“The King and I” (王様と私), Original Japanese 70mm Re-Release Movie Poster 1972, STB / Tatekan (c. 51 × 145 cm) — Ultra Rare K366
This is an original Japanese STB / tatekan signboard poster, formed from two matching B2 panels, produced for the March 1972 Japanese theatrical re-release of The King and I—Walter Lang’s celebrated Rodgers and Hammerstein musical starring Deborah Kerr, Yul Brynner, and Rita Moreno. Prominently marked “70mm” and 「総天然色」 (“Full Natural Colour”), this tall-format campaign presented the film as a major large-screen musical event.
Film background
Released in 1956, The King and I follows widowed English schoolteacher Anna Leonowens as she travels to nineteenth-century Siam to educate the children of King Mongkut. Anna and the King initially clash over tradition, authority, and cultural differences, but gradually develop a complex relationship founded on respect and affection. The film remains one of the defining Hollywood adaptations of a Broadway musical, celebrated for its Rodgers and Hammerstein score, elaborate palace settings, Irene Sharaff’s costumes, and the famous “Shall We Dance?” sequence.
The production was photographed using CinemaScope 55, an ambitious large-negative widescreen process employed on only two completed Fox musicals. Although originally distributed in conventional 35mm CinemaScope, The King and I was subsequently prepared for premium 70mm presentation—an exhibition feature placed at the centre of this Japanese revival campaign.
The film won five Academy Awards, including Best Actor for Yul Brynner, colour art direction, colour costume design, musical scoring, and sound recording. Deborah Kerr was also nominated for Best Actress, while Walter Lang received a directing nomination.
Poster design
A spectacular, high-impact Japan-only 70mm revival composition that uses the tatekan’s extreme vertical proportions to separate the film’s royal grandeur from its central romance. The upper panel is dominated by enormous overlapping portraits of Yul Brynner as King Mongkut and Deborah Kerr as Anna Leonowens. Brynner appears in an ornate black-and-gold royal costume, his expression stern and commanding, while Kerr turns away in her distinctive striped dress. Behind them rise delicately rendered palace structures, with a miniature procession of court dancers arranged across the lower edge.
The upper-left corner prominently displays “70mm” above 「総天然色」, accompanied by vertical credits for composer Richard Rodgers, lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II, screenwriter Ernest Lehman, choreographer Jerome Robbins, and director Walter Lang. The English title “The KING and I” appears in vivid pink at the transition between the monumental portraits and the lower imagery.
Across the top, the multi-coloured Japanese campaign copy declares:
「比類なき楽しさ！愛を讃えて華麗なる舞曲は湧きたち…栄光燦然たる世紀の名篇！」
Translation: “Incomparable joy! In praise of love, magnificent dance music wells up … a gloriously radiant masterpiece of the century!”
The lower panel is dominated by the immense rose-pink Japanese title 王様と私, outlined with deep red dimensional shading. Beside it, Brynner and Kerr appear in the film’s iconic ballroom sequence, the King guiding Anna as her enormous lavender-pink Victorian gown sweeps across the composition. A smaller romantic garden scene appears above them, while an inset portrait of Rita Moreno as Tuptim anchors the lower-right corner.
The accompanying Oscar statuette and vertical text highlight four of the production’s award-winning achievements—acting, music, art direction, and costume design—while the period 20th Century-Fox emblem provides clear studio provenance.
About STB (Tatekan) posters
STBs, or tatekans, are tall, two-panel Japanese cinema signboard posters measuring approximately 51.5 × 145.6 cm—about 20.3 × 57.3 inches. Each consists of two B2 sheets, individually measuring approximately 51.5 × 72.8 cm, which were distributed compactly and designed to be aligned vertically at the cinema. The format was developed specifically for prominent theatre and standing-signboard display and is considered a distinctively Japanese form of film advertising. Because both correctly matched panels must survive together, complete vintage examples are considerably harder to find than conventional single-sheet B2 posters.
Condition
Excellent + vintage condition, presenting beautifully. The cream-coloured background remains attractive, and the pink, red, gold, black, and blue printing retains strong visual impact. Please review the photographs—they show the exact poster for sale.
It is over 54 years old!
It is not a reproduction or a modern reprint.
Certificate of Authenticity included.
