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50 Stunning Asian Movie Posters
It’s fascinating what information can be learned about a movie simply from taking a glance at the movie poster. Skipping past the obvious such as the title and cast, what is really interesting is determining a film’s tone and atmosphere from its poster alone. Is it violent? Funny? Scary? Quite often the poster alone may answer these questions for you.
Not surprisingly, this is not a trait solely unique to North American cinema. While some presentational factors differ from culture to culture, usually the essence of a movie is plainly communicated through its poster no matter what – or where.
Observing design from another culture’s perspective can be a great source of inspiration. Sometimes it takes a completely unique frame of reference to get those creative juices flowing. It is in this spirit that Smashing Magazine has collected 50 impressive Asian movie posters for your illumination and inspiration. We hope you enjoy them.
You may want to take a look at the following related articles:
[Offtopic: by the way, do you know the Smashing Network has its own Smashing Network RSS Feed? Only excerpts are displayed in the feed.]
50 Stunning Asian Movie Posters
The Good, The Bad And The Weird (2008)
Riding Alone For Thousands Of Miles (2005)
Exit The Dragon, Enter The Tiger (1976)
Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance (2002)
Legend Of Dinosaurs And Monster Birds (1977)
References
Related Posts
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Andrew Lindstrom is a freelance web designer, blogger and inspiration junkie. Say hi to him on Twitter or read his ramblings on his design inspiration blog at WellMedicated.com.
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October 30th, 2008 5:19 amI think this one is better than what you listed (’The Host’ poster).
- 3October 30th, 2008 5:26 am
Time to watch some new movies. ^__^
- 4October 30th, 2008 5:26 am
Always impressive, bur I don’t agree with the “CJ7″ one, in my opinion way too eastrern styled. Thanks for the inspiration and mind traveling !!
- 5October 30th, 2008 5:28 am
Genius Collection.
A gallery what have been cool.
Loading times are not this sexy :-) - 6October 30th, 2008 5:31 am
For God, PLEASE make small posts in RSS. Like PSDTuts
- 7October 30th, 2008 5:34 am
Truly inspiring posters. I found a few in there I forgot a long time ago, time to visit the video store soon.
- 8October 30th, 2008 5:48 am
wonderful list!
I am lucky to hv seen most of these movies ;) - 9October 30th, 2008 5:49 am
I really love asian film as it doesn’t follow the predictable paths that western ones seem to and as we can see it generates some awesome artwork …
Godzilla ftw
- 10October 30th, 2008 5:54 am
You had a utterly bad host !
I can’t load them all ! So many blank ! - 11October 30th, 2008 6:07 am
Note to self: rent the film Kamikazee Girls
Thank you Smashing Magazine!
http://www.keelingdesign.com - 12October 30th, 2008 6:07 am
niiice
this one?
http://www.moviesonline.ca/movie-gallery/albums/userpics/poster_sympathy_for_lady_vengeance.jpg - 13October 30th, 2008 6:22 am
Nice collection there. I
though, “The Host” is actualy brazilian, cuz its in portuguese.Link [adwtf.blogspot.com]
- 14October 30th, 2008 6:23 am
Please please please, make partial rss feeds!
- 15October 30th, 2008 6:31 am
Great Posters! , truly inspiring pictures and they take me back too, Great sense of lighting and composition in these.
Love the old school ones! ..
- 16October 30th, 2008 6:41 am
No doubt these are good. What I find sad is how “Asian” has been restricted to only a few countries and south east asian posters have been left out altogether.
- 17October 30th, 2008 6:43 am
Cool list. I have seen and even own several of these movies. Sad to see Casshern didn’t make the list.
- 18October 30th, 2008 6:57 am
Art Of The Devil (2004)
Movie from Thailand
:D - 19October 30th, 2008 6:57 am
Nice posters!
One I also like but it isn’t on the lis is Casshern. =)
- 20October 30th, 2008 7:38 am
Where are the Bollywood posters or does Asia not include India?
- 21October 30th, 2008 7:59 am
Akira’s poster was my favorite by far!
- 22October 30th, 2008 8:10 am
Some nice,some not so nice. It seems like a few of them are not the asian version, though.
My personal favorite is the one for Audition. - 23October 30th, 2008 8:21 am
Hey everyone. I’m the guy who wrote this post and wanted to thank everyone who has commented.
@sun – That is an awesome poster. “The Host” really hit the nail on the head in the poster department didn’t it? :)
@elpatator – I agree with you that the CJ7 poster is very eastern styled. I included it as I was trying to showcase a broad range of styles.
@shawn – You must rent Kamikaze Girls – such an awesome movie.
@hgaines & Mini0n – Casshern was on the short list but didn’t make it to the final post. It was really hard to narrow it down to 50 posters. Great flick, though. At least on a visual level :)
@Rodrigo – I’m pretty sure “The Host” is not a Brazilian film. Check out the IMDB page :)
@Shaun – Touché. Bollywood posters are absolutely amazing and not to let the cat out of the bag too early but I was hoping to dedicate an entire post to Bollywood posters alone. Whether or not it’s on Smashing Magazine or my own blog is yet to be seen :) That being said I should have included a few none the less.
- 24October 30th, 2008 8:29 am
India produces some 1000-odd films a year, highest in the world. And no Indian film in the entire list?!
- 25October 30th, 2008 8:36 am
the good the bad and the weird and the host poster are awfully generic movie posters. I wonder what you saw in those that was so good?
- 26October 30th, 2008 9:00 am
I like the idea for the article since southeast asian movie posters do present different design aesthetics (especially regarding typography since the character sets are very different), but the execution seems strange. Many of the posters shown were made by western graphic designers. And it’s a common mistake, but “Enter the Dragon” and “Game of Death” were US productions!
There’s a ton of good asian movie poster designs so it’s kind of unfortunate that many of them were ignored in favor of the western version. For example, the actual Hong Kong posters and production material for Chungking Express are far superior to the US poster, though it isn’t a bad design at all. Just to make sure that this isn’t a “gripe post,” I do like a lot of the posters chosen whether it was done by a eastern or western designer. The “Enter the Dragon” poster is iconic, though done by a westerner.
- 27October 30th, 2008 9:08 am
there seems like a whole lot of violence going on in those posters…
- 28October 30th, 2008 9:44 am
Akira is the best!
- 29October 30th, 2008 9:48 am
So India is not part of Asia anymore? Didn’t know that!
- 30October 30th, 2008 9:51 am
Since when did Asia mean only EAST ASIA??? And more specifically China, Japan and Korea??? Asia is a huge continent and the most prolific movie-making country is in Asia – INDIA!
There are some amazing posters from Bollywood! And I’m sure other parts of Asia have ana amazing movie posters too.
Next time you prepare this list, why don’t you just say “50 Stunning Movie Posters from East Asia”? Or the Orient.
Here are some of my faves:
http://whatsnew.mastikamantra.com/2007/11/no-smoking-movie-posters.htmlhttp://img262.imageshack.us/img262/3086/fullvtc20073bag5.jpg
- 31October 30th, 2008 9:55 am
But are you missing something here? Is asia here refer to china, hong kong and japan only?
- 32October 30th, 2008 10:00 am
Observing design from another culture’s perspective can be a great source of inspiration. Sometimes it takes a completely unique frame of reference to get those creative juices flowing. It is in this spirit that Smashing Magazine has collected 50 impressive Asian movie posters
Interesting list.
Unfortunately a significant number of the posters you are listing are not “Asian” — they are the domestic U.S. poster art — created by (gasp) U.S. distributors — for Asian films. In some cases, they aren’t even Asian films, such as the U.S. produced film Enter the Dragon.
- 33October 30th, 2008 10:15 am
surprised that I didn’t see “All About Lily Chou-Chou” (or anything Shunji Iwai), or more Wong Kar-Wai movie posters
- 34October 30th, 2008 10:21 am
SUGOI!!!
Those are the most beautiful oriental content that I’ve seen.
Clap, clap, clap for you Smashing! - 35October 30th, 2008 10:22 am
this is jus gr8!! nice collection!
- 36October 30th, 2008 11:00 am
Bin Jip it’s the beautiful movie. Natacha Atlas – Gafsa it’s the beautiful song =)
- 37October 30th, 2008 11:25 am
well smashing mag,u really did it this time.i just luv this post
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- 40October 30th, 2008 12:28 pm
Wong Kar Wai is missing out, and concerning the typography a lot of these posters leaves a lot to be desired. Do not, I repeat, do not draw inspiration from some of these movies’ posters’ typography, as they look like the author just had a field day using outer glow and stroke and called it a day.
- 41October 30th, 2008 12:58 pm
Why would you create a list of only asian movie posters?
Seriously “stunning” exaggerates both the beauty and creativity of those posters.
I agree some them are good…but most of them are average…
I also disagree with most of the others… there are only a very few “inspirational” ones in this collection… some of them are vintage but thats it.Without offense, I am slightly disappointed!
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- 43October 30th, 2008 1:44 pm
Great list man. I really like the lady vengeance poster, among others
- 44October 30th, 2008 2:31 pm
Those who are complaining about the fact that some of the posters were done by U.S. distribution companies: the post states that these are “asian movie” posters, not posters made by asians for their own movies. Of course, this post assumes that these posters draw directly from the culture itself for influence.
However, I do have to agree that some of these posters are not at all inspirational nor have any “Asian culture influence” (whatever that means). Last of all, you should have really included Bollywood posters because India IS part of Asia. Perhaps a better title would have been, “50 Eastern Asian Movie Posters.”
- 45October 30th, 2008 3:13 pm
a pretty decent list. a better title would’ve been “50 Oriental Movie Posters”. please do look into other asian countries (eg. Philippines, India)….
- 46October 30th, 2008 3:51 pm
Stunning, smashing, wuppi-yeah. We are the best best best magazine in the world world world.
Leave these stupid phrases and concentrate on your content. All the rest makes your articles look dumb… - 47October 30th, 2008 5:18 pm
Nice collection! I am sucker for movie posters. I’ve seen some of the movies in this collections, some are very good movies.
- 48October 30th, 2008 6:22 pm
很精彩 很漂亮
- 49October 30th, 2008 6:58 pm
no indonesian nor malaysian?
- 50October 30th, 2008 8:01 pm
Awesome! Love the dirty grunge designs! :D
- 51October 30th, 2008 8:21 pm
amazing collection to start my day with
- 52October 30th, 2008 9:12 pm
A completely misleading title. Asian cinemas are not just Bruce Lee and Wong Kar Wai and Kurosawa or Miyazaki. Try googling India, Thailand, Phillipines and Malaysia’s movie posters. And seriously, Japanese horror movie posters style are dime a dozen in Asia.
- 53October 30th, 2008 10:03 pm
Indian movie posters. Bollywood movie posters are missing…there are few “legends of legend” in Indian movies
- 54October 30th, 2008 10:18 pm
I feel the next post should be titled “50 stunning Indian movie posters”. You will find many inspiring ones from India. Sad that Indian posters were ignored in this post. :(
- 55October 31st, 2008 12:06 am
Slightly disapponted not to find any Indian posters.
Nevertheless, its an impressive collection. Thanks. - 56October 31st, 2008 12:07 am
wow great collection!!!
- 57October 31st, 2008 2:11 am
great, thanks !
Love the old school monsters one :)
- 58October 31st, 2008 2:33 am
i thought that you would add Ichi the Killer on the collection, that movie really has some high contrast, anyway, great collection! Sympathy for Lady Vengeance is a beautiful movie on all aspects
- 59October 31st, 2008 6:15 am
I think your definition of Asian only includes Chinese and Japanese and others like that. I bet there are many Indian movie posters better than those listed above. You should have better considered the country with the largest film industry. Have a look at some of them in case you are ignorant about them…
http://www.impawards.com/intl/india/2006/rang_de_basanti.html
http://www.zorsebol.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/lagaan.jpg
http://www.freewebs.com/deepakmittal/swades.jpg - 60October 31st, 2008 6:35 am
You guys forgot Shaolin soccer, Inferno Affair, The mission, exiled and election to new a few. What about Hero?
- 61October 31st, 2008 7:24 am
I have been a great fan of smashing, but I am dissapointed this time. Take a look at this too..
http://mashedmusings.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/jodha-akbar-wallpaper-14657-5641.jpg - 62October 31st, 2008 10:15 am
Awesome list of images. Thanks for compiling these onto one page!
- 63October 31st, 2008 12:56 pm
great roundup! There are some classics in here
- 64October 31st, 2008 2:21 pm
Maybe the title could be “50 Stunning Japanese and Chinese Movie Posters”
Don’t forget Korean, Indian and Iran Movies. - 65October 31st, 2008 8:20 pm
This is just half of Asia. Who ever wrote this post forget about the Rest of Asia. Asian Games is for Asian countries. That doesn’t mean countries like China, Japan and Korea is the only participants.
Hey dude Check the map of asia to see how many countries and which country produces the highest number of films in the world.
This is a total crapy list. If you are on Digg, Bury this story.
- 66October 31st, 2008 11:30 pm
good job so many old film with asian
- 67November 1st, 2008 4:12 am
甚好，甚强大
- 68November 1st, 2008 10:03 am
Does Asian mean Japan or China only, there are more countries in Asia, for God sake stop considering only these two countries. Dont forget India Pakistan. What about these Asian films.
http://passionforcinema.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/ramchand-pakistani.bmp
http://pujathakur.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/khudakeliye.jpg
http://www.watblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/krrish.jpg
http://calcuttaglobalchat.net/calcuttablog/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/naqaab.jpg - 69November 1st, 2008 2:00 pm
I have seen some of the movie. Done nicely.
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- 71November 1st, 2008 6:50 pm
I love the art and most of all, I love the films themselves – if you guys haven’t had a chance to see any of it, check it out! Start with “Oldboy” :)
The art and culture within the films might inspire you further.
- 72November 1st, 2008 9:34 pm
I was in Tokyo on business when A Tale of Two Sisters was in the theaters. There were two versions to the poster: the one you showed and a non-bloody version. Both versions literally stopped me in the street each time I saw them, they were just absolutely stunning.
- 73November 2nd, 2008 12:28 pm
great list. i’d like to add Sukiyaki Western Django to the list, as well: http://www.movieposteraddict.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/mpasukiyakiwesterndjangoposterb.jpg
- 74November 2nd, 2008 9:49 pm
lifetimemoviedownloads.com
This is #1 Movie Downloads Site. Unlimited Access Over 80 Million Full-Length DVD Quality Movies, Music, Tv Shows, Anime, PC Games and much more - 75November 2nd, 2008 10:57 pm
cool…
- 76November 3rd, 2008 6:23 am
What I hate infinite times more than a rushed list of movies for perspiration are spammers who use blog comment forms to advertise for their bullshit sites like toure did two posts above.
Please do a 50 ways to torture and kill spammers-list sometime under “inspiration”. >:3
- 77November 3rd, 2008 3:05 pm
It’s just a coincidence or it’s because all the Park Chan-wook’s trilogy movies are really stunning…
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy, & Lady VengeanceAll I know is all the 3 movies are good to watch, plus 3 Iron from Kim Ki-duk too
- 78November 3rd, 2008 9:21 pm
@thelapan: You should seriously check out I’m A Cyborg, But That’s OK, a so-called dark comedy Chan-wook Park created after the “Vengance-trilogy”. It was his way of lightening up the mood, somewhat.
Also, I think it was funny that both Sympathy for Lady Vengance (UK title) and Lady Vengance (US title) are the same film, but both posters made it into this post. Great choice!
- 79November 5th, 2008 6:32 am
i actually don’t find a lot of the posters impressive..
- 80November 6th, 2008 1:15 am
Cool posters, but there isn’t anything unique about the style of these because they’re Asian.
- 81November 6th, 2008 2:10 am
For me The lists are not asian movie film posters. They are japan and china movie posters. Remember, Asian is not just japan and china. The writer should more deeply and serious make an observation…
- 82November 7th, 2008 1:51 pm
A decent list… ;p
But you failed to mention the poster and other promo shots I know of (and I’m talking those released for home country, not the crappified US ones) for flic– Nowhere to Hide (2000) [kr]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Nowhere_to_Hide.jpg - 83November 9th, 2008 12:13 am
Tale of two sisters is my favorite.
- 84November 9th, 2008 6:57 pm
Oustaanding !! Unparallel.
- 85November 10th, 2008 3:13 am
Good Posters..
- 86November 12th, 2008 3:52 pm
For crying out loud, people, it’s one man’s opinion! Andrew didn’t claim these were the “50 Greatest Movie Posters in all of Asia EVER”, he just said these were 50 posters advertising Asian films that appealed to him.
All this talk about burying stories on digg, sheesh. Yes, we’re aware that India makes movies, and that Asian cinema is not just restricted to Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and China. We don’t need to be told 20 times! If you are unhappy with how the posters of a particular country have been portrayed or ommited, why not make your own list?
/rant over.
- 87November 14th, 2008 12:30 am
really nice, shame most of these are japanese, korean or chinese posters.
i like the poster for Twilight Samurai, though its not on the list
- 88November 16th, 2008 12:26 pm
I’m surprised the poster for The Wig isn’t on here. It’s what compelled me to see the movie. Granted, it was a terrible movie, but the movie poster is still awesome.
- 89November 17th, 2008 3:13 am
i like tnem…i am chinese..
so many greate movies - 90November 18th, 2008 1:01 am
How come Mother India or Lagaan is left out. Ridiculous.. :(
- 91November 22nd, 2008 11:36 pm
Really great post.
Shimotsuma Monogatari (or Kamikaze Girls) is a great movie!
- 92December 16th, 2008 10:39 am
learn english
- 93December 17th, 2008 2:18 am
very nice~ i like it~ thanks for ur collection~
- 94December 28th, 2008 10:07 pm
Where’s Ringu ;)?
- 95December 28th, 2008 11:28 pm
some films are so old
- 96January 19th, 2009 10:00 pm
Actually, some of them on the list are Korean Movie Posters such as ,.
- 97January 24th, 2009 3:59 pm
well Dunno about Asian Poster Art, But i’ve seen some of my favorite asian Movies here! i dont care about the design, they’re all great work. i was searching on http://www.allposters.com and didnt found many of these!! could someone tell me where to buy Asian movie posters (Korean and Chinese to be more specific) like lady vengeance, 3-iron, TIME, Old Boy and Audition? send your reply to supershaw021@hotmail.com if you can help me.
thanx for your time anyways. - 98March 5th, 2009 1:22 pm
yucky%
- 99March 5th, 2009 1:23 pm
thats ugly
- 100May 22nd, 2009 8:16 am
those are exclusively east asian movies. common, i’ve seen far better posters than those on your lists.
- 101June 28th, 2009 11:42 pm
Hong Kong movie posters during the 90’s and mid till end, got really good visual posters. From a chinese ghost story, once upon a time in China, green snake, Fong Sai Yuk, east meet west, A better tomorrow and etc etc
- 00
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wow! truly inspiring