ART401: APPRECIATING FAR-EASTERN CINEMA

Instructor: Dr. Ritwij Bhowmik

Dept. of Humanities & Social Sciences
Semester: 2016 –2017 (II)

1st WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT

FILM NAME: ​Giants and Toys

STUDENT INFORMATION
Name : ​Sushant
Roll No: ​13732​ Department : ​Electrical ​E-mail : ​sushant@iitk.ac.in
 MOVIE DETAILS
Title: ​GIANTS AND TOYS (KYOJIN TO GANGU) (巨人と玩具)
Director : ​Masumura Yasuzo
Writer :​ ​Yoshio Shirasaka, ​Takeshi Kaikô
Release Date: ​22 June 1958
Country: ​Japan
Language: ​Japanese
Genre: ​Comedy, Drama

CAST
Hiroshi Kawaguchi as Yousuke Nishi
Hitomi Nozoe as Kyoko Shima
Yûnosuke Itô as Junji
Michiko Ono as Masami Kurahashi (as Toshiko Hasegawa)
Kyu Sazanka as Takakura Higashi
Kinzo Shin as Kohei
Hideo Takamatsu as Ryuji

INTRODUCTION
Giants and Toys was based on a popular novel written by Takeshi
Kaikō. After Kaikō won the Akutagawa Prize in 1957 in literature,
the renowned Daiei Film studio bought the rights of Giants and
Toys. The book was his entry in to the “Business novel" genre,
which satirizes Japanese workers' devotion to their corporations.
Giants and Toys criticizes the consumerist culture by portraying the
dehumanizing effects it has on the characters of this movie. Giants and
Toys explores the symbolic exploitation of its characters as they reflect the
attitudes of a newly consumerist culture. It is a movie which does not has a
class or systems based Interpretation. It has fast moving scenes and rapid
dialogues which shows us the busyness of Japanese people. The movie
shows us the rising importance of mass media and the ever present loyalty
of the Japanese people. It also reflects how morality and ethics fly out the
window when profits are at stake.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT
Giants and Toys is a satirical depiction of post-war economic growth in
Japan during the 1950’s. As a result, idol culture emerges, in which
companies hire a star to sell their products. It reflect the attitudes of a newly
consumerist culture. It was an era where the entire Japanese society was
aping after the US and its capitalist culture. All the ordinary people in Japan
believed that all things that are American are good and were going towards
wanting and craving for all American things.
It reflects modern economic principles and over idealized corporate
lifestyles. This era was also the golden age of Japanese cinema because
of the growing cinema industries. The period after the American
Occupation led to a rise in diversity in movie distribution. This period gave
rise to the 5 great artists of Japanese cinema: Masaki Kobayashi, Akira
Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi, Masumura Yasuzo and Yasujiro Ozu. Each
director dealt with the effect of war and subsequent occupation by America
in unique and innovation ways. This was Masumura’s fifth movie. Japan
was producing over 500 films per year.

PLOT
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. The executive of World candy company(Goda) meet a loudmouthed
female taxi driver with bad teeth, Kyoko , who they transform, through a
clever marketing campaign, into celebrity to launch their new line of
caramels. Nishi also tries to extract information about his competitors'
marketing plans through an old college friend at one company and a
girlfriend at another. Along the way he finds himself falling for Kyoko, but
finds that the worlds of business and love are painfully incompatible.

Film ‘Genre’
It depicts “Salaryman” genre where most people are dependent only on
their salary for livelihood and have no other source of income. Immediately
following World War II, becoming a salaryman was viewed as a gateway to
a stable, middle-class lifestyle. The word was soon adopted in many
literature and ‘film genres’ pertaining to the Japanese culture.

Giants & Toys is a furious denunciation disguised as a very funny comedy

featuring a remarkable directing. The film tackles so many themes at once
with completeness, precision and a very evident juvenile energy, utilization
of persons as cooperative objects, fame, money, lack of moral ethical
standards in companies, all of this in a non-stop culture where the principal
motto is: "Sales are first!" . when you put sales above everything, you do
not only affect sales, but even your freaking life at both personal and
professional levels, and drag all workers in the process with you, including
those indirectly involved in the whole distribution process, beginning with
the factories.
 Director Profile

Yasuzo Masumura was born on 25th August 1924. After graduation in 1948
took a second degree in philosophy at the University of Tokyo and moved
to work as an assistant director with the Daiei Film studio. He then won a
scholarship allowing him to study film in Italy at the Centro Sperimentale di
Cinematografia under Michelangelo Antonioni, Federico Fellini and Luchino
Visconti. He worked as a film journalist in Italy and published first extended
history of Japanese cinema in western language, a sixty page article in
bianco e nero in 1954. He returned to Japan and worked as a second unit
director before directing his first own film kisses in 1957. Over the next
three decades he directed around 58 films. He died on 23rd November
1986.
 CRITICAL ANALYSIS

A Crowd of Worker with No Individuality. It portrays the people of the

corporations on their way to work. All of the workers are primarily clad in
the same uniform: a black suit, white shirt and a tie. In this long shot, Nishi
becomes lost in the crowd, which indicates his insignificance in the
corporate world. To the leaders of the big corporations, he is simply a tool
to be used to gain profit and success to the company.

This first image enforces the idea that Kyoko is being objectified for the
purpose of promoting the product. This picture depicts that more is always
better. If we have more publicity more people will buy caramels. This
process of mass replication of Kyoko’s image results in the loss of her
identity and individualism. She becomes just like any other icon, being used
for the success and profit of the corporation.
To Mr. Goda, selling caramel is equivalent of success, promotion, money
and power, and survival. Thus, regardless what method to use, as long as
the sales of caramel increases, his goal is achieved . The people at the
higher authorities like owners of the companies damn cared about their
employees. The middle class people were overburdened with work and had
no personal lives.

Repeatedly clicking of lighter makes it work. Similarly many efforts has

been put for producing caramels or in making Kyoko a star The broken
lighter can be seen as a symbol for the destruction of traditional values.
Mr. Goda makes Kyoko speak those things which they don’t believe but are
required for her publicity. He makes her stand there for a long time without
water. She wanted to relax but was not allowed.

This double exposure replaces the produce of caramels with the produce of
Kyoko in different mediums, but still has the flicking of the lighter.
After getting fame Kyoko is no longer interested in campaigning for World.
She is a star now. She started smoking as she is progressing towards
evilness of corporate world.

Kyôko’s last tadpole dies while her co-workers are watching her TVCM.
Kyoko used to keep tadpoles but now all her tadpoles are dead . As time
passes and Kyoko lets the fame change her character.
Mr. Goda is coughing and blood came out of his mouth. His condition is
because of excessive work and not focusing on his diet properly. After
Kyoko rejected for campaign his condition became worse. Gōda is ruined
by his loyalty to the company.

The ending scene of the movie, Nishi is walking in a space uniform on the
street promoting World caramel with a smile on his face. He is the only
character preserves his simplicity and innocence. Nishi compromises with
the society and loses his dignity by walking on the street in a space
uniform, this is only because of his loyalty and respect for his boss, Mr.
Goda.
 CONCLUSION
Masumura Yasuzo harshly criticizes the corporate and icon culture of the
1950’s. By displaying how the attitudes and actions of the greedy
corporations of the 1950’s were based mainly on making the most profit, he
emphasizes the theme of the dehumanizing effects of a mass production
society. Kyoko started out as a charismatic, quirky girl, yet by the
conclusion of the film, she has been manufactured by the corporations with
no individuality, existing solely to benefit the company’s reputation and
finances. The movie shows the modernization of Japan and how they are
merging American values into their own values creating a mixture of old
and new values. It shows the emotions of the Japanese people, who have
no choice but to live according to the norms of that society.

REFERENCES
Bhowmik, Ritwij. "Japan Segment: Giants and Toys (1958)." Appreciating
Far-Eastern Cinema. IIT Kanpur. Kanpur. Jan 2017. Lecture.

FilmWalrus. “Film Walrus Reviews:Giants and Toys.” Mar 2008. Review.

<http://www.filmwalrus.com/2008/03/review-of-giants-toys.html>

Wikipedia, web, “Giants and Toys”. Introduction

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giants_and_Toys>

Food and Foodies in Japan. “Tag Archives: Giants and Toys”. Dec 2013.
<https://foodandfoodiesinjapan.wordpress.com/category/giants-and-toys/>

IMDb. “Giants and Toys 1958” IMDb web, June 6 th , 2015.

<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051834/>

Wikipedia . "Yasuzo Masumura" Wikipedia. Web. 7 June 2015.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasuzo_Masumura