Meet Dr. NakaMats, octogenarian, demi-god in his native Japan, and the world’s most prolific inventor, holding over 3300 patents. Edison by comparison had only 1,093. Some of his most famous include: the floppy disk, the CD, the DVD, the taxi cab meter, Cinemascope and even Karaoke. Here, in a vivid, often comic tour de force, Danish filmmaker Kaspar Astrup Schröder takes us through the eccentric world of the great man.

NakaMats’ lifestyle is unorthodox. He believes that oxygen is bad for creativity so daily he holds himself underwater until half a second before death, this being the time when apparently his best ideas emerge. Although he is 82, he refers to himself as “middle aged” and swears he can make it to 144. In pursuit of this, he has photographed and tested the effects of every single meal he’s eaten over the last 34 years, a feat for which in 2005 he won the Ig Noble Prize for scientific achievements.

Yet the unstoppable Dr. NakaMats isn’t always easy to get along with having been known to forcefully cajole colleagues into singing songs in praise of his tenacity. And his inventions? Well, they’re not always that successful. The Love Jet, a powerful aphrodisiac and Dr. NakaMats’ Brain Drink are two of his more spectacular failures. But this is a man who doesn’t let small missteps allow him to falter - no, NakaMats’ is a unique pioneer and force of nature - a fact Schröder’s film captures with great joy.

Visit the official website

Festivals & Awards

Official Selection

Special Mention, True/False Film Festival, 2010
Opening Film, Thessaloniki Film Festival, 2010
Hot Docs, 2010
AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs, 2010
Melbourne International Film Festival, 2010
San Francisco International Film Festival, 2010
Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, 2010
Zagreb Dox Film Festival, 2010
It’s All True Int. Documentary Film Festival, 2010
Margaret Mead Film Festival, 2010
IDFA, 2009
CPH:DOX, 2009

UK Broadcast Premiere on More4, 5th October 2010

Audience Response

The Invention of Dr. NakaMats enjoyed a successful UK broadcast premiere on 5th October when it was shown as part of More4’s True Stories strand. The Twitter world was abuzz as the UK public took to the microblogging service to express their love for the film. Here are a selection of comments:

@eric_donovan
I think this is going to be my favourite ever documentary, loving it so far: “The Invention of Dr Nakamats” (Kaspar Astrup Schroder) on more4

@ire_engine
Thoroughly enjoyed The Invention Of Dr Nakamats on True Stories, beautifully made by a Scandinavian team it looks like. Recommended.

@Toasterknife
#Nakamats hint of #spinaltap

@dharavyas
I love dr nakamats. What a fab documentary!

@eric_donovan
Absolutely loving the documentary on Dr Nakamats, beautifully done :)

@markjamesworks
Dr. Nakamats a genius!! Top doc!

@punkyscudmonkey
Cheering myself up with The Invention of Dr Nakamats on More4. This guy is pretty special.

@nslatz
Did anyone watch the Dr. Nakamats documentary on More4? What a total barmpot, I love it.

@lexmate
Dr Nakamats, I would marry you, you nutjob.

@dharavyas
I love dr nakamats. What a fab documentary!

@bashford Watching the C4 documentary about Dr. Nakamats. Literally wide eyed and slack jawed.

@ThoughtBubbleUK
I thoroughly recommend The Invention of Dr Nakamats. Hilarious documentary. And music by Mark Mothersbaugh!

@sermad
Is anyone else watching ‘The Invention of Dr Nakamats’ on more4? Amazing show. The guy invents underwater and tries to nearly die!

@markjamesworks
Dr. Nakamats a genius!! Top doc!

@davidjlowe
Fascinating documentary on More4 now about one of the world’s greatest inventors, Dr. Nakamats.

@thecardbird
great C4 documentary last night on Dr. Nakamats - inventor extraordin(ary)

@just_sham_it
Watching this Dr. Nakamats program. The dude is seriously mad scientist classification level.

@ChrisSheppardUK
Is watching ‘The Invention of Dr. Nakamats’ on More4… This guys amazing, created classics such as the floppy disc and fuel cell karaoke.

@Kirsty__19
Watching a channel 4 doc on Dr Nakamats, what a legend!

@ClaireLouiseBee
doctor nakamats is aaaawesome! He’s an insane japanese inventor. Check him out!

@chaosgerbil
Why have I never heard of Dr Nakamats before? The man is a genius and obviously clinically insane.

@b13thy
dr nakamats is a unequivocal mental which I think is brilliant. If I was Japanese I’d want him to be my granddad!

@markwhiteman
The Dr. Nakamats show on More4 right now is fascinating. Makes me want to go back to Japan!

Reviews

The Guardian, 6th Oct 2010

“Being an octogenarian Japanese inventor instead of a child in care seems to be the secret to a happy life. Yoshiro Nakamatsu – also known as Dr Nakamats – is the 82-year-old holder of 3,357 patents for devices he has invented, including a perpetual motion machine that runs on heat and cosmic energy, a soy sauce pump and the floppy disk. He eats one meal a day (which, for the last 34 years, he has photographed, analysed and used to create a brain tea that will help everyone live until the age of 144, as he intends to) and sleeps just four hours a night. He keeps fit by wrestling. “Once I beat 10 persons,” he tells the Danish visual artist, Kaspar Astrup Schröder, who made the documentary The Invention of Dr Nakamats (More4). “Even big ones.” In quieter moments he visits the grave of his beloved mother, whose death he does not yet accept. “She physically died at the age of 102,” he explains by her headstone. “I don’t mean she’s not here, it’s just . . .” He tails off. Sometimes you need to invent new words, and they come harder than brain teas or perpetual motion machines.

He is revered in Japan, in demand on the lecture circuit, besieged by entrepreneurs (whom he berates at length if he perceives any disrespect towards the intellectual effort that went into his creations) and greeted with awe by passers-by. Maybe they are all users of his Love Jet invention – a potion that women can wear behind their ears or spray on their genitals, which removes the need for foreplay. “I have tested about 10,000 women,” he says. “I am not doing the sex. I check the meters.”

A quick rootle round the internet will unearth many challenges to Nakamats’ claims. IBM, for example, disputes that he invented the floppy disk, and I daresay there are alternative versions of his assertion that he invented karaoke. But the film does not mention them, preferring – rightly – simply to revel in the invention of Nakamats himself. Is he a genuinely talented scientist or a master of media manipulation? Occasionally, there seems to be a flash of something suggesting self-awareness. He turns up to receive the Ig Nobel Science Award for his longevity-enhancing tea and accepts it with the words “Life should be longer. Speech should be short”. He’s some kind of genius, that’s for sure, and so is Schröder for resisting the temptation to chase down all his ambiguities – leaving us instead with a beguiling film.”