Movie posters in Thailand are an art form unto themselves. Google “Thai movie posters” and you will go down a rabbit hole you may take days to emerge from. Thai film distributors discard the authorized promotional materials and commission original painted montages in glorious colors. Some of the pages I looked at seemed to say that this practice ended in the 1990s… if so, we are all the poorer for it. But luckily for us, Times Square got the Thai treatment in 1981. The artist went a little heavy on Nicky’s eye shadow, but I can forgive this since the overall poster is so spectacular.
Unlike the Japanese materials I posted earlier, I hired a translator for the Thai items: Joy Busai at Thai English Headquarters — I can’t recommend her highly enough. (Although, her website seems to be down now, and my attempts to contact her to translate the article in my previous post went unanswered.) Here’s what the poster says in English:
ONE GIRL GROWS TOUGH, ANOTHER BECOMES COURAGEOUS
THESE TWO JOIN TOGETHER TO MAKE THE MOST OUT OF THEIR REBELLIOUS LIVESPresented by
Oriental Artist
Treasury of EntertainmentROBIN JOHNSON
TRINI ALVARADO
TIM CURRYTIMES SQUARE
‘TWO’NOW SHOWING AT _____ ON _____
(Flyer inserts in the newspaper today)
Printed in Thailand by The Siam Offset Co., Ltd. Tel 2860359
By Surat Pukkavesh, Printer/Advertiser 2864074
The only thing missing is the artist’s name. I think that’s a signature there in the lower right, but I’m not sure.
As in Mexico, Robin again gets top billing, and Tim Curry third. The Thai promoters may have been the first to have the insight that led them to give Times Square the secondary title, “Two”.
Thailand : poster : AAT ID: 300027221 : 77.9 x 55.7 cm : 1981 (work);
Times_Square_movie_poster_Thailand_1981_1080px.jpg
773 x 1080 px, 96 dpi, 555 kb (image)