**Please note that this is not the 2016 re-release - it is the original first release printed in 1981!**
This is an original Japanese B2 poster printed in 1981 for Sogo (Gakuryū) Ishii’s cult biker-punk breakthrough Crazy Thunder Road (狂い咲きサンダーロード). Shot as a no-budget student feature and then picked up by Toei for nationwide theatrical release, the film’s white-hot speed, anarchic gangs, and industrial wastelands made it a cornerstone of Japanese punk cinema and a clear forerunner to the 1980s biker and proto-cyberpunk boom.
Film background
Ishii—barely in his early 20s—married documentary immediacy to graphic, manga-like framing and strobing edits, forging a new, aggressive visual language that would influence everything from music videos to later cult features (Burst City, etc.). Crazy Thunder Road remains a rite-of-passage title for collectors of Japanese underground and post-Mad-Max cinema.
Poster design
A ferocious, two-tone black-and-white illustration dominates the sheet: a visor-masked rider looms like a mechanized oni, clutching a weapon as debris sprays across the frame. At the base, a swarm of bikes roars toward the viewer. The neon-magenta title 「狂い咲きサンダーロード」 slams across the bottom over the hand-lettered English subtitle Crazy Thunder Road, with the lower-left credit 「イラスト:染谷しげる」 identifying illustrator Shigeru Someya. The 映倫 80421 seal and Toei credits line the footer, confirming first theatrical issue.
Condition
Excellent condition. Please review the photos; they show the exact poster for sale.
This poster is an original Japanese theatrical B2 from the 1981 first-release campaign.
It is not a reproduction or a reprint.
It is over 44 years old!
Certificate of Authenticity included.