“Bullet in the Head” (ワイルド・ブリット / 喋血街頭), Original Release Japanese Movie Poster 1990, B2 Size (51 × 73 cm) Q222

This is an original Japanese B2 poster printed in 1990 for the first Japanese release of Bullet in the Head (ワイルド・ブリット / 喋血街頭), John Woo’s powerful Hong Kong action drama. Written, produced, edited, and directed by John Woo, the film stars Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Jacky Cheung, Waise Lee, and Simon Yam.

Original Japanese posters for Bullet in the Head are highly collectible, particularly because the film stands among Woo’s most ambitious and emotionally intense works, combining heroic-bloodshed action with war drama, friendship, betrayal, and political chaos.

Film background
Released in 1990, Bullet in the Head follows three childhood friends from Hong Kong whose lives are torn apart after they flee to Vietnam during the war. What begins as a desperate attempt to survive and make money becomes a descent into violence, trauma, and moral collapse.

Often discussed as one of John Woo’s most personal and emotionally powerful films, it expands the themes of male friendship, loyalty, sacrifice, and betrayal that made his Hong Kong work so influential. Compared with the more sleek urban gunplay of A Better Tomorrow and The Killer, this film is broader, darker, and more tragic, placing Woo’s operatic action style against the backdrop of war and social breakdown.

Poster design
This Japanese B2 is a superbly dramatic release design. The composition is dominated by a battlefield of explosions, smoke, helicopters, and armed confrontation, immediately presenting the film as a large-scale war-action epic. A helicopter cuts across the upper right, while vast red fireballs erupt across the centre of the image, giving the poster a violent, apocalyptic atmosphere.

The lower section is rendered in a harsh red halftone style, showing the three central men locked in a tense armed standoff. This strong red treatment captures the film’s central themes of friendship under pressure, violence, and betrayal. Running vertically through the centre is the Japanese copy:

「そこでは、友情が生き残らなかった……」
“There, friendship did not survive…”

The title ワイルド・ブリット dominates the top in large cream-coloured Japanese lettering, with the English title BULLET IN THE HEAD and the original Chinese title 喋血街頭 printed beneath. The poster also prominently credits 製作・監督 ジョン・ウー — “Produced and directed by John Woo” — making Woo’s authorship central to the Japanese campaign.

The result is a powerful and highly displayable Japanese poster: explosive, emotional, and unmistakably connected to the golden age of Hong Kong action cinema.

Condition
Excellent condition. Please review the photos; they show the exact poster for sale.

This poster is an original Japanese theatrical B2 from the 1990 first-release campaign.
It is not a reproduction or a reprint.

It is over 35 years old!

Certificate of Authenticity included.