"Actor: Hitomi Nozoe"

• Giants And Toys | Blu Ray | (10/05/2021) from £9.39   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Giants and Toys is a sharp and snappy corporate satire revolving around the ruthless machinations of a group of admen working in the confectionary industry. As a new recruit to the marketing department of World Caramel, fresh-faced graduate Nishi (Hiroshi Kawaguchi) is eager to impress his ambitious and hard-nosed boss Goda (Black Test Car's Hideo Takamatsu), even if it strains his relationships with his college friend Yokoyama (Koichi Fujiyama) and budding love interest Masami (Michiko Ono), who work at the rival companies of Giant and Apollo. With World's lead over its competitors slipping badly, the two spot a chance to get back in the race in the shape of the pretty but unsophisticated 18-year-old, Kyoko (Hitomi Nozoe). Goda and Nishi get to work polishing this rough diamond as their new campaign girl, but as the three rival confectionary companies pitch themselves into an all-out advertising war that spills out onto the streets of Tokyo as it escalates to ludicrous extremes, Kyoko's newfound fame starts going to her head. Making its worldwide Blu-ray debut, this lurid adaptation of the award-winning 1957 novel by Ken Kaiko is considered a landmark in Japanese film history and a key work by Yasuzo Masumura (Blind Beast, Red Angel), one of the country's most highly acclaimed directors of his generation. Its absurdist and acidly cynical take on the excesses of the media and advertising worlds recalls the work of Frank Tashlin (Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?), as it presents a garish vision of a bold new postwar Japan where traditional company values come head-to-head with American-style consumer capitalism. Special Features High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation Original uncompressed Japanese mono audio Optional English subtitles Brand new audio commentary by Japanese cinema scholar Irene González-López Newly filmed introduction by Japanese cinema expert Tony Rayns In the Realm of the Publicists, a brand new visual essay by Asian cinema scholar Earl Jackson Original Trailer Image Gallery Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tony Stella FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collectors' booklet featuring new writing by Michael Raine

• Floating Weeds | DVD | (26/01/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Floating Weeds is one of the final films directed by the legendary Japanese filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu. A remake of one of his own silent features it tells the story of a travelling Kabuki acting troupe led by Komajuro who arrive in a small coastal town. There Komajuro is reunited with his former lover Oyoshi and their illegitimate son who is unaware that the itinerant actor is his father. But the reunion provokes the jealousy of Sumiko Komanjuro's current mistress who plots a devas

• Kisses | DVD | (23/07/2007) from £24.99   |  Saving you £-5.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Masmura's debut feature with its stripped down narrative and handheld camerawork sent a shock wave through Japanese cinema in much the same manner as Godard in Europe. With its liberated camera and even more liberated protagonists this is the film which caused Oshima to say of Masumura ""a powerful irresistible force has arrived in Japanese Cinema."" A young boy and girl meet while visiting their respective fathers in prison. The young lovers soon embrace both each other and their mu