Japanese Poster Appreciation Month – January 2009

New Cinema Wallpaper of the Day
Thursday, January 1, 2009

We are now fully off and into Japanese Poster Celebration Month at Cinema is Dope with this minimal but perfect Japanese Poster artwork for Hayao Miyazaki’s Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (Gake no ue no Ponyo).

Japanese Poster Appreciation Month – January 2009 (Archive):
::: January 24 – Violent City (1970)
::: January 24 – Mr. Majestyk (1974)
::: January 24 – Hard Times (1975)
::: January 23 – Bullitt (1968)
::: January 23 – The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)
::: January 23 – The Great Escape (1963)
::: January 23 – The Magnificent Seven (1960)
::: January 22 – BRAINDEAD (1992)
::: January 22 – Frontiere(s) (2007)
::: January 21 – The Gauntlet (1977)
::: January 21 – Live Like a Cop Die Like a Man (1976)
::: January 20 – Thunder and Lightning (1977)
::: January 19 – Race with the Devil (1975)
::: January 18 – Car Wash (1976)
::: January 17 – The Living Daylights (1987)
::: January 17 – Licence to Kill (1989)
::: January 17 – The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)
::: January 16 – Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973)
::: January 15 – The Wilby Conspiracy (1975)
::: January 14 – The Graduate (1967)
::: January 13 – Excalibur (1981)
::: January 12 – One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
::: January 11 – Omohide poro poro (1991)
::: January 11 – The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)
::: January 10 – Take a Hard Ride (1975)
::: January 9 – Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
::: January 9 – Yatterman (2009)
::: January 8 – Game of Death (1978)
::: January 7 – Crime Busters (1977)
::: January 6 – Sisters (1973)
::: January 5 – Crime Boss (1972)
::: January 4 – White Lightning (1973)
::: January 3 – The Man from Hong Kong (1975)
::: January 2 – Rolling Thunder (1977)
::: January 1 – Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (2008)
::: January 1 – Army of Darkness (1992)
::: Preview – Cannonball! (1976)
::: Previous Japanese Posters Featured @ Cinema is Dope

Japanese Cinema Sites I Highly Recommend:
::: Jason Gray
::: Mark Schilling’s Tokyo Ramen
::: Midnight Eye
::: Nippon Cinema
::: Outcast Cinema
::: Ryuganji
::: Toronto J-Film Pow-Wow

* If you don’t see your site listed here and it covers Japanese cinema please comment below so that I can review it and possibly include it in future lists.

About Japanese Poster Artwork Celebration Month:
To kick off 2009, I can think of no better way of doing so than celebrating Japanese poster artwork. The emphasis will be more of western films through the lens of Japanese poster artwork and of course some of my own personal all-time favorites. At a future date I’ll probably have a month devoted to solely Japanese films and their poster artwork. So be sure to tune in each day during the month of January as I have an incredible amount of incredible Japanese posters that will be on display. Hopefully at the end of this I can convert many of you into life long fans of Japanese posters!

Please help and spread the word on the January 2009 themed Japanese Poster Celebration Month here at Cinema is Dope. Tweet your friends. Mention it in your Facebook status or Friendfeed. Link to it on your blog. Any support is greatly appreciated!!!!!

You can follow along at these specific urls/web addresses:
::: www.cinemaisdope.com/category/movie-wallpaper-japanese-poster-celebration-month/
::: http://tinyurl.com/japanese-poster-2009

Starring in these posters will be: Antonio Sabato, Bruce Campbell, Burt Reynolds, Charles Bronson, Clint Eastwood, David Carradine, Dustin Hoffman, Ernest Borgnine, Gene Hackman, George Lazenby, Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata, Jack Nicholson, James Coburn, Jennifer Billings, Jim Brown, Jimmy Wang Yu, John Boorman, Kate Jackson, Lee Marvin, Lee Van Cleef, Michael Caine, Peter Fonda, Richard Pryor, Roddy McDowall, Sergio Leone, Sidney Poitier, Susan Strasberg, Warren Oates, William Devane and many more…

If you’re interested in Japanese cinema, I highly recommend the following Cinema is Dope picks for January 2009. For this months book selection we have Behind the Pink Curtain by Jasper Sharp. For video recommendation this month we have Linda Linda Linda.

Additionally fans of Japanese cinema will want to pick up this amazing Yasujiro Ozu tribute shirt from Mondo Tees!

As always when in Austin, Texas, be sure to check out Weird Wednesday (January/February 2009 lineup) or Terror Tuesday (January/February 2009 lineup) and of course Alamo Drafthouse Cinema.

My current favorite restaurants in Austin that are an absolute must visit are Clay Pit (be sure to place an order of naan bread) and Uchi. Be sure to tell them CinemaisDope.com sent you if you visit.

Image Source:
Official artwork that was used in Japanese poster artwork for the film.

Related Links:
::: IMDb Profile

::: Previous Japanese Posters Featured @ Cinema is Dope

Coming Soon – February 2009 @ Cinema is Dope is Lee Marvin Month!!!

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New Cinema Wallpaper of the Day
Thursday, December 25, 2008

As the fire roasts around the world celebrating Christmas today, I thought these images would make for a great added gift and a definite must for marking your calendars to check this out in 2009 (hopefully US audiences will get to see the original in addition to the dubbed version Disney is putting together). I haven’t seen a lot of the earlier Hayao Miyazaki work and am just now going back through it. I’m starting with Porco Rosso (Kurenai no buta ) and going on from there. If you have any suggestions on titles of his you think I should 100% check out please let me know in the comments below. I plan to watch them all but specific recommended titles would help me out for which ones to watch first!

Image Source:
Official stills used in the original international release of the film.

Related Links:
::: Official Site
::: IMDb Profile

New Cinema Wallpaper of the Day
Tuesday, August 12, 2008

“No one but Miyazaki could have created anything like these moments, with anything like his mastery. If “Ponyo” is the start of his artistic second childhood, I say welcome to the sandbox,” says Mark Schilling about Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea over at the Japan Times (read here). This is great advance word on what is sure to be one of the best fairy tale and fantasy films of 2008… well probably 2009 for US audiences.

Japanese Cinema:
::: Jason Gray
::: Mark Schilling’s Tokyo Ramen
::: Midnight Eye
::: Nippon Cinema
::: Outcast Cinema
::: Ryuganji
::: Toronto J-Film Pow-Wow

SYNOPSIS

This is the story of Ponyo, a little fish from the sea who struggles to realize her dream of living with a boy named Sosuke. It also tells of how five-year old Sosuke manages to keep a most solemn promise.

Ponyo On The Cliff By The Sea places Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid in a contemporary Japanese setting. It is a tale of childhood love and adventure.

A little seaside town and a house at the top of a cliff. A small cast of characters. The ocean as a living presence. A world where magic and alchemy are accepted as part of the ordinary.

The sea below, like our subconscious mind, intersects with the wave-tossed surface above. By distorting normal space and contorting normal shapes, the sea is animated not as a backdrop to the story, but as one of its principal characters.

A little boy and a little girl, love and responsibility, the ocean and life – these things, and that which is most elemental to them, are depicted in the most basic way in ponyo on the cliff by the sea. This is my response to the afflictions and uncertainty of our times.

- Hayao Miyazaki

Image Source:
Official stills that were used in the original international release of the film.
© 2008 Wild Bunch

Related Links:
::: Official Site
::: IMDb Profile