. Another iconoclastic outburst, this time aimed at "the advertising racket in Japan and, by implication, all the values of a traditionally based society" (Donald Richie). Once again Masumura's fast-paced editing targets the absurdity of his characters' lives: like rats in a maze, they scurry to secure their social status before their time is up. The plot has three large caramel companies in hot competition; around every corner is an industrial spy. A lower-class girl with stunningly bad teeth (Hitomi Nozoe in a reverse of her Warm Current role) is made the mascot for one of the companies and, through the skills of a top-ranking sleazy photographer, becomes an overnight sensation. Her animal instincts prevail over product loyalty. Meanwhile, our advertising-executive hero (Hiroshi Kawaguchi), attempting to salvage a bit of his humanity, destroys himself for the good of the company. In Warm Current, Masumura indulged in a hilarious digression to take a swipe at Japanese television striving toward a Western model. Here, the idiocy of television production is a running gag in a portrait of marketing run amok. Masumura shows himself to be a Japanese Frank Tashlin.