“Le Samouraï” (サムライ), Original Release Japanese Movie Poster 1968, B3 Size (36 × 51 cm) L140

This is an original Japanese B3 poster printed in 1968 for the first Japanese release of Le Samouraï, Jean-Pierre Melville’s austere and immensely influential French crime masterpiece. The film stars Alain Delon as Jef Costello, with Nathalie Delon, François Périer, and Cathy Rosier in key supporting roles.

Film background

Few crime films have exerted the lasting influence of Le Samouraï. Released in France in 1967 and in Japan the following year, it presents Delon’s Jef Costello as a contract killer of almost ritual precision: solitary, disciplined, and governed by a code that feels at once criminal, existential, and strangely ceremonial. Melville fused American gangster iconography with a distinctly French sense of cool, restraint, and fatalism, creating one of the defining works of postwar cinema.

The film’s impact on later crime and neo-noir filmmaking has been profound. Its stripped-back style, trench-coat minimalism, urban loneliness, and emphasis on gesture over explanation can be felt across later international cinema. For collectors, it is one of the essential European crime titles, and original Japanese paper for the film is especially prized.

Poster design

This is a superb and highly sophisticated Japanese first-release design. The front is built around a large monochrome portrait of Alain Delon in fedora and trench coat, occupying the lower left with extraordinary presence. Above him is a smoky interior gun scene, while the right side incorporates additional design elements including a Paris metro-style map, a still of Delon in silhouette, and blocks of Japanese explanatory text. Across the image runs the enormous French title SAMOURAÏ, one of the most powerful typographic treatments in any Japanese poster for the film.

What makes this design especially effective is its balance of graphic severity and editorial richness. It feels less like a conventional one-sheet and more like a carefully composed visual dossier on the film’s world. The Japanese title in expressive brush lettering adds a local identity without diluting the Parisian cool of the source material.

A further point of interest is the fully printed reverse, which contains extensive Japanese text, cast and staff information, and stills. That makes the piece not only a beautiful display poster from the front, but also a fascinating original campaign document from the film’s first Japanese release.

Condition
Very Good / Excellent. Please review the photos—they show the exact poster for sale.

The poster presents very strongly overall, with excellent contrast, strong visual impact, and highly attractive front display. It shows the expected fold lines as issued, together with light age-related handling and minor surface and edge wear consistent with authentic vintage Japanese campaign material from this period. The reverse is fully printed and remains clean overall, with normal fold and storage wear.

It is over 58 years old!

It is not a reproduction or a reprint.

Certificate of Authenticity included.