An odd title from Showa era Japan to see a first international release in this day and age is the oddly titled Giants and Toys (which is a direct translation of the Japanese title).† Judging by old time marketing materials, Daiei had originally given this the English title ‘The Build-Up’, which makes a bit more immediate sense but seems rather misleading for the product as a whole. But that’s all kind of moot, as modern releases opt for the aforementioned translation anyway. Don’t worry, they’ll explain the significance of the title by the end of it. Well, anyway, I say ‘odd’, because the film seems to occupy a strange place; it’s a social satire from the ‘50s, and it seems like if vintage Japanese cinema is going to suddenly get a belated release abroad then it’s likely going to be a tokusatsu film or an exploitation film (or I guess some kind of worthy artsy stuff; that turns up some times), and, despite the tokusatsu-rific sounding title, it doesn’t fall into any of those two-or-maybe-three categories. With that said, it does seem like Yasuzo Masumura is primed for… not really re-discovery; he doesn’t seem to have been a big enough deal outside of Japan, making it closer to a new one, nor does he seem exactly obscure enough within Japan these days for it to count as ‘re-’ anymore; with his films enjoying a more western influenced aesthetic and feel compared to much contemporary output (he studied at the CSC in Rome, supposedly under people like Antonioni and Fellini, though frankly the source on that part seems very urban legend-y) that seems to have resulted in a reappraisal by newer generations of Japanese filmmakers, even getting declared as the country’s most important post-war filmmaker by Eureka (2000) director Shinji Aoyama. Regardless of all that, certainly Arrow Films seem to have gone somewhat in on him, having snagged distribution rights to a selection of his oeuvre.

World Caramel is in a battle for supremacy in the candy market. The company to beat, Apollo, is set to introduce their own fancy brand of flavour changing caramels, while fellow competitor, Giant, has whipped up an (ethically questionable, by modern standards) ad campaign involving giving small animals as prizes. They’ll need a way to stay relevant. Into this impending marketing blitz, comes the budding young hypocrite Yousuke Nishi (Hiroshi Kawaguchi) who is picked, for purely petty reasons, by Ryuji Goda (Hideo Takamatsu), the vice-chief of World’s marketing department, as his protégé. Goda is a hot up-and-comer in the company, thanks to the magic of nepotism; he has all the right connections AND has wangled a loveless marriage to his boss’ daughter, and he will stop at basically nothing to get the business ahead. Into this, the pair stumble upon Kyoko Shima (Hitomi Nozoe), a working-class girl-next-doorsy type with manky teeth, whom Goda decides is to be the new face of World Caramel. All they have to do is make her a star first, but not too much of a star; established celebrities inevitably overshadow the product their endorsing, so she has to be popular enough to capture public attention, but not so much that she’ll be associated with things beyond the company. The game is afoot.

So, yes, while some of the business concerns are very Japanese (such as ideas about the impending death of notions of gentlemanly or sporting or however you want to put it conduct in the business world which I’m fairly certain were long dead in the west by the late ‘50s), this is a fairly universal satire about the nature and intersection of media and capitalism. Kyoko doesn’t have any particular skills or talents, beyond apparently being touch her nose with her tongue (not that the audience gets to see), but a splashing a bit of cash around will soon get the ball rolling anyway; the public will like who they’re damn well told to like. Well, up to a point. As Goda is quick to point out, saying that the public have the attention span of toddlers is very generous; they’ll soon get bored of her and the company’s associated ad campaign, and then the companies will scrabble to find the new hot gimmick to satiate the market’s lust for something new while repackaging the same old product. Malibu Stacy with NEW Hat! Unfortunately for Kyoko perhaps, she’s the ‘new hat’ in this scenario. She will soon be discarded, just like the previous poster girl, and we can assume the girl before her, and so on in this fashion. At the same time, she is apparently aware of her questionable shelf life and is determined to milk it for all that it’s worth, refusing to simply be the ‘World Caramel’ girl, finding other avenues to get herself out there. If the candy company can sell her, it seems like she should be able to do the same herself if she strikes while the iron’s hot, and for a lot more money at that. Her contract with the World company is for JP¥200k which would seemingly have equated to just over US$550 in 1958‡ (which with inflation equates to just under $5000 in 2020 money); a lot to her at the time, when she apparently pulls down ¥400 a month at her initial part-time job (seemingly about $1.10; with inflation about $9.95), an amount which she seemingly views as pocket money, but is coached to say it’s to support her family for a good old ‘rags to riches’ story. I’ve got no idea what the cost of living was like in Japan at the time, but I have a hard time believing that ¥200k is really enough to qualify as riches in that instance, or indeed that ¥400 was enough to support a family of a half dozen or so people.

While Kyoko’s Pygmalion-esque rise is presumably the inspiration for the film’s erstwhile official English title (as well as seemingly a large focus of even the Japanese marketing for it), it’s preponderance in such things is perhaps misleading. The focus is more generally on the burgeoning of consumer culture and the avariciousness of society as money becomes increasingly all that matters. The plotline with Kyoko functions as this in a microcosm, but the centre of the film is rather more on the corporate side of things as the various company men (and women, but mostly it’s men in the film) scramble to turn profits at the cost of pretty much all else. Success is measured in money, but the money in question is the company’s; the employees, our plucky (read ‘awful) PR men included, are part of a larger machine, and don’t really see that much benefit from the company’s success unless they can become a prominent cog in it for the right reasons. As such, everyone is quick to try and stab each other in the back, as their loyalty is to the company, not to each other; Goda is more than willing to stick the knife in his father-in-law when the opportunity arises. Yousuke, having lucked into being his manager’s pet through an utterly arbitrary shared interest (Goda is big into rugby, Yousuke used to play at university, such was the selection criteria), vacillates on how far to go when doing what’s right for the company, but seems utterly baffled when others also act in self-interest (or perhaps rather the interest of the company, but in ways that don’t benefit him). His actions are, so far as he’s concerned, virtuous. His amiable relationships with marketing people from the two rival companies are a valuable source of knowledge on what the competitions up to, but is shocked and appalled when it’s revealed that they take a similar approach to their friendship. He would never do something so underhanded, so mercenary, he says with a straight face, despite all evidence to the contrary, evidence of which said friends are well aware. They’re not so in denial about the morality (or lack thereof) of their behaviour, but such is the game they and everyone else are playing.

† I think there might be a play on words as well, but that doesn’t really translate; suffice to say, the words used in the Japanese title are homophonous with other words that apply quite well to the plot.



‡ During the US occupation after the war, the exchange rate was pinned at JP¥360 to US$1, and it remained so for the entirety of the ‘50s and ‘60s.