Above is a poster for Seijan Suzuki’s 1967 underground gangster flick Koroshi no rakuin, aka Branded To Kill, with Jo Shishido and Annu Mari. This is about as stylish a movie as you could hope to see, with some stunning directorial flourishes and a cool jazz score. When Tokyo’s No. 3 Killer misses a mark because a butterfly lands in front of his rifle scope, he must pay the price for his failure. Pretty soon he’s facing off against No. 1 Killer, who was supposed to be a myth but turns out to be very real. Shot in black and white, Koroshi no rakuin is all shadows, flames and frantic shootouts between guys in skinny ties. Suzuki goes on a whirlwind tour of Tokyo and its environs, seeking out every unusual backdrop imaginable for his meticulous and surreal set pieces. We think the movie is worth viewing for the fire stunt alone—a gangster holes up in a WWII bunker, and when it catches fire he flees while fully aflame and manages a fifty yard sprint down a rocky slope, running so fast that the wind of his passage pushes the flames behind him like the crest of some exotic bird. Like everything else in Koroshi no rakuin, the moment is over all too quickly. That could also be said of its theatrical run—the film was a flop, and its failure resulted in conflicts between Suzuki and his studio Nikkatsu that got him blacklisted for ten years. In a sense, we can understand Nikkatsu's disappointment—it's clear Suzuki didn't take his assignment to direct a gangster film as literally as he might have. But as always, the most important critic of all is time, and Suzuki’s nervous, absurdist, disjointed noir masterpiece has survived. Koroshi no rakuin opened in Tokyo today in 1967. 

Here’s something you’ve probably never seen before and which we’re glad to say we’re posting for the first time on any website. They’re…well we aren’t really sure. But we think they’re advertising posters for a Japanese strip club in the Asakusa district of Tokyo, circa 1970s. Asakusa is one of the city’s main centers of geisha culture, but you’ll notice the posters don’t feature geishas, but western women, called “kinpathu (kinpatu)” or “blonde” on one poster, and “gaitin (gaijin)” on another. We also see the kanji for “sale” and “skin house” and that’s as far into this as we need to go to draw conclusions. For Americans, going to strip clubs has an unshakeable aura of sin clinging to it, but apparently in Japan, it’s kind of like going to Disneyland. At least, that’s the fun-loving feeling we get from the posters. We’ll ride the spinning teacups while you give the gaijin a try, and later we’ll all meet in front of the Magic Castle, ’kay? 

There really isn’t much to say about it except that most critics rank it as one of the top five motion pictures ever made. So it’s befitting that the promo art is among the best we’ve seen. Below we have two Japanese posters for Casablanca, the classic war adventure set in exotic French Morocco. It premiered in Tokyo today in 1946.

Today’s nuclear theme continues with this poster for the Japanese monster flick Gojiratai Megaro, aka Godzilla vs. Megalon. If the title of the film sounds like a WWE undercard, then it’s fitting the climax consists of a tag-team wrestling match pitting Godzilla and a giant robot named Jet Jaguar against the fearsome twosome of Megalon and Gigan. Of course, if this were a wrestling match neither of the villains would be able to tag in or out, because neither has hands. Instead Gigan has at the ends of his arms what look a bit like Viking mead horns, and Megalon sports models of the Chrysler Building. The story here involves the aquatic Megalon deciding to destroy Tokyo in retaliation for nuclear testing that has endangered the seas, which actually makes him the good monster, in our view. Godzilla, on the other claw, is radioactive by nature, which presumably means weakness, baldness, anal bleeding, and slow, agonizing death follow wherever he goes. But none of this truly matters. All that matters is this is the Godzilla film with the kick. The kick. Don’t know what we mean? Your online search terms are: "Godzilla," and "kick." Trust us, you’ll almost believe a lizard can fly. Gojiratai Megaro  premiered in Japan today in 1973.

We found this Japanese promo art for the original version of Willard. In the film, a young man trains a pack of rats to do his bidding, which is all fun and games at first. But complications arise when Socrates, who is basically the Frank Sinatra of this pack, is killed, leaving Ben, the impulsive Dean Martin rat, to take over. Eventually Willard sends the pack to dispose of his tormentor, played by Ernest Borgnine, and let’s just say they turn him into a tartare that makes those cooking rats from Ratatouille look like real culinary hacks. But Ben is a mercurial rodent, and when he subsequently feels rejected by Willard, well, we think you gnaw what happens next. Willard and his rat pack swarmed Tokyo for the first time today in 1971.