Kinejun No. 814, June 15, 1981

Posted on 19th December 2021 in "Times Square"

Kinejun / Kinema Junpo / Motion Picture Times No. 814, June 1981. Japanese movie magazine featuring article on TIMES SQUARE, and advertisement on back cover.

 

 

 

Kinema Junpo (Kinejun, Motion Picture Times) devoted three pages to a promotional Times Square article in its June 15, 1981 issue, for the film’s Japanese opening on June 21. The text would appear to be the usual brief synopsis, with a list of some of the cast and crew. The small inset on page 203 is, I think, an ad with showtimes, though it might be a brief review. Please, as I’ve said before, I don’t speak or read Japanese, and dammit neither does Google Translate, so if anyone wants to contribute a translation, I’ll be here.

The photos used are all also found in the Japanese souvenir program book.

 

The back cover is a reproduction of the first chirashi, with the announcement of one show on 6/20. I don’t know if that’s a special premiere or if I’ve had the opening date wrong this whole time.

TIMES SQUARE advertisement on back cover of Kinejun / Kinema Junpo / Motion Picture Times No. 814, June 1981.
 

 

Kinejun No. 814, June 15 1981, Japan (magazine (periodical) (AAT ID: 300215389))
26 x 18 cm. (work);
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1080 px (H) x 722 px (W), 96 dpi, 354 kb
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(images)
 
©1981 Kinema Junpo Sha Ltd
Times Square ©1980 StudioCanal/Canal+

 

Times Square Program Book, Japan, June 1981, pages 12-13 (post 5 of 5)

Posted on 7th April 2018 in "Times Square"

1981 Japanese program book for TIMES SQUARE (1980), center spread (pp. 12-13)

The center two pages of the Japanese souvenir book feature, alongside a somewhat out of place Yankees logo, three beautifully reproduced photos.

The first, of Pammy and Nicky atop the Times Square Theater marquee, isn’t a frame from the film, and I haven’t yet found it as a publicity still, so it would seem to be making its first and possibly only appearance here.

The inset of Nicky singing in the Cleo Club looks like it was taken just before or after this publicity still (discussed here). This will turn up again later on the Mexican movie poster.

And the last shot: in the film we don’t see see Nicky’s face and the knife on her wrist in the same shot. This photo would seem to have been taken between AFD publicity still TS-109-16/12, which appeared in the US Press Material pack in 1980, and TS-81/34 from 1981, which I don’t have, but Karen Dean (DefeatedandGifted) does, along with several other Items I haven’t got. (Actually I’m fairly certain I do have a version of TS-81/34, but not as an AFD print, but consarn it I can’t seem to find it.)

This last shot would also seem to be making its first and only appearance, and isn’t it beautiful? I don’t know if it comes across in my digitization, but something about the lighting and quality of the printing make it look almost like a painting.

Incidentally, I just noticed that TS-C-34/29 in Karen’s collection is the same photo as the one that accompanied the film review in Playboy Vol. 28 No. 1 from January 1981, which until this moment I thought had only ever appeared there. Now I suspect that the “C” that appears in some of the AFD press photo code numbers means that there’s also a color version somewhere.

I also came across a photo I’d gotten several years ago and totally overlooked while preparing items for this blog. I think it’s a rejected publicity photo, the only one of three shots taken within seconds of each other not to see the light of day… until next time.

 

Times Square program book, pp. 12-13
Japan : souvenir program : AAT ID: 300253341 : 29.4 x 20.5 cm. : 1981 (work);

Press Book Japan 1981_12-13_1080px.jpg
1080 x 1486 px, 96 dpi, 762 kb (image)
©1980 Butterfly Valley N. V.
 
Times Square©1980 StudioCanal/Canal+

 

Times Square Program Book, Japan, June 1981, pages 20-24 (post 4 of 5)

Posted on 26th March 2018 in "Times Square"
“Let’s get together at … Hippy Power” (?)

1981 Japanese program book for TIMES SQUARE (1980), p. 21

 

 

 

Here at the end of the Japanese program book, we get the movie’s credits, an ad for the soundtrack album, and… the Times Square Top Ten? I can only imagine what’s being said, in relation to the film, about Make-Up, Music, Fashion, Life Style, Play, Foods, Dream, Sports, Sex, and Friendship. Okay, Music and Friendship I get, but Sports?

 

Page 21, bearing a “Hippy Power” button and the unfinished caption, “Let’s get together at,” features two shots that are neither frames from the film, nor are publicity stills I’ve yet come across. The shot atop the marquee bears a strong resemblance to this color still, and is probably another still shot at that same time, and the shot of the girls entering the abandoned pier is from an entirely different angle than the scene in the film. Also, neither Nicky nor especially Pammy smiles during that sequence in the film. The point being, this is the only place these pictures appear, as far I know.

 

 

I don’t know if the street photo that is the background of page 20 has anything to do the film, other than being New York City. The inset photo of Nicky is from the shot used on one of the Italian lobby posters. Accompanying the credits on page 22, the shot of Pammy and Nicky erupting onto the street after the chase through the Adonis Theater is I believe making its first appearance here; it will later be a press photo distributed in Germany. The other two photos are frames from the film but with more image visible at the tops and bottoms, which as I mentioned last time lead me to believe that these were taken from a full-frame exposure that was matted for release, and may still exist as a TV print.

Page 23 features the soundtrack album cover, the Japanese “Same Old Scene” single picture sleeve, and, clockwise from top right: a shot of Robin and Trini between takes that had previously appeared in Movie 81 No. 2; the image from the cover of the “Same Old Scene” single, which had also appeared in the soundtrack gatefold, the songbook, and the aforementioned Movie 81 No. 2; a shot of Johnny that had been a UK lobby card and an illustration in Movie 81 No.2; and guess where the shot of Robin had appeared previously? Of course! It was in Film Review Vol. 31 No. 1.

And that perfect image on the back cover is a detail from another publicity still that will appear later as a German lobby card.

 

 

Times Square program book, pp. 20-24
Japan : souvenir program : AAT ID: 300253341 : 29.4 x 20.5 cm. : 1981 (work);

Press Book Japan 1981_20_1080px.jpg
Press Book Japan 1981_21_1080px.jpg
Press Book Japan 1981_22_1080px.jpg
Press Book Japan 1981_23_1080px.jpg
Press Book Japan 1981_24_1080px.jpg
96 dpi (images)

©1980 Butterfly Valley N. V.
 
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608 x 1080px, 96dpi (contrast-adjusted frame captures from Times Square (1980))
Times Square ©1980 StudioCanal/Canal+

 

Times Square Program Book, Japan, June 1981, pages 14-19 (post 3 of 5)

Posted on 14th March 2018 in "Times Square"

As before, I have no clue as to the text, but the image on page 14 of the Japanese souvenir program for Times Square is another frame from the movie. The photo of Pammy and Nicky on page 15 is the promotional shot which was used for the cover of the Italian “Help Me!” single, and as the illustrations on the soundtrack album’s paper sleeves. The color shot of Johnny and Pammy on page 15, accompanied for some reason by a button featuring black and white hands cradling a dove, looks like a frame from the film, but isn’t. It will turn up later as a lobby card in Germany. For some reason, it’s reversed.

Both photos on page 17 are frames from the film. The photo of the Sleez Girls on page 18, featuring coulda-been-Nicky Zoe Lund, is a frame from the film, but the shot of Nicky just below is a promotional photo that previously appeared in Joepie No. 365. And Pammy and Nicky dancing at each other in the Cleo Club on page 19 is a shot that had been used as a UK lobby card. Whether they were really “honoring America” is a question only they, and perhaps the Japanese, could answer.

Look again at the photo on page 14, and compare it to the frame capture below. There’s a bit more at the bottom, and lot more at the top, of the photo in the program book. This is the first evidence I’ve seen that Times Square was shot “full-frame;” the entire frame of the 35mm film was exposed with a normal lens, and its widescreen aspect ratio achieved by matting the top and bottom when the prints were made. If it was shot so the extra space was clean of production detritus, a film shot that way could be shown on television using that full frame instead of making a pan-and-scan version and losing the sides of the image. It’s been decades since I’ve seen a television-formatted version of Times Square. Does anyone know if the TV/video print was full frame or pan-and-scan? Because if it was full frame, that would be worthy of preservation in its own right.

Closest frame from <strong>Times Square</strong> to the photo on page 16 of the Japanese program book.

Closest frame from Times Square to the photo on page 16 of the Japanese program book.

 

 

Times Square program book, pp. 14-19
Japan : souvenir program : AAT ID: 300253341 : 29.4 x 20.5 cm. : 1981 (work);

Press Book Japan 1981_14_1080px.jpg
Press Book Japan 1981_15_1080px.jpg
Press Book Japan 1981_16_1080px.jpg
Press Book Japan 1981_17_1080px.jpg
Press Book Japan 1981_18_1080px.jpg
Press Book Japan 1981_19_1080px.jpg
96 dpi (images)

©1980 Butterfly Valley N. V.
 
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608 x 1080px, 96dpi (contrast-adjusted frame captures from Times Square (1980))

 

Times Square©1980 StudioCanal/Canal+

 

Times Square Program Book, Japan, June 1981 (post 1 of 5)

Posted on 18th February 2018 in "Times Square"

1981 Japanese program book for TIMES SQUARE (1980), p.1 (cover)

This was almost certainly aimed at theatergoers and not the press, but I can’t be 100% certain, since as I’ve noted before, Google Translate makes a total hash of Japanese, and I don’t have the funds to have it professionally translated. (If anyone wants to help on that score, by donating some dough or a homemade translation, I’d be too happy to accept.)

 

It’s a very slick publication and gives the impression that EMI and Towa expected the movie to do well in Japan. I don’t know if it was any more successful there than in the rest of the world, though. It’s most impressive due to the many photos in it that were published nowhere else (as far as I know, as of this writing [and even as I’m writing this, I’m finding previously published examples]), and its use of misapplied pseudo-Americanisms, also present on the Japanese movie poster and promotional flyer.

 

The cover features the image most prominently seen on the picture sleeve for Roxy Music’s “Same Old Scene” Japanese single, released as a Times Square tie-in. The image also appeared in the press folder, on the inside of the soundtrack album, in the songbook, and in Movie 81 No. 2. The other shot, of Nicky and Pammy atop the Times Square Theatre marquee, previously appeared also in Movie 81 No. 2, and as a UK lobby card. The logo is a redesign of the US one, now incorporating a pair of portable headphones.

 

The inside front cover features a photo that had previously appeared, cropped differently and much smaller, in photoplay Vol. 32, No. 1.

The first small photo on the title page appeared, cropped much differently and in color, in the previously mentioned Movie 81 No. 2. The other led off the “interview” with Robin in Joepie No. 365, also in color.

Page 4 is a photo that had been a UK lobby card.

The small inset on page 5 had appeared in color in both Film Review Vol. 31 No. 1 and Movie 81 No 2. The larger photo is a first, I think: an actual frame from the movie (shown below). All the previously published photos had been stills taken at the time of shooting, or during pre-take run-throughs, none of which match up precisely with any similar images from the movie. The Yankees logo was probably there as a token of American and New York authenticity, and I’d bet appeared without the payment of any applicable license fees.

On page 6, the shot with Jay Acovone as the plainclothes cop, and the large photo of Mr. Pearl watching Pammy in the Cleo Club, are making their first, and possibly only, appearances here. The shot of Nicky with her guitar in the hideout is making its first appearance, but will turn up later in color. And the inset of Nicky singing Damn Dog had seen print in color in Joepie No. 365.

On page 7, the shot from the concert in Times Square had appeared on the sleeve for the UK soundtrack sampler. Nicky kneeling on the theater marquee with Pammy standing behind her, is similar to others that had already seen print but is making its first appearance here. The shot of Nicky and Pammy squeegeeing windshields is another frame from the film (!). And the “Burn Pot Not People” button probably signaled “American subculture” to a Japanese audience, but the most generous I could be is that it might be an unfortunate leftover from an early draft of the script, which I doubt anyone involved in making this program book had any knowledge of.

This booklet is 24 pages in total. Another batch of pages next time.

 

 

Times Square program book, p. 1-7
Japan : souvenir program : AAT ID: 300253341 : 29.4 x 20.5 cm. : 1981 (work);

Press Book Japan 1981_1_1080px.jpg
Press Book Japan 1981_2_1080px.jpg
Press Book Japan 1981_3_1080px.jpg
Press Book Japan 1981_4_1080px.jpg
Press Book Japan 1981_5_1080px.jpg
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Press Book Japan 1981_7_1080px.jpg
96 dpi (images)

©1980 Butterfly Valley N. V.
 
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608 x 1080px, 96dpi (contrast-sdjusted frame captures from Times Square (1980))

 

Times Square ©1980 StudioCanal/Canal+

 

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Times Square promotional flyer, Japan, 1981

Posted on 6th February 2018 in "Times Square"

"Times Square" promotional flyer from Japan, 1981 "Times Square" promotional flyer from Japan, 1981, p 2

 

The front side of this approximately 7.5 by 10.5 inch sheet reproduces the Japanese movie poster, the only difference being the absence of the credit for EMI at the lower right.

 

The back is breathlessly loaded with more information about the film, the girls, and the soundtrack than you’d think could possibly exist, and if anyone wants to translate it or help pay for a professional translation, I’d be happy to provide all the details hidden therein.

 

January 21, 2021 I’ve learned recently that this type of two-sided flyer is called a Chirashi, and they’re a wildly popular item of movie memorabilia in Japan, being identical to but much smaller than the posters they replicate. They tend to have artwork unique to the Japanese market on one side (which this Times Square chirashi certainly does), and information about the film and the theaters it’s playing in on the other. They’re distributed for free but only in the theaters where the movie is playing, during its run. There is no Western equivalent. Some art houses in the US will have postcards advertising upcoming shows in stacks in the lobby; that may be the closest thing.

 

 

 

Times Square
Japan : handbill : AAT ID: 300027033 : 26.9 x 19 cm. : 1981 (work);
Japanese Times Square promotional flyer, front auto crop 1080.jpg
1080 x 765 px, 96 dpi, 530 kb
Japanese Times Square promotional flyer, back auto 1 crop 1080.jpg
1080 x 769 px, 96 dpi, 800 kb (images)

 

Times Square ©1980 StudioCanal/Canal+

 

Times Square movie poster, Japan, June 1981

Posted on 26th January 2018 in "Times Square"

Times Square Japanese movie poster, 1981
Times Square opened in Japan on June 20, 1981. I don’t know if Robin and her mom made it there on their promotional tour. I do know that the Japanese publicity for the movie relied heavily on it being a hip young American movie, and illustrated that fact in a way that doesn’t translate back particularly well.

I’m speaking of the Nicky’s-jacket inspired buttons floating across the poster. Using buttons as a major design element is actually a good idea, and was in fact used on the very first Times Square poster. The buttons there, however, were of Johnny LaGuardia and two quotations from the movie. Here, the “Nicky” and “Pammie” (sic) ones make sense, but the “I ♥ NY” is unintentionally ironic; the black and white hands holding a dove and “Jesus was a dropout” are both about ten years out of date and celebrate a hippie culture absent from the film (although present in the screenplay); and “Honor America” is entirely out of place.

The main photo is the one that had been used on the inside of the AFD press folder, on the picture sleeve of the Japanese “Same Old Scene” single, and also appeared in the gatefold of the soundtrack album and in the songbook. It had also been published in Movie 81 No. 2 in February 1981, and I suspect it’s also a UK lobby card that hasn’t surfaced yet. The background appears to be a stock photo of Times Square, looking north along Broadway past Bond International Casino towards Castro Convertibles.

The image on the “Nicky” button is one of the Yoram Kahana photos that I believe were shot during the excised Hudson River sequence, which also produced the iconic shot of Nicky used on the soundtrack album cover and the US and Canadian movie posters. This shot had previously also seen publication in Movie 81 No. 2, and will later turn up on a German lobby card. “Pammie” is a detail from one of many publicity stills shot during the excised “looking for Nicky’s father” sequence, which had been a UK lobby card.

I would translate the Japanese text, but my OCR program doesn’t do a good job identifying the characters, especially when they’re not perfectly aligned, and Google Translate still tends to make a hash of the Japanese language. And, I can’t afford to hire a professional translator. So we’ll just have to sit and be mystified at the single word in English among the bullet points at the top: SEX.

 

 

Times Square
Japan : poster : AAT ID: 300027221 : 72.3 x 51.2 cm. : 1981 (work);
Times Square_1981 Japan Movie Poster_1080px.jpg
1080 x 764 px, 96 dpi, 466 kb (image)

 

Times Square ©1980 StudioCanal/Canal+

 

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