This could very well be the greatest cinematic exposé on the eat-or-be-eaten attitude of corporations. Three rival caramel companies war with each other. The film focuses on the marketing departments of these companies. Think Cola Wars and you'll have a clue. This film was made in 1958, but it feels very modern. And the new Fantoma DVD is so pristine that it looks as if it were made yesterday. I've never seen a Criterion DVD even approach this quality. Please, give Fantoma your money. Order all four of the Yasuzo Masumura DVDs as I did! 10/10.

This film is all about the war over caramel sales, with the hunt for a new female mascot to get the public to keep buying candy. One company, World, hires a working class girl with bad teeth, dresses her up in a spacesuit and hopes to win the battle. She ends up becoming a popular idol singer and dancer before she leaves the candy world behind. Meanwhile, the ad man who discovered her spits up blood and makes his assistant sleep with other company's advertising ladies. Anything goes, because there is a smaller and smaller share left after the market is increasingly dominated by imported U. S. candy.

You know, I've worked in advertising my entire life and this movie really feels like something I've lived through. This movie's maverick director Yasuzô Masumura bucked the norm of Japanese society and made films that promoted the value of the individual. He was also the first Japanese filmmaker to study at Italy's Centro Sperimentale Di Cinematografia, which led him to say, "In Japanese society, which is essentially regimented, freedom and the individual do not exist. The theme of Japanese film is the emotions of the Japanese people, who have no choice but to live according to the norms of that society. After experiencing Europe for two years, I wanted to portray the type of beautifully vital, strong people I came to know there."

In case you thought all that Daiei Film made was Gamera, Zatoichi and Yokai Monsters, remember that this film - and Jokyo, Rashomon and Ugetsu were all made at this studio.

Three Japanese companies are locked in competition to sell the most caramels. World Caramels hires unspoiled, tomboyish Hitomi Nozoe as the spokesmodel for their new, space-aged campaign. But fame is fleeting and people in the public eye don't remain unspoiled for long.

Yasuzô Masumura, the director of this movie, came to the movie industry after studying philosophy. He worked under Kon Inchikawa, and was directing by 1957. Here, we have a satiric indictment of the corporate capitalism of the new Japan, in which people work themselves to death, marry for advancement, and sacrifice human feelings for advancement. It's a problem that has not gone away.

It's fast-cut editing and mildly hysterical performances all the way through this movie. I thought it was too strident in making its philosophical points, but the actors certainly were compelling.