are working 24 hours a day.

Protecting Nasubi's modesty with an eggplant

is an unprecedented challenge for live broadcast streaming.

Tensions can be high, with some near misses.

OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYS

- HOST: - Tschuiya the producer has entered Nasubi's room.

AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

LAUGHTER INTENSIFIES

- HOST: - And then...

- HOST: - But...

..he naps!

- HOST: - Could it be a prize?

- SPEAKS JAPANESE HOST: - Nasubi has a full check-up.

According to the health report later received...

..Nasubi is deemed to be in good health.

AUDIENCE APPLAUSE

- NASUBI: - I asked the doctor if he thought it was dangerous to carry on.

He completely brushed it aside, saying I was young.

But I keep losing more and more hair.

I really notice how much my body hurts.

Having lost all awareness of days of the week,

my grip on reality cannot be relied upon.

For months, my life has just been a struggle

between sanity and madness.

Nasubi. Nasubi. Nasubi. Nasubi. Nasubi. Nasubi. Nasubi...

..Nasubi. Nasubi. Nasubi.

Who am I? What am I doing? What am I living for?

Maybe it's all over and they're clearing up

and have forgotten about me.

Sometimes I wonder

if I'm even in Tokyo or in Japan.

Maybe I've been abducted by aliens.

OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYS

HE SNIFFS

HE SINGS AUDIENCE LAUGH

AUDIENCE LAUGH

HE MUTTERS

- HOST: - What's the prize?

MUSIC: Bolero, by Maurice Ravel

AUDIENCE CHEERING, APPLAUSE

- HOST: - Two kilograms of rice is 750 yen.

Which means...

..his total has reached 1,000,164 yen.

Which means...

..he's reached his one million yen goal.

And his Life In Prizes is over!

That night, Mr Tsuchiya enters his room.

OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYS

Take a look.

SPARK SNAPS

NASUBI GROANS AUDIENCE LAUGHS

SPARK SNAPS NASUBI YELPS

HE WHIMPERS

- HOST: - He's using them to celebrate the goal.

Ooh!

- HOST: - But Nasubi doesn't seem to realise...

PARTY POPPER SNAPS AUDIENCE LAUGHS

AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

POPPER POPS AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

HE GASPS

AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

HE EXCLAIMS

- HOST: - A Life In Prizes, Nasubi reaches his goal!

FANFARE MUSIC PLAYS

FANFARE CONTINUES CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Oh!

HE CHUCKLES

- HOST: - His clothes are being returned!

FANFARE MUSIC PLAYS

- HOST: - Wearing clothes, he travels by car.

Then he arrives...somewhere.

NASUBI SPEAKS JAPANESE

- HOST: - Nasubi gets a present of Korean BBQ meat

to celebrate his goal.

And a day in an amusement park.

MUSIC: The Blue Danube Waltz, by Johann Strauss II

- HOST: - The producer treats Nasubi to a jar of kimchi.

- HOST: - And then...

AUDIENCE EXCLAIMS

HE GROANS

- HOST: - But then...

PRODUCER LAUGHS

AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

TAPE REWINDING

TENSE MUSIC PLAYS

- HOST: - A Life In Prizes in Korea, go!

DOOR SHUTS

- BOTH: - Aaaah?!

AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

GAME SHOW THEME MUSIC PLAYS

MUSIC: Electro-Shock Blues, by Eels

# Feelin' scared today

# Write down "I am OK"

# Woo, ooh Sticking around

# For this shit

# Another day

# Another day

# Not another day. #

I'm frantically staying alive in this room.

I never know what monsters are lying ahead in wait for me.

Seriously.

It is not impossible that I might die.

He had to learn Korean

in order to survive.

There is no correlation between being able to read Japanese

and being able to read Korean.

They are completely different languages.

It's unthinkable, really.

You are so cruel, Denpa Shonen.

I want to teach you a lesson.

This is my revelation.

Everything starts from now.

I'm on my countdown to going home.

ENERGETIC MUSIC PLAYS

# Go, go, Nasubi

# Go, go, Nasubi

# Go, go, go

# Go, go, Nasubi

HE GAGS

# Go, go, Nasubi

# Go, go, go

AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

HE STAMMERS

# Go, go, Nasubi

# Go, go, go

# Go, go, Nasubi

- # Go, go, go - # Yeah...

By the time Nasubi reached Korea,

he really knew how to win these competitions.

So, he sort of gamed the system

and was beating the producers at their own game.

But he still didn't know that

he was well-known across Japan.

- HOST: - So, then, his goal changes to first class.

Which means...

..his new goal is 81,600 yen.

Which means, to reach his goal,

he still needs 33,800 yen.

You can do it, Nasubi!

ENERGETIC MUSIC CONTINUES

# Go, go, Nasubi

# Go, go, go

# Go, go, Nasubi

# Go, go, go

# Go, go, Nasubi

# Go, go, go

# Go, go, Nasubi

# Go, go, Nasubi Go, go, go... #

Ah!

He's gone past his goal of 81,600 yen.

But then...

..yikes! He's noticed!

ITEMS CLATTER

Huh?

HE SCOFFS

And then, the producer says...

AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

SHUSHING

FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING

NASUBI EXHALES SHARPLY

Ah...

SHE MOUTHS

SHE MOUTHS

SHE MOUTHS NASUBI SIGHS

Oh! No, no, no! Ooh!

NASUBI SHRIEKS AUDIENCE LAUGHS

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

TRIUMPHANT MUSIC PLAYS

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE CONTINUE

SHOUTING AND CHEERING

DISTANT AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

AUDIENCE LAUGHS APPLAUSE

AUDIENCE LAUGHS

LAUGHTER CONTINUES

Er...

Er...

Hmm.

AUDIENCE LAUGHS

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

- CO-HOSTS: - Yay!

AUDIENCE APPLAUDS

AUDIENCE LAUGHS

Hmm.

AUDIENCE LAUGHS

LAUGHTER

AUDIENCE LAUGHS

Whoa...

LAUGHTER

- HOST: - And the diaries in which

Nasubi got everything off his chest -

four volumes were made from the Japan series,

and one volume from Korea.

So far, 800,000 copies have been sold.

They've become bestsellers.

I was invited to take part in

the press conference, that they called it.

It was actually an audience show.

They didn't know what I was going to ask.

And...I wanted to ask a provocative question.

Wow.

LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

And that brings us to the end of Denpa Shonen's Naked Special.

TRIUMPHANT MUSIC PLAYS APPLAUSE

Mm.

MUSIC: Big In Japan, by Ane Brun

# Winter's city side

# Crystal bits of snowflakes

# All around my head and in the wind

# I had no illusions

# That I'd ever find a glimpse of

# Summer heatwaves in your eyes

# You did what you did to me

# Now it's history, I see

# Here's my comeback on the road again

# Things will happen while they can

# I will wait here

# For my man tonight

# It's easy when you're big in Japan

# When you're big in Japan

# Tonight

# Big in Japan

# Be tight

# Big in Japan

# Big in Japan... #

Tokyo...

INDISTINCT CHATTER

CAMERA SHUTTERS

INDISTINCT CHATTER SHUTTER SNAPS

LAUGHTER

Nasubi-san!

AUDIENCE CHEERING

Nasubi!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

LAUGHTER

CROWD CHEERING

- REPORTER: - For those of you that are just tuning in,

a major earthquake with a magnitude

of 7.9 has hit Japan.

In the Japanese seismic scale,

that is the maximum, from zero to seven.

The Meteorological Agency is issuing a tsunami warning

for Japan's Pacific coast.

The nuclear crisis at the Fukushima plant today,

a second explosion in one of the reactors.

BOTH SPEAKING IN JAPANESE

Hi, namaste!

WIND RUSTLING

RUMBLING

DEBRIS CLATTERS INDISTINCT SHOUTING

Breaking news this morning of a strong earthquake

measuring around about 7.5, hitting Nepal.

LOUD RUMBLING

PANICKED CHATTER

SCREAMING

RUMBLING CONTINUES

MUFFLED CHATTER HEAVY BREATHING

AUDIENCE APPLAUSE

Oh...

HE LAUGHS

SPEAKING IN JAPANESE

- ALL: - Nasubi!

HE SIGHS

HE SPEAKS IN JAPANESE

WIND WHISTLING

LADDER RATTLING

WIND HOWLING

INDISTINCT CHATTER

INSPIRING MUSIC

MUSIC: There Will Be Love There, by The Brilliant Green