What It's About:

Charged with mounting a gimmicky new campaign to outsell two rival candy manufacturers, young ad exec Nishi (Kawaguchi) and his superior, Gonda, groom nutty Kyoko (Nozoe), an unsophisticated female cab driver with rotten teeth, to be their company's fashion plate and caramel-eating cover girl. While the wily Kyoko becomes a bigger star than anyone ever imagined, Nishi is humiliated by the cutthroat tactics of his business opponents.

Why I Love It:

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.