Copious corporate satires were released in the 1950s, but there was nothing like Giants and Toys, Masumura’s frantic, delirious and brilliantly acerbic tale of three caramel candy companies fighting for Japan’s hearts and pockets. Partially inspired by Elia Kazan’s A Face in the Crowd and set against the space race, Giants and Toys is both a product of its era and a timeless allegory of consumerist and celebrity cultures, the toxic dominance of America, and the moral price paid for modernity. Shot on garish Agfacolor film stock and intonated in a rapid-fire dialogue, Giants and Toys is a feverish sugar rush of a film: an onslaught of image and sound that feels eerily relevant in an age of social media influencers and spiritual vacuums.