This is an original Japanese B1 poster issued for the early-2000s re-release campaign of Yumeji (夢二), Seijun Suzuki’s extraordinary 1991 masterpiece. This is not the original 1991 first-release poster, but a later Little More revival issue from the same important campaign that reintroduced Suzuki’s great late-period works to a new generation of audiences in Japan.
The small credit line at lower left — “Distributed by Little More Co., Ltd. / 2000–2001 DEEP SEIJUN PRINTED MATTER 014” — is the key detail. It places the poster within the celebrated early-2000s revival programme that helped cement Suzuki’s international reputation and renewed attention around the films now known collectively as the Taishō Roman Trilogy.
Film background
Originally released in 1991, Yumeji stars Kenji Sawada, Tomoko Mariya, Masumi Miyazaki, Reona Hirota, Kazuhiko Hasegawa, Akaji Maro, Yoshio Harada, Michiyo Ookusu, and Tamasaburo Bando. Inspired by the life and artistic aura of painter and poet Takehisa Yumeji, the film unfolds as a dreamlike meditation on memory, longing, erotic obsession, and historical unease. It stands as the third and final chapter of the Taishō Roman Trilogy, following Zigeunerweisen and Kagero-za.
For many collectors and cinephiles, Yumeji is one of the great achievements of Suzuki’s late period: lyrical, haunted, theatrical, and saturated with a uniquely Japanese sense of beauty and melancholy. It also gained an additional layer of international recognition through Shigeru Umebayashi’s celebrated score, especially the piece now widely known as “Yumeji’s Theme.”
Poster design
This is a superb and highly atmospheric re-release design. The image centres on a dreamlike, partially obscured scene of drifting beach balls, a woman seen from behind, and a male figure in the foreground, all dominated by the large vertical red title that slices through the composition with tremendous force. The blurred movement, soft focus, and warm, summery colour palette create a mood of nostalgia, yearning, and emotional dislocation, perfectly in keeping with the film’s elusive, oneiric world.
Unlike more descriptive or montage-heavy posters, this design is unusually restrained and emotionally concentrated. It distils the film down to a suspended moment of memory and sensation, which makes it especially effective as a display piece. In B1, the image has real scale and presence, and the larger format allows the subtle tonal transitions and rich colours to read beautifully on the wall.
Condition
Excellent. Please review the photos—they show the exact poster for sale.
It is over 25 years old!
It is not the original 1991 first-release poster, but it is an authentic early-2000s Japanese re-release issue, and not a modern reproduction or later reprint.
Certificate of Authenticity included.
