is a 1958 Japanese satirical

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

directed by

Yasuzo Masumura was a Japanese film director. Biography Masumura was born in Kōfu, Yamanashi. After dropping out of a law course at the University of Tokyo he worked as an assistant director at the Daiei Film studio, later returning to university to study ph ...

and starring Hiroshi Kawaguchi.

Plot

Candy manufacturer World competes with companies Giant and Apollo over caramel sales. While looking for a poster girl for a new promotional campaign, chief of advertising Goda discovers Kyoko, a working class girl with bad teeth, and makes her World's mascot, dressed up in a space suit and wielding a ray gun. Meanwhile, Goda's assistant Nishi, at the instruction of his boss, has an affair with Apollo's advertising lady Kurahashi to learn about their campaign plans. As Kyoko's popularity rises to unprecedented heights, the young woman is less and less inclined to go along with World's plans for her, working on a career as a singer and dancer. After Kyoko terminates their contract, Goda, cracking up and sick from professional stress to the point of coughing up blood, wants to take over her role. Nishi, worried about his boss's health, stops him and takes over the role of the mascot himself. Dressed in Kyoko's spacesuit and wielding a ray gun, Nishi patrols the streets, followed by Kurahashi who prompts him to smile a bright smile for the passers-by.

Cast

* Hiroshi Kawaguchi as Yōsuke Nishi *

Hitomi Nozoe was a Japanese actress popular in the 1950s and early 1960s. Career Nozoe first gained attention in ingénue roles for Shochiku in films such as Kobayashi's ''Sincerity'' (1953), eventually joining Daiei following her appearance in 1955's nati ...

as Kyoko Shima *

Yūnosuke Itō was a Japanese film actor. He appeared in more than ninety films from 1947 to 1979. Career Itō made his film debut at Toho in 1946, and although mostly a prominent supporting actor—playing memorable figures such as the novelist in Akira Ku ...

as Junji Harukawa * Michiko Ono as Masami Kurahashi * Kyu Sazanka as Takakura Higashi * Kinzo Shin as Kohei *

Hideo Takamatsu was a Japanese actor from Nankoku, Kōchi Prefecture. Takamatsu appeared in more than 120 films between 1948 and 2007. Profile In 1951, he signed his contract with Daiei film company. Two years later, Takamatsu made his film debut with ''Ikare ...

as Ryuji Goda

Production

''Giants and Toys'' was a short story written by

Takeshi Kaikō was a prominent post-World War II Japanese novelist, short-story writer, essayist, literary critic, and television documentary writer. He was distinguished by his knowledge, intellect, sense of humor and conversational skills, and although his st ...

. After Kaikō won the Akutagawa Prize in 1957 for ''The Naked King'',

Daiei Film Daiei Film Co. Ltd. ( Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ''Daiei Eiga Kabushiki Kaisha'') was a Japanese film studio. Founded in 1942 as Dai Nippon Film Co., Ltd., it was one of the major studios during the postwar Golden Age of Japanese cinema, producing ...

bought the rights to ''Giants and Toys.'' The story was an entry in the "business novel" (経済小説, ''keizai shōsetsu'') genre, which satirizes Japanese workers' devotion to their corporations.

Legacy

In the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery (United Kingdom), National Lot ...

's list of the best Japanese films from 1925 to the present, reviewer Jasper Sharp describes ''Giants and Toys'' as a "deliciously wicked satire on the new cut-throat competitiveness of the postwar corporate world" and a "marker point of modernist cinema".

References

External links

* * *

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Giants And Toys 1958 films 1958 comedy films Japanese comedy films Films based on short fiction Films directed by Yasuzo Masumura Daiei Film films 1950s Japanese films