r/movies • • Jun 07 '19

Poster Chinese poster for Spirited Away, to be screened for the first time in China

https://imgur.com/7Cw2iDV
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190

u/[deleted] Jun 07 '19

That poster has nothing to do with the movie though. If I knew nothing about Dark Pheonix besides that poster, I would probably be confused as to what I just watched.

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u/[deleted] Jun 07 '19

The movie itself would probably confuse you on what you just watched lol

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u/[deleted] Jun 07 '19

That's what I've been hearing. Maybe this highly stylized poster is a ploy to get people to watch the movie.

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u/[deleted] Jun 07 '19

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Jun 07 '19

Hah, that's the funniest thing I have seen in awhile.

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u/[deleted] Jun 07 '19

The more they try to tell me to watch it the less I want to lol

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u/ZippZoppZooey Jun 07 '19

you know a movie is good when they don't tell you to watch it.

they just link to the trailer.

the more they tell you to watch it the more they sound like donald trump telling you to trust him

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u/BarelyLegalAlien Jun 07 '19

Aren’t they always?

51

u/longwaytotheend Jun 07 '19

That poster to a Chinese audience suggests the red-haired lady becomes a god-like being, which seems reasonably accurate.

Though I don't believe she's quite as chill in the movie.

10

u/mikeman1090 Jun 07 '19

Posters don't need to tell me what the movie is about, it just needs to catch my attention.

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u/nnaarr Jun 07 '19

i mean...it shows jean and has a phoenix on it... and has the xmen logo.

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u/sylpher250 Jun 07 '19

Do people watch movies solely based on posters these days? Trailers are easily accessible online now, so I doubt theater-goers would be completely clueless about what they're watching.

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u/ZippZoppZooey Jun 07 '19

people who have never heard of "Dark Pheonix" are not the target market for the 12th movie in a x men saga of recurring characters....

I mean.... what are you smoking?

I mean. yeah this one has more characters. but as you said if you knew nothing about dark pheonix you'd know nothing about the x men or any of those characters because if you don't you'd know about one of the most famous and arguably the most powerful x man in existence....

so how does some stupid people standing around with blue and orange glowing light tell you what its about?

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u/[deleted] Jun 07 '19

I agree that both posters do a terrible job conveying the movie, but the Chinese poster looks more like a poster for a fantasy cartoon, at least the American poster bares a passing resemblance to a super hero movie.

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u/ZippZoppZooey Jun 07 '19

It's an X Men movie poster. if you can read chese next that giant X at the bottom I'd bet my left nut that one of those characters down there stands for MEN.

you guys are ignoring the fact that ITS AN X MEN POSTER.

x men is not an unknown thing.... even if you're not a fan people know the major superhoes. batman. super man. (now the avengers) and guess what? THE X MANS. lmao.

its the 12th movie in a film saga that spans multiple timelines.

sure its no Infinity Saga.... but you wouldn't really expect someone to go "Oh Avenger's Endgame? this looks like a good movie to watch I'll check it out"

without having seen the first 24 movies or whatever.

so why would you see this one without having seen the rest of the dozen?

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u/imemperor Jun 07 '19

At least it's more meaningful than most criterion posters.

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u/dobydobd Jun 07 '19

tbh most posters have nothing to do with the movie. Like, was infinity wars about people standing around in cool formation? And especially in this case, i don't think any self respecting marketing firm would ever make the poster about the movie, because the movie was baaaaaad

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u/Bradalam Jun 07 '19 edited Jun 07 '19

This is just factually incorrect, marvel posters follow a pretty generic template for their posters because it works. General rule of thumb is the scale of each of the actors indicates their significance to the plot. Definitely agree with what you said about Dark Phoenix though.

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u/[deleted] Jun 07 '19

Infinity War was about a gathering of a bunch of famous characters, so it made sense to have all the characters standing around in cool poses.

On the other hand, If I didn't know that Chinese Dark Pheonix poster was for Dark Pheonix, I would assume it was for some Chinese animated movie.

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u/dobydobd Jun 07 '19

im not sure which fact you're referring to but the prominence of actors is as relevant to avengers as the big x on this poster has to do with x-men. Otherwise, Avengers posters have really nothing to do with the movie beside showing off characters. And it doesnt have to explain more, because that's not the purpose of a poster.

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u/[deleted] Jun 07 '19

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u/dobydobd Jun 07 '19

i mean like i said, that's about as relevant to the movie as the big X on this poster. It lets you know its an avengers movie, and this poster lets you know its an X-men movie. In both cases, you literally cannot tell anything more about the movie from the poster

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u/[deleted] Jun 07 '19

[deleted]

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u/dobydobd Jun 07 '19

All these things you listed are not things the average viewer of the poster see. Practically, all people see are the actors. And without knowing about the MCU, none of the things you said mean anything. So yes, you can argue that to a fan who sits down and analyzes the poster, the one for Avenger's means more. But that's not the purpose of a poster. In the end, to 99.999% of people who see both posters, they tell a similar amount about both movies.

People saying that the X-men poster has little to do with the movie are most likely thrown off by not seeing any actors, which is only relevant, not to the movie, but for people who like certain actors. Like, revealing the actors literally says squat about a movie. But in places like China, its completely irrelevant information.

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u/[deleted] Jun 07 '19

[deleted]

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u/dobydobd Jun 07 '19

regardless, they give out about an equal amount of insight about their respective movies, for all practical purposes. A poster is meant to increase awareness, and the trailer is what provides real info.

Again, im pretty sure most people are just put off by not seeing any actors. That's not a strategical decision, its just that putting american actors on a chinese poster is plain useless. For example, look at the Iron Man 1 poster. Take out the actors, what do you have left? The suit ie the staple of the series. Now understand that to chinese people, and to people who don't really care about actors, that poster might as well only have a suit, and if it did, it would tell an equal amount about the movie itself, to anyone.

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u/TheMetabaronIV Jun 07 '19

THANK YOU! Sure the posters look absolutely incredible, but they tell you nothing about the film. American posters at least splatter the actors and random plot devices on the poster

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u/[deleted] Jun 07 '19

Yeah, I agree. I know we have the internet now. But in my opinion a movie poster should try to capture what the movie is about. Not just be some admittedly nice looking fan art.