Audience Member
Dark and quirky comedy about capitalism in post-war Japan. The film mostly follows the marketing team of a candy company as they battle for market dominance, and reconcile with how this affects their personal lives and values. Everything has this vibrant technicolor to it, which really strongly contracts from the dark subject material, and adds to the weird, wry comedy.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
01/24/23
Full Review
Audience Member
This film is all about the war over caramel sales, with the hunt for a new female mascot to get the public to keep buying candy. One company, World, hires a working class girl with bad teeth, dresses her up in a spacesuit and hopes to win the battle. She ends up becoming a popular idol singer and dancer before she leaves the candy world behind. Meanwhile, the ad man who discovered her spits up blood and makes his assistant sleep with other company's advertising ladies. Anything goes, because there is a smaller and smaller share left after the market is increasingly dominated by imported U.S. candy.
You know, I've worked in advertising my entire life and this movie really feels like something I've lived through. This movie's maverick director Yasuzô Masumura bucked the norm of Japanese society and made films that promoted the value of the individual. He was also the first Japanese filmmaker to study at Italy's Centro Sperimentale Di Cinematografia, which led him to say, "In Japanese society, which is essentially regimented, freedom and the individual do not exist. The theme of Japanese film is the emotions of the Japanese people, who have no choice but to live according to the norms of that society. After experiencing Europe for two years, I wanted to portray the type of beautifully vital, strong people I came to know there."
In case you thought all that Daiei Film made was Gamera, Zatoichi and Yokai Monsters, remember that this film — and Jokyo, Rashomon and Ugetsu were all made at this studio.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/06/23
Full Review
Dustin D
Giants & Toys is an off-beat Japanese comedy/social commentary. Even though it was made in the 1950s, the concepts of the Japanese public getting carried away on the latest pop culture icon and abandoning traditional Japanese values for mindless consumerism are as valid today as they were 60 years ago.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/07/19
Full Review
Carey M
Maybe my favorite movie.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
01/09/15
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Art S
Manic black comedy about the world of advertising from sixties rebel Yasuzo Masumura sees three caramel companies duking it out for dominance of the candy market. A bad-teethed pixie is scouted by the World Caramel company to represent them and becomes a star, betraying her sponsors. Betrayal is the name of the game here as everyone will do anything to get ahead, promote their product, make money. In widescreen with crazy montages, jazzy soundtrack, over-the-top ad campaigns, a pop-art feel, and scathing prescient insights.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
06/21/13
Full Review
Eric B
"If you want to be a star, take three lovers. A producer, a writer and a critic."
Cynicism about the corporate advertising world is always topical, so this twisted Japanese satire is still relevant. Apollo, Giant and World are three companies battling for the all-important caramel market. Their publicity departments are hatching frantic promotions to generate sales, including giveaways of live animals, space suits (the "space race" motif is one dated element) and financial support for life. But World strikes gold when an ad exec stumbles upon Kyoko, an unconventionally attractive girl who has gnarled teeth but a certain frisky charisma. She becomes an overnight sensation, appealing to a population who can't relate to flawless celebrities. Meanwhile, the frustrated superstar becomes smitten with a lower World employee assigned to watch her, but he already has a girlfriend working at rival Apollo. He also has an old chum at Giant, and everyone wants to sneak inside information from everyone else.
"Giants & Toys" makes a nice companion piece for "A Face in the Crowd," which came out just a year earlier. It's quite accessible and has a feisty, percussion-heavy score that's bound to tickle exotica fans. Director Yasuzo Masumura ("Blind Beast," "Red Angel") has a knack for dark humor, though his odd decision to show time-lapse montages over a clicking cigarette lighter doesn't really work here.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/10/13
Full Review
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