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Arrow Films
Giants and Toys is a sharp and snappy corporate satire revolving around the ruthless machinations of a group of admen working in the confectionary industry.
As a new recruit to the marketing department of World Caramel, fresh-faced graduate Nishi (Hiroshi Kawaguchi) is eager to impress his ambitious and hard-nosed boss Goda (Black Test Car's Hideo Takamatsu), even if it strains his relationships with his college friend Yokoyama (Koichi Fujiyama) and budding love interest Masami (Michiko Ono), who work at the rival companies of Giant and Apollo. With World's lead over its competitors slipping badly, the two spot a chance to get back in the race in the shape of the pretty but unsophisticated 18-year-old, Kyoko (Hitomi Nozoe). Goda and Nishi get to work polishing this rough diamond as their new campaign girl, but as the three rival confectionary companies pitch themselves into an all-out advertising war that spills out onto the streets of Tokyo as it escalates to ludicrous extremes, Kyoko's newfound fame starts going to her head.
Making its worldwide Blu-ray debut, this lurid adaptation of the award-winning 1957 novel by Ken Kaiko is considered a landmark in Japanese film history and a key work by Yasuzo Masumura (Blind Beast, Red Angel), one of the country's most highly acclaimed directors of his generation. Its absurdist and acidly cynical take on the excesses of the media and advertising worlds recalls the work of Frank Tashlin (Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?), as it presents a garish vision of a bold new postwar Japan where traditional company values come head-to-head with American-style consumer capitalism.
Special Features
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
- Original uncompressed Japanese mono audio
- Optional English subtitles
- Brand new audio commentary by Japanese cinema scholar Irene González-López
- Newly filmed introduction by Japanese cinema expert Tony Rayns
- In the Realm of the Publicists, a brand new visual essay by Asian cinema scholar Earl Jackson
- Original Trailer
- Image Gallery
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tony Stella
- Arrow Video
- 95 mins approx
- 15
- 2.35:1
- Japanese
- 1
- Arrow Video
- Yasuzô Masumura
- Hiroshi Kawaguchi
- Hitomi Nozoe
- Hideo Takamatsu
- Michiko Ono
English
- 1958
- B
Giants And Toys Blu-ray
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Arrow Films
Giants and Toys is a sharp and snappy corporate satire revolving around the ruthless machinations of a group of admen working in the confectionary industry.
As a new recruit to the marketing department of World Caramel, fresh-faced graduate Nishi (Hiroshi Kawaguchi) is eager to impress his ambitious and hard-nosed boss Goda (Black Test Car's Hideo Takamatsu), even if it strains his relationships with his college friend Yokoyama (Koichi Fujiyama) and budding love interest Masami (Michiko Ono), who work at the rival companies of Giant and Apollo. With World's lead over its competitors slipping badly, the two spot a chance to get back in the race in the shape of the pretty but unsophisticated 18-year-old, Kyoko (Hitomi Nozoe). Goda and Nishi get to work polishing this rough diamond as their new campaign girl, but as the three rival confectionary companies pitch themselves into an all-out advertising war that spills out onto the streets of Tokyo as it escalates to ludicrous extremes, Kyoko's newfound fame starts going to her head.
Making its worldwide Blu-ray debut, this lurid adaptation of the award-winning 1957 novel by Ken Kaiko is considered a landmark in Japanese film history and a key work by Yasuzo Masumura (Blind Beast, Red Angel), one of the country's most highly acclaimed directors of his generation. Its absurdist and acidly cynical take on the excesses of the media and advertising worlds recalls the work of Frank Tashlin (Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?), as it presents a garish vision of a bold new postwar Japan where traditional company values come head-to-head with American-style consumer capitalism.
Special Features
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
- Original uncompressed Japanese mono audio
- Optional English subtitles
- Brand new audio commentary by Japanese cinema scholar Irene González-López
- Newly filmed introduction by Japanese cinema expert Tony Rayns
- In the Realm of the Publicists, a brand new visual essay by Asian cinema scholar Earl Jackson
- Original Trailer
- Image Gallery
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tony Stella
- Arrow Video
- 95 mins approx
- 15
- 2.35:1
- Japanese
- 1
- Arrow Video
- Yasuzô Masumura
- Hiroshi Kawaguchi
- Hitomi Nozoe
- Hideo Takamatsu
- Michiko Ono
English
- 1958
- B
Customer Reviews
Top Customer Reviews
Where reviews refer to foods or cosmetic products, results may vary from person to person. Customer reviews are independent and do not represent the views of The Hut Group.
A Treat
Very enjoyable piece of sixties japanese cinema. Very much a product of its time, for the best. A pop delight.
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A sweet treat.
The acting was great and the story was funny and well written. A great satire.
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Giants and Toys
An acid satire on Japan's bustling, postwar business ethic, where ruthless Western-style capitalism meets traditional notions of collective duty, "Giants and Toys" is both humorous and harrowing thanks to Masumura's clever modulation of tones. The wonderful Kawaguchi plays Nishi with stone-faced bewilderment and outright disgust for the lengths he's expected to go (such as sleeping with Kyoko, who has a crush on him) to advance his employer's agenda, but he isn't above trying to pry information from his own lover--a publicist for the competition. Nozoe is equally brilliant as the lower-class naif who morphs into a puckish celebrity. Smart, raucous, and fast-paced, "Toys" is an outlandishly savage look at the corporate rat race.
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