Giants and Toys (1958)
"Kyojin to gangu" (original title)

Nishi is an advertising executive for a caramel company that is planning to launch a new product, in fierce competition with two other companies. His boss builds up Kyoko, a vivacious girl ... See full summary »

Director:

Yasuzô Masumura

Writers:

Takeshi Kaikô (novel), Yoshio Shirasaka

Stars:

Hiroshi Kawaguchi, Hitomi Nozoe, Yûnosuke Itô

Cast

Credited cast:
Hiroshi Kawaguchi	...	Yousuke Nishi
Hitomi Nozoe	...	Kyoko Shima
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Yûnosuke Itô	...	Junji
Michiko Ono	...	Masami Kurahashi (as Toshiko Hasegawa)
Kyû Sazanka	...	Takakura Higashi
Kinzô Shin	...	Kohei
Hideo Takamatsu	...	Ryuji

Storyline

Nishi is an advertising executive for a caramel company that is planning to launch a new product, in fierce competition with two other companies. His boss builds up Kyoko, a vivacious girl with bad teeth, as their mascot. Kyoko is smitten with Nishi when he is assigned to look after her. Meanwhile Nishi is trying to extract information about his competitors advertising campaigns, from his girlfriend, who works for one rival, and his old college friend, who works for the other rival company.

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Plot Keywords:

advertising | college friend | caramel | photographer | satire | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

22 June 1958 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Giants and Toys

Company Credits

Production Co:

Daiei Studios

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

User Reviews

Weird. Really, really, really weird.

I haven't seen any of Masumura's other films, but, if they are anything like "Giants and Toys," they are extremely strange. Think "Four Hundred Blows" crossed with "Greed is good" American-style capitalism in post-war Japan, and you've got a good idea of what the story is about. Wickedly on-target satire, good performances, and interesting visual ideas (including Warhol-esque shots of ads featuring World Caramel's poster girl) converge in a very good, if surreal, movie. It's not quite good enough to be a classic, but it is unpredictable and enjoyable to watch.