Caramel: It Rots Your Teeth (And Character)

The film, Giants and Toys revolves around the fierce competition between Giant, Apollo, and World, caramel companies. All three attempt to discover the best way to advertise and make their product appealing to the masses. Each company attempts to use modern popular culture to appeal to their consumers. For example, World advertises their product by including the incentive of a space suit and other space related objects as prizes for buying their merchandise. The businessmen at World, discover a young girl, Kyoko, and make her the face of their promotional campaign for their caramels. Though reluctant at first, Kyoko not only promotes the product, but eventually becomes a commodity as well. Though all three companies are trying to sell their caramels to the public, the role caramels play in the actual film is actually quite minute. The focus of the film is to show the roles of popular culture, business ethics, and commodities interact within Japanese society while originating from one single product, caramel. We see how critical the role of popular culture is for the companies when deciding what advertising strategy to use. They want to gain the most profit possible so in order to do so they center their marketing techniques on what is popular in society at the time, whether it be flavors of the South Pacific or children’s interest in space.

Nishi’s friend tells him that in order to succeed in the corporate world, one must be willing to change and adapt.

The business ethics of the companies also revolve around their product of caramel. For example, after Giant’s factory burns down, we see the executives at World become vultures and try to take advantage of the situation in order to gain more profit, instead of abiding by a sort of business bushido. The competition between the companies seems to bring out the worst of those employed and promotes greed. The role commodity plays in the film is perhaps the most significant. Though the commodity is caramels, Kyoko herself transforms in a commodity in the eyes of the Japanese public.

Kyoko’s image is replicated various times, conveying that she herself is a commodity.

Kyoko is no model, she has rotten teeth and some even describe her as resembling a monkey. Though she may be no beauty queen, Kyoko manages to become a successful icon and symbol of the company. However, this journey through the corporate world changes Kyoko. She loses track of her humble beginnings and eventually loses herself in the mass media and popular culture of society. This is best depicted in the dance number scene in which Kyoko has fixed her teeth and changed her hair style in what seems as an attempt to conform and to please pop culture and society.

Kyoko and her new image.

By the end of the film we get a sense that the era of organic aspects of society is coming to an end and is being replaced by mass manufacturing of commodity and corporations. Giants and Toys manages to convey the end of innocence and the start of an era where corporate greed is the norm, pop culture is society’s judge, and commodities transform organic members of society into consumers being blindly led by marketing that appeals to the senses rather than ethics.

Giants and Toys: Mass Production’s Deceptive Effect on Food

Released in 1958, Giants and Toys is an avant-garde film directed by Yasuzo Masumura discussing the caramel war between the three largest candy companies in Japan: Apollo, Giant and World. As competition between the three companies becomes more serious, they begin to rely less on the product and more on over the top promotional campaigns, eventually losing sight of the product entirely, and simply caring about sales. In Giants and Toys, the caramels are utilized by Masumura to demonstrate the effects mass production and consumerism on the public’s happiness.

In the film, World focuses entirely on its space-based publicity campaign, while its caramels are relegated to mass production and almost forgotten. Masumura demonstrates this in an exceedingly modern fashion by overlaying quick takes of various stages of the caramel manufacturing process, and overlaying them with the faded image of Goda’s (head of publicity at World) lighter, which is ineffectively stricken repeatedly until it finally lights. In doing this, Masumura is insinuating that the manufacture of caramels is really just a small nuisance to World, just as Goda’s lousy lighter is for Goda.

The mass production of caramels superimposed with the image of Goda’s lighter

However, the publicity campaigns made these caramels appear extremely desirable and exciting for the Japanese public and they purchased these caramels in the hopes of improving their sad lives. However, the candy itself is hollow, as well as the feeling of importance that it brings.

The transformation of Kyoko’s (the figurehead of the World publicity campaign) family is especially poignant concerning the naivete of the Japanese public. The family was originally an average poor family, clearly flawed in many ways, including the father being a lazy and greasy and the children being incredibly poorly behaved. The mother is clearly sad but slightly hardened to the entire situation and is often seen serving tea, which is actually important. Whenever a character in this film is serving or eating anything homemade, Masumura utilizes it as a moment for the character to be emotionally weak or depressed. For example, Goda’s barren wife is clearly depressed by the neglect and is always seen serving home-made food, and the workers at the taxi company, always eating their noodles and drinking their tea, are upset due to the sad state of their business.

Goda ignoring his barren wife as she serves tea to his guest

The mother sees the caramel money being given to Kyoko as a means to leaving their poor lifestyle, and moving on to something happier, giving her hope. However, she failed to realize that the caramels are simply a product, generated by the company simply for profit, it is even secondary to its own publicity campaign. The emptiness of the caramels as well as the success it brings to Kyoko’s family is alarming. The family is able to buy all the things that they always wanted, creating an illusion of happiness, yet the objects do not give happiness. Masumura brought attention to this when he had Nishi interact with one of Kyoko’s brothers who was in the background on his bike, and throughout his time in the background, he was possibly the emptiest looking child whilst on a new bike.

Kyoko’s brother learning at an early age that possessions are not happiness

Clearly, Masumura wanted to demonstrate the intrinsic negative effects of consumerism and corporate greed on the average man’s happiness, using caramels and Kyoko’s family as a model.

Giants and Toys: Like Clockwork

Giants and Toys, by Yasuzo Masumura, is a story about three competing caramel companies and the relationships between their employees, the relationship between business and fame, business and sales, and the relationship between celebrities and the sales of their products. In several scenes, Mr. Goda’s lighter malfunctions; as the lighter turns into a shadow in the background, the foreground show various montages, such as caramels quick journey around the company’s factory to be packaged and Kyoko’s fame skyrocketing with the increasing amount of World Caramel advertisements using her as their star.

 

Caramels on a journey around the factory until they’re packaged. Goda’s lighter malfunctioning in the background.

This scene is one of the biggest messages in the film. Both scenes start out with a failing lighter not igniting. This image fades into the background, barely visible but still existing as a montage plays in front of the audience. The sound of the lighter trying to make a spark plays throughout the whole montage; the sound is rhythmic and works as a metronome for all the actions in the montage. It is important in the scene with caramels are being made because it shows the idea of how caramels are made like clockwork. Each piece of caramel goes through the same process in the factory: to be made, cut, and put in packages so vendors can sell them to children; this process follows a rhythm as each step follows a quick orderly pattern, in step with the metronome-like sound from the malfunctioning lighter. In short, the making of caramels in a factory runs like clockwork.

 

A montage of Kyoko’s advertisements showing her increase in popularity. Goda’s lighter malfunctioning in the background

When Mr. Goda’s lighter fails again, a new montage displays while the lighter fades into the background as a shadow again. This time the montage is Kyoko, showing several pictures of her posing with caramels, her rotted teeth, and later in a spacesuit for their promotion for World’s caramel advertisements. Each job increases the amount of photos she takes, shown in the montage, which shows her rise in fame; the amount of pictures displaying her popularity. In the same way caramels are made in a timely and orderly manner, this montage gives the idea that using a person works the same way. Each picture of Kyoko in World’s advertisement increases her fame, which increases their product’s popularity. In this sense, Kyoko’s fame is seen also like clockwork, it follows certain steps in tune with the metronome sound of the failing lighter.

 

Both scenes are nearly identical to each other: they contain failing lighters, rhythmic metronome sounds, and a montage of something, Kyoko’s fame or the production of caramels, occurring in an orderly fashion. The scene being similar gives more ideas to the story of Giants and Toys: selling people is like selling caramels, and that sales of products and their characters are linked and dependent on each other. This idea focuses on Kyoko and how she is nothing but an object to sell to consumers to make profit. Without caramels, Kyoko would never have risen to fame; but without Kyoko, World would not have increased their sales. Their dependence on each other affects their popularity and determines World’s sales. In the end, they are both objects to World, who always search for ways to improve their products to make a profit in a timely order, like clockwork.

Of Blood and Sugar

Masumura Yasuzo’s Giants and Toys (1958) sheds light on the caramel as a commodity, the industrialization of post-war Japan, and the notion of identity, all the while introducing the now iconic visual of Pop Art. Considered a parody of the industrialized celebrity culture of post-war Japan, Giants and Toys mimics the fast pace sales-and-profit-are-everything culture by means of incorporating abnormally rapid dialogues and a mise-en-scène film style that generously packs each frame with people and objects. The film describes the economic struggle among three different caramel companies, World, Giant, and Apollo. While focusing on World, the film follows the rags-to-riches story of Kyoko, an eighteen year-old rotten-toothed proletarian girl, who catches the eye of Goda, World’s advertising campaign mastermind, and becomes the image of World’s caramels. The film also follows the journey of Nishi, who works for Goda and ultimately prevails as the sole emotional and humanist character.

the multiplied image of Kyoko, the "human flood," the identical caramels

The first set of screenshots reveals the motif of repetition that Masumura utilizes to represent the parallel between the caramels and Kyoko and the parallel between the caramels and the individuals of the industrialized workforce. The caramels produced by World, Giant, and Apollo are virtually identical in taste and ingredients (except maybe Apollo’s Willy Wonka-like flavor-changing caramel), yet they set one another apart through their advertising campaigns and the identities their candies embody. Rather than improving the quality of their caramels, the companies focus on campaigns for sales and profit. Thus, the simple delicacy of the caramel is devalued; it is the campaign, the atmosphere, and the identity, image, and personality of Kyoko that people want to buy, not the physical product itself. The screenshot below presents the image of Kyoko as an ordinary, yet fun and approachable girl who stands out among a sea of well-known celebrities. As Michael Raine writes, she appears doll-like, the Audrey Hepburn type that was popular in Japan at the time. It is the notion of creating identity through what is consumed. Thus, the caramel is trivialized as generic and easily copied or reproduced just as the image of Kyoko is multiplied and similarly, as the Japanese worker is assimilated.

Kyoko, the ordinary common girl

Nishi wears the spacesuit

The screenshot above represents the collapse of World’s campaign. Kyoko refuses to work for World after Nishi, who has to sport the space suit in the name of honor and loyalty, broke her heart. Though initially embarrassed, Nishi gives a smile after his so-called girlfriend, Kurashashi, encourages him. There is something very absurd with this scene: in the end of all this blood and sweat, it’s the campaign that matters most (and not the caramels). Though he smiles, his disturbing grin signifies the corruption of the system and the repression of the Japanese workforce. In an earlier scene, Goda, whose health was sacrificed to the company, openly reveals the labor culture of Japan: a Japanese person must work nonstop in order to survive.

Ultimately, Masumura’s parody of such a dehumanized culture reveals the commodificaiton of individuality through the commodification of caramels. In Giants and Toys, a culture concentrated with rituals of food and dining is downgraded to a factory of warfare and social Darwinism.

 

Corporate Greed: A Loss of Identity

Yasuzo Masumura’s, Giants and Toys, is a consumerist film that satirizes the post war growth of 1950’s Japan. The film begins by introducing three rival caramel companies: World, Giant, and Apollo, all of which hope to increase their caramel sales through new promotional campaigns. As World’s executives, Nishi and Goda, discover Kyoko, an ordinary and charming girl, they believe her quirky face could strengthen their campaign and act as the impetus to their success. As Kyoko becomes a star, the competition intensifies and the three businesses invest all their time to their publicity campaigns. Throughout his film, Masumura criticizes the consumerist culture of Japan by demonstrating how corporate greed and the desire to “win” leads to personal destruction, loss of identity and uniqueness, and the abandonment of one’s morals and values.

World Caramel comparing the "masses" to caramels.

In the opening scene, World’s boss compares the “masses” of the crowd to caramels. Here, we see how even early on in the film, one’s identity is often lost in the corporate business world. The caramels themselves are all the same as they are made for the sole purpose of making a profit. This objective along with the caramel’s uniform shape, size, and taste suggest that the masses are grouped together as one rather than classifying each person as a distinct and separate individual. This comparison demonstrates how both the people and the candy lose their uniqueness. Linking the masses to caramels further explains how World believes they have the power to manipulate the crowd to desire their commodity in the same way that they have complete control over their caramel production.

Goda instructing Nishi to seduce Kyoko.

As the film continues, Goda’s unremitting desire to become the number one caramel company instigates his downfall and loss of morality. In the beginning of the film, one of World’s prominent and very involved executives suffers from a horrible cough. This scene seems to foreshadow Goda’s self-deterioration and weakening health. As Goda is promoted to the PR position, his corporate greed escalates and thus causes him to collapse. Investing all of his time to the campaign, Goda endures the same cough previously seen by the other World executive. While Goda’s health weakens and the stress of the campaign increases, he resorts to immoral and unethical acts. For instance, asking Nishi to seduce Kyoko demonstrates his corrupt judgment and his willingness to do anything that will improve World’s sales. Goda’s obsession over the campaign and hunger to achieve success drives him to insanity and causes him to lose his identity and ultimately destruct.

Goda suffering from a malignant cough.

The introduction Kyoko in the opening scene.

Similarly, as Kyoko becomes a star her identity transforms. Like Goda, she becomes too invested in the corporate and mass media world and makes stardom a priority. The opening montage symbolizes Kyoko’s complete transformation throughout the film. In this first screenshot, Kyoko’s original identity is present through her crooked teeth, uniqueness, and “the girl-next-door image.” However, as Masumura utilizes Pop Art to multiply the image, Kyoko’s picture becomes clouded in black and white, as we are unable to see her quirky qualities. Unlike the first colored screenshot that clearly represents her identity, these multiplied pictures imply a transformation. As all of the images are blown away, it symbolizes Kyoko’s loss of original identity and her transformation into an unrecognizable star.

Masumura uses Pop Art to multiply Kyoko's image.

Clearly then, the caramel production leads to the loss of identity and dehumanization of individuals. The insatiable desire to dominate the corporate market and rise up to the top produces detrimental effects that alter one’s individuality and values.

Caramel Japan

The main commodity Giants and Toys [hereafter: G&T] focuses on is caramels. While G&T itself is both delighted in and repelled by the image cultures that are spun out of marketing caramels, it is worth thinking for a moment about the little candy and its history. Many of us probably associate caramels with the bite-sized plastic-wrapped Kraft caramel that used to be tossed into bags and pillowcases at Halloween, or bought for 2 cents at a “mom and pop” store. Here is a 1959 ad that touts the giveaway possibilities of America’s favorite industrial caramel.

The ad campaign links butter, wholesomeness, Halloween and Fudgies (sold separately) (Source: Found in Mom's Basement)

Kraft began making and marketing caramels in 1933; this makes it something of a candy-come-lately with respect to Japan’s mass production of caramels, which began in the Meiji era–in 1899 to be exact. The Morinaga “milk caramel” company began making caramels on the heels of a “boom” in trade with England:

The "history" section of the Morinaga milk caramel website

Today, Morinaga caramels still groove on the same sepia-toned “old-timey”-ness, and tap into a nostalgia that has lasted almost as long as the caramels themselves. Here is what Morinaga caramels look like today, in both “kurosato” (black sugar) flavor and “milk” flavor:

Morinaga black sugar caramels--think Okinawa, Taiwan

A current box of Morinaga milk caramels--think Hokkaido

Skipping briefly to other flashes of caramel from contemporary life, let’s look at the anime My Neighbor Totoro, by MIYAZAKI Hayao. Miyazaki’s films often feature characters feeding each other as a shorthand for nostalgia, community, empathy, and comfort (in a word, nukumori 温もり…ぬくもりなが？). It’s actually a 15-minute sequel to Totoro that expresses the caramel-emotional complex most clearly:

In Mei and the Kitten Bus (Mei to koneko no basu), caramel=gesture of simple friendship

We will also see caramels in the novella The Factory Ship, set in Hokkaido. And caramels play an intriguing part in 1960s leftist student movement politics, and their gender relations–female students complained that they were sidelined to the role of “caramel mamas” by didactic male revolutionaries. But that is a story for another day…