Masai in Japan: Another Magic Challenge

This is a follow-up to the previous posts about Masai tribesmen being brought to Japan to test their amazing powers of vision against the tricks of Japanese magician Mr. Marik [see: part 1, part 2]. In the first challenge, the Masai defeated Mr. Marik by spotting the key to all three of his tricks. This time they were up against much more difficult tricks:

The warm-up trick was one in which a bottle cap magically found its way into a cup:

Winner: The Masai

The first trick was one in which Mr. Marik made a bottle cap disappear:

Winner: The Masai

The second trick was one in which a 10,000 yen bill magically jumped from rubber band to rubber band:

The final trick was a 500 year-old technique in which a cut rope is magically restored:

Winner: Mr. Marik (He only beat them once)

Some of you mentioned in one of the previous Masai posts that this show may have been rigged. While it is true that rigging is pretty rampant on Japanese variety shows, I’m going to give this one the benefit of the doubt. The Masai were shown most of the tricks four or five times before they determined the techniques behind them, so it’s not unreasonable to think they could spot what they did.

The show as mostly about magic tricks and vision tests, but there were a few educational moments and some clips to promote inter-cultural friendship. For example, the show taught Japanese audiences about the importance of Masai jumping, having one of Oriental Radio dudes challenge a Masai to a jump-off:

There were also clips of the Masai traveling around in Japan:

Their precious knives were confiscated at the airport in Kenya, but they still were able to enjoy their trip to Japan. At first the Masai could not use chopsticks, but by the end of their trip they seemed to have figured them out. They didn’t eat fish, but they did try a bunch of Japanese foods, as well as kimchi. As they traveled around Japan during their second trip, they were met by many Japanese who had seen them in the first TV special, and lots of people wanted to take pictures with them.

They left Japan with the impression that the Japanese were a very kind and hardworking people. They thought that Japanese cities were incredibly clean and were surprised by the size of the cities. When they returned to Kenya, they shared stories of Japan with their friends and family and performed some magic tricks they’d picked up on their trip!

Was this show exploitation? One could make a reasonable argument that it was, but at least the Masai were portrayed in a positive light. It was definitely a step-up from shows I’d seen in the past that focused on how backwards their countries were compared to Japan, sometimes using misunderstandings of technology or customs as entertainment for laughs. If it was exploitation, it would be the not-so-bad variety of exploitation.