From the bizarrely "localized" titles to the media events featuring random TV personalities who aren't even in the film, Japanese distributors use some peculiar strategies to promote Hollywood movies to an increasingly indifferent public.
Still, it's fair to say that Warner Bros. Japan outdid themselves when they tapped veteran monster illustrator Yuji Kaida to make a domestic poster for "Kong: Skull Island." While the artwork for the movie's international release consciously mimics the aesthetic of "Apocalypse Now," in Japan it's been given a full B-movie makeover. Kaida's poster is a real wonder: a garish, flame-wreathed collage of monsters and painted savages, crowned with an image of King Kong himself crushing a helicopter in one hand.
For once, at least, Japanese cinemagoers are getting the more honest sell. "Kong: Skull Island" is a barmy mash-up that attempts to graft a gritty war movie onto a matinee monster flick, and while it never convinces in the former respect, for untrammeled mayhem it more than delivers.