So, a quick reminder that there are some fantastic posters available in emovieposter’s Thursday night auctions ending, well, Thursday 7/16/09.

This is no ordinary Thursday night, this is part 2 of emovieposter’s mini/major auction, and it has some major Japanese items like:

Breakfast at Tiffany’s Two panel R69
Le Mans 2 panel
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Yellow Submarine

and probably fifty more very nice Japanese posters (among the hundreds of excellent items). If you know posters, you know a couple of the titles above rarely come up, and are being featured on emovieposter for the first time EVER.

Check it out folks.

Uchu daikaiju GIRARA (aka X from Outer Space) Japanese B2 movie poster, originally uploaded by japanese-movie-posters.

GIRARA Japanese B2 movie poster

How can anyone not love Girara? Just look at him! He’s completely hapless — no one could be scared by this guy, right?

This is obviously a different style from the other Girara poster I have, and apparently is a tie-up poster (meaning co-promotional with something, like the Totoro Japan Rail poster and others). However, I have not yet established exactly what this is a tie-up WITH. I’m going to have to do some translation on some of the fine print to figure out what the real deal is.

Anyway, a very cool poster, pretty rare, and I’m beyond pleased to have it.

Japanese movie posters

Kill Bill Advance Japanese B2 movie poster, originally uploaded by japanese-movie-posters.

Rare Casino Royale Japanese B1 movie poster (Brioni variant)

Let’s start things back up with a bang, shall we?

Those of you that regularly read this blog understand that I am very hesitant to use the word “rare” when it comes to posters. However, in this case, I feel good about using the word — this is the only one I’ve seen and frankly that is not a surprise. Apparently, the story is that these variant posters were to be used in shops that carry Brioni in Japan. Now, I can’t imagine there are too many shops that carry these suits. And, I’m pretty sure that the people running those shops would not be particularly interested in movie memorabilia. For these reasons, I classify this is as rare and do not expect to see any more. How many shops could this possibly have been distributed to? 50? 100? I even think those numbers are too high.

Additionally, this double sided poster is on very heavy, ULTRA-glossy stock, almost with a vinyl feel on the front. Obviously very special.

Japanese movie posters

The Trip Japanese 2 panel (tatekan) movie poster, originally uploaded by japanese-movie-posters.

The Trip Japanese tatekan (2 panel) movie poster

I was after this one for years before I finally got it… I won’t blab on about how great it is, the picture speaks for itself.

Japanese movie posters

The Usual Suspects Japanese B2 movie poster, originally uploaded by japanese-movie-posters.

The Usual Suspects Japanese B2 movie poster

I hesitate to say this about a relatively recent (1994) poster, but this one in my opinion is quite rare. I have seen one other one; I’m sure someone out there will chime in if I’m off base. Features similar (but of course better!) art to the US "watch style" one sheet.

Japanese movie posters

Twilight Samurai / Tasogare Seibei Japanese B1 movie poster, originally uploaded by japanese-movie-posters.

JAPANESE MOVIE POSTER INVENTORY UPDATE

Big post tonight. First, the poster above is for one of my favorite Japanese movies (although I’m no Japanese film scholar), Twilight Samurai. If you are a Japanese film neophyte, this one is very easy to watch, is not focused on swordplay, and is, yes, touching. Highly recommend this one as well as The Hidden Blade.

Now, on to the new arrivals…

Japanese B1 movie posters

• Azumi
• Twilight Samurai (2 styles) on very interesting thick iridescent paper BOTH SOLD
• Lust, Caution
• Burn After Reading

Japanese B2 movie posters

• Baisers volés / Stolen Kisses (Truffaut)
• Towering Inferno
• Pulp Fiction (white background)
• Ichi the Killer rare Style C SOLD
• Persepolis
• Shortbus
• The Prestige
• Scoop SOLD
• Big Wednesday (cast style)SOLD
• Return of the Jedi (2 styles)SOLD
• Moonraker
• Cannonball Run 2 (free to anyone who wants it, just pay shipping or buy something else)
• True Romance
• Twilight
• Usual SuspectsSOLD
• Emmanuelle
• Innocence / L’ecole (France – not related at all to Ghost in the Shell series)
• To Catch a Thief R60s
• I am Curious Yellow Style C (original release)SOLD
• Army of Darkness
• Andy Warhol’s BadSOLD
• Memento (2 styles!)BOTH SOLD
• Silence of the Lambs
• Spirited Away Advance
• 400 blows / Quatre cent coups R80sSOLD
• Hiroshima Mon Amour R78
• Kill Bill (2 styles)
• Kill Bill 2 (Bride)
• Pierrot Le Fou R80s
• La Dolce Vita R80s
• 2 ou 3 Choses Que Je Sais D’Elle R80s
• Devil Wears Prada (2 styles, one quite sexy)ONE SOLD
• Unforgiven (Eastwood)

Japanese 2 panel (tatekan) movie posters

• Le Mans

Whew! It’s a lot and it took a long time to take all the pics. I have some other mystery pieces, too, and other freebies. You’ll be seeing some of them here… and if you want to see a picture NOW and want to buy something NOW, of course let me know!

Original Japanese movie posters

Persona Japanese 2 panel movie poster, originally uploaded by japanese-movie-posters.

Persona Japanese 2 panel movie poster

If you thought the B2 was great, wait until you get a load of this! Simply an amazing poster, and quite hard to get.

Original Japanese movie posters

Candy (Heath Ledger) Japanese B2 movie poster, originally uploaded by japanese-movie-posters.

New arrival: Candy (Heath Ledger) Japanese B2 movie poster

This is quite a nice poster and pretty scarce. I’m not sure if I’ve seen more than this one… these small releases are very tough to get and Heath of course makes this even more collectible. Heath Ledger material is quite popular in Japan – heavier matte paper makes it even more desirable.

Original Japanese movie posters

Twilight advance Japanese movie poster – HUGE banner size, originally uploaded by japanese-movie-posters.

New arrival: Twilight Japanese movie poster – HUGE banner size

I just got this one in — very scarce as you can imagine! This advance poster is quite large by any standard and especially for Japan — it is meant to be hung in a large theater lobby. There is a top loop in the special vinyl coated paper to facilitate hanging with a long dowel, if that is your chosen method. Very durable paper — a type I have not had before, but then again I don’t usually buy banners. The style of this poster is similar to the B2 and B1, but definitely different enough to make it especially collectible. Be sure to click through to my Flickr gallery (click on the pic above) to see the other picture in my photostream. It shows how big it is (approximately 4 feet by 6 feet) with a magazine in the frame for scale.

Update 5/10/09: POSTER IS SOLD

Original Japanese movie posters

I have bought and sold multiple copies of the coveted Amelie B1 size "red bed" version over the years. I’ve bought a few fakes, too, and I know what a big disappointment this can be, even if you haven’t spent hundreds of dollars. Even long time dealers get fooled, so I thought it would be useful to collectors to have a definitive guide on how to tell the difference between a real red Amelie B1 and a fake. If you can get even halfway decent pictures of a poster before buying it, using this guide you will be able to avoid buying a fake.

First, we’ll start with measurements: the real poster is a little over 28 5/8″ wide.

…while the fake is about 26 3/4″ wide. Note that there are many fakes out there and I wouldn’t be surprised if some were different measurements… but this is a very common one if not the only style of fake out there.

The real poster is about 40.5″ in height…

…while the fake is a little over 38.5″ in height. This is a huge difference and if you have one on hand, this is a very quick and easy test.

Next we check the art at the borders. On the real poster there is about 1.25″ of space between the border and the picture frame on the left side.

But on the fake, there is only about an inch of space there:

Moving over to the far right corner, we check the placement of the Eirin mark. On the real poster the Eirin has margin to the right and to the bottom. There’s about a quarter inch of margin in both directions:

Here’s where it gets interesting. As we so often see on fake movie posters, there is less art to the right of the Eirin mark — the art has been cut off in the duplication process. But below the Eirin mark, there is MORE — art has been ADDED below so that there is more margin than on the real poster, resulting in about a half inch of space between it and the border. Note also that the Eirin is visibly fuzzier on the fake than on the real poster:

Moving up the right edge, there’s another picture frame that is visible to the right of the bed. Again, on the real poster there is more art than on the fake. You can see roughly a half inch of picture frame on the real poster:

…while on the fake there is only a sliver of the frame present, perhaps an eighth to a quarter of an inch.

Back to the left side. There is a group of objects on the left side of the bed. Pay attention to the clock and the vase on the left side. On the real poster the center of the clock is about 7/8″ to 1″ from the left edge. You can also see a vase behind the clock — pay attention to how much is visible:

On the fake the center of the clock is about 5/8″ to 3/4″ away from the left edge. And a lot of the vase behind the clock is gone. You can also observe how the fake is grainier than the original.

At the top left there is about 3/8″ to 1/2″ of space between the left edge and the title/credits:


While on the fake there is almost zero. The color is also very different here — brown on the fake versus deep red or burgundy on the original:

There is the same kind of margin cutoff on the right side of the credits.

Similar to the situation we observed under the Eirin, there is a differential at the top of the poster as well. On the original there is about 1/4″ of space between the top edge and the French title:

and on the fake there is a good half inch there. Again, more art has been added to the fake!

Whatever the reasons for creating the fake — to sell as a repro to someone who likes the art, or to sell to a collector for a high price — these posters have created a lot of confusion in the hobby. Even those with many years of experience get faked out by these, and they have definitely started crossing back over into the Japanese market. So just because a poster comes from Japan does not mean it is the real deal! In your efforts to do your homework before buying an expensive poster like this, please refer to this guide to be sure you don’t make a big mistake.

One last note: there are many more differences on the real poster versus the fake, but these are some of the most easily observable. Once you’ve seen a real one it is very very easy to tell the difference and when you have them side by side you could spend a long time documenting every little difference. The colors are different, everything is a different size, the image is grainy, there are faults/differences in the lettering. If you know of more differences I’m happy to hear about them, but I think this guide is sufficient for figuring out real vs. fake.

Japanese movie posters