Giants and Toys

1958 Directed by Yasuzo Masumura

Yasuzo Masumura directs this biting tale of decayed capitalism with frenetic glee. Giants and Toys has post WW2 Japan embracing Americana to its fullest! The candy company World competes with heavy marketing campaigns from its competitors. Each company has extravagant prizes along with their candy- which leads to further erosion of profits. The chief of marketing and his intern find this charming girl with rotting teeth (something no less gruesomely odd as Masumura's later work in pinky genre)- to marketing her as the face of World caramels as an ironic advertisement on how good the candy is.

While she's admired as this "authentic" girl and becomes popular she becomes more absorbed in her newfound stardom- becoming a model- a singer- another packaged form of corporate art. She's happy to be a commodified individual... "I don't mind being a puppet or a toy. As long as I'm having fun that's enough."

Every scene comes quickly, leading you on the fast flickering pace of the business world with interlaced images of the distillation of the product and the chunk-click of a flame lit from a lighter. The colors burst from scene to scene too- with closeup views of the chattering of the candy production- as if mystifying with a fantasia world that entices while the loyalty, conformity, and identity of the Japanese salesman are trampled over by capitalist exploitation.

The intern takes up faux romantic interests with one of the competitors- both trying to spy on one another for details on what the competition is doing and a former friend and him aren't able to reconcile their friendship because they work for different companies. Relationships just become another battleground for the merging of corporate and private life- corrupting every aspect of one's individuality.

The end sequences become such a sickly feeling of everyday greed- being lost in the sea of humanity while selling another candy with no true ending in sight. The ad execs boast that the consumers are simply there to be told exactly what they should want... their wants are just an extension of the company wants.

It's a snappy film, edited and kept to a short 90 mins that push the narrative and the atmosphere of the story with the dialog that keeps humming- leaving the viewer feeling the rush of sadness for the characters that comes after all the adrenaline has left the system.