GIANTS AND TOYS

New release: British distributor Arrow Films will release a Blu-ray edition of the 1958 Japanese film Giants and Toys in May. I remember watching a DVD release many years back and enjoyed the movie's take on late-50s marketing and publicity. Giants and Toys was directed by Yasuzo Masumura (Nakano Spy School, Black Test Car). From the press release: "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." I don't remember the film being particularly "lurid," but it is a nice time-capsule of the period. Giants and Toys would make a good double feature with Black Test Car, about auto design and industrial espionage. More info at Arrow Films and Blu-ray. This release is Region B, so Spy Vibers in the States will require an all-region player. Enjoy! 

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