Giants and Toys

The three leading caramel companies of the marketplace are preparing their new campaigns and the marketing executives are sharpening their knives. In the middle of the hectic competition, a young, feisty taxi driver with bad teeth and weird sex appeal is transformed overnight into an in-demand model, who will determine the final result of the contest, and a well-meaning, upand- coming advertiser is struggling to salvage the little moral code he has left, as friendship, love and ethics are crushed all around them under the immoral demands of professional duty. In this satire, bitter as much as it is delightful, Masumura infiltrates the intricate pathways of business competition and industrial espionage, employing his vitriolic sense of humour to reveal the dark side of the financial wonder that the opening up of the market signaled in post war Japan. Flamboyantly kitschy, the colourful universe of “Giants and Toys” prepares us for the inexhaustible themes, that will preoccupy him in the future.

Original Title: Kyojin to Gangu

Director: Yasuzo Masumura

Screenwriter: Yoshio Shirasaka

DoP: Hiroshi Murai

Music: Tetsuo Tsukahara

Editor: Tatsuji Nakashizu

Principal Cast: Hiroshi Kawaguchi, Hitomi Nozoe, Yûnosuke Itô, Toshiko Hasegawa

Country: Japan

Year: 1958

Running Time: 95’

Language: Japanese