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Ha ha...Criterion, you are one tricky devil; I say there's no way you can mess the Mishima cover up, and then you go and really outdo yourselves. I can live with it (barely), but it's such a horrible representation of the movie that I just hope that it doesn't scare people off of seeing it. There's always hope for a last-minute change...

domino harvey wrote:I don't think it would be that bad if it didn't have those red and yellow heads running down the middle. You know the ones that scream "Hey get it? Mirrors, get it? Mirrors. C'mon, look, mirror-images, do you get it? Mirrors. There are mirror-images on this cover."

That's the worst of it, but it's such a visually rich movie that even to have an average/sub-par cover (which is what it would be even with a few touch-ups) is a crime.

It's funny (to a degree) too that the recycling of the WR cover is a year to the month of the Mishima release...

That Mishima cover is deranged. I actually quite like it as a provocation, but it's rather unrepresentative of the film which, as Cronenfly points out, is brimful of arresting imagery around which to build a cover.

I'm somewhat glad that the lovely Patriotism cover has dibs on the most obvious Mishima cover imagery, but this seems like a psychedelic overreaction.

I mean, Roger Fuckin Ebert no less. Perhaps back inna Floating Weeds days, but not now.

That shit is just puerile discharge.

domino harvey wrote:

Tribe wrote:Well, that's just a preview. CC has never had a blurb on a cover before (at least not that I remember).

I don't think the blurb is actually going to be on the cover.

Indeed. If you click the Collider.com link, all the June covers have blurbs on them. Obviously those are just for the press release.

Cinephrenic wrote:Come on guys, the cover is obviously a fake. I mean that is one of the ugliest shit I ever saw.

I've never known Collider to post fake cover art. It's simply from the press release. It's quite probable that the cover will change, maybe dramatically, when Criterion actually posts it. I'll reserve final judgment until then.

But, yeah, I hope they fucking change it.

The Mishima cover looks like shit and that is coming from a guy who digs the pink Viridiana. I got the urge to cockslap whoever did this for messing up my collection. Other than that - great covers this month!

Come on guys, the cover is obviously a fake. I mean that is one of the ugliest shit I ever saw.

If they release that DVD with that cover art, i'm going up in front of the Criterion offices and perform seppuku.

What an ugly art.

Someone photoshop the face on top into folding his lower lip over his nose, and it'll be passable.

That Mishima cover is just ridiculous. Who exactly is that cover supposed to cater to? Certainly not fans of the film, and anyone who might think they are in for acid trip will be sorely disappointed.

I'm a little surprised by the Mishima cover response. I actually sorta like it. (Course I haven't seen the film yet.)

Just goes to show that no matter freakydeak you think something is, there'll always be someone on the other side a the bridge. I recall the Viridiana orig cover had it's defenders thought we was all on crack for not seeing the light.

Variety, of course, being the spice of everything. I don't need to be bumping inta Crowds Of Me.

It has been a long time since I saw the film, but I can more or less understand the decisions of the designer, even if I do not feel inclined to completely embrace the final cover.

Clearly he or she is working with the concept of the "chapters" in the film, and possibly even Mishima's own idea of there being "four rivers" in his life and work: writing, theater, body and action (I was trying to make those headings fit the four faces running down the center of the design, but admit that I gave up).

The colors I can see as reflecting the color design of the four segments in the film, and obviously there are the four "incarnations" of Mishima as represented by the actors playing "him" at various stages in his life/fiction.

One thing that the cover does, and it is not the first time in the west, is to present Mishima in this psychedelic glow (early Western paperback editions of his books shared this, I think). I do not understand, where this comes from. Mishima's work was always very straight-forward in terms of narrative. His skill with language (which of course is funny, since most of us can only experience it in translation) was apparently very advanced, and I think it does show in the translations, but surely there was nothing psychedelic about it. When I read his books, I remember feeling there was almost a euphoric power to some of his stories -- the passion of the characters, the design of some of the storylines, and the sheer enormity of Mishima's life all of which was really a part of one great work. But even so, I do not see where the psychedelic connection squeezes in, and that is probably my only real reservation with the cover and how it represents the film/author.

In fact, for a really almost perfect Mishima cover, get the Japanese release of Patriotism. It is a simple white fold-out package made to look like Japanese paper, and with the title in black Japanese characters on front and spine, with a still from the film spread out across the inner panels of the package. Simple and beautiful.

Scharphedin2 wrote:One thing that the cover does, and it is not the first time in the west, is to present Mishima in this psychedelic glow (early Western paperback editions of his books shared this, I think). I do not understand, where this comes from. Mishima's work was always very straight-forward in terms of narrative. His skill with language (which of course is funny, since most of us can only experience it in translation) was apparently very advanced, and I think it does show in the translations, but surely there was nothing psychedelic about it. When I read his books, I remember feeling there was almost a euphoric power to some of his stories -- the passion of the characters, the design of some of the storylines, and the sheer enormity of Mishima's life all of which was really a part of one great work. But even so, I do not see where the psychedelic connection squeezes in, and that is probably my only real reservation with the cover and how it represents the film/author.

This is the best post on cover art I've ever seen on these boards. Scharphedin attempts to understand the effort (some would say rationalize), fits it within the context of the film and Mishima's own body of work, and then finally offers his own suggestion. =D>

Indeed, Scharphedin2's effort is nothing short of heroic.

Still, to paraphrase Comic-Book Guy: "Worst. DVD. Cover... Ever."

Scharphedin2 wrote:Clearly he or she is working with the concept of the "chapters" in the film, and possibly even Mishima's own idea of there being "four rivers" in his life and work: writing, theater, body and action (I was trying to make those headings fit the four faces running down the center of the design, but admit that I gave up).

The colors I can see as reflecting the color design of the four segments in the film, and obviously there are the four "incarnations" of Mishima as represented by the actors playing "him" at various stages in his life/fiction.

I certainly appriciate your post, with the symbolic references and all to Mishima, but just because a cover represents elements and concepts of the film, doesn't mean it is a good cover. Not saying you were implying that because you were stating what the designer probably had in mind.

It's official: the Mishima cover is now posted on the Criterion site...

Cronenfly wrote:It's official: the Mishima cover is now posted on the Criterion site...

Wow. It's as if they are trying to prevent it from appealing to people who know nothing about the film.

reno dakota wrote:Wow. It's as if they are trying to prevent it from appealing to people who know nothing about the film.

That's my biggest gripe with the cover; I love the movie, and can only see such a horrid cover limiting its audience more than its 20+ years of, for the most part, critical and audience neglect already has. That said, I think that the average Criterion consumer will probably be able to look past the surface, but it's still an unfortunate blight for such an underrated movie to bear. I wonder if Schrader has even seen the cover that his most cherished (and best, IMO) directorial work will be carrying back into the world...

One positive, though, is that the packaging/menus/etc could still be pretty solid; Breathless' cover still does nothing for me, but the overall design was very nice. Same thing with Walker (to a lesser extent), to cite another recent example; in this regard, I have faith in Criterion to do the movie justice, as they often build positively on their covers (even the bad ones) in the rest of the presentation.

If they've already sent the art out to book for advertisement, there will be no redesigns. Start dealing with it.

domino harvey wrote:If they've already sent the art out to book for advertisement, there will be no redesigns. Start dealing with it.

Every month, with almost every cover, this forum finds at least a few members praying for a last-minute redesign. Considering I've never seen a cover dramatically change post-announcement (though there are sometimes color tweaks), I find this behavior comical.

jaredsap wrote:Every month, with almost every cover, this forum finds at least a few members praying for a last-minute redesign. Considering I've never seen a cover dramatically change post-announcement (though there are sometimes color tweaks), I find this behavior comical.

Because of this forum, Viridiana got redesigned, so now everyone thinks they can sway Criterion. Hell, I tried to last year with Breathless.

Covers have changed in the past. Let's hope they come to their collective senses and do something about this. I would be willing to accept their second-choice cover, sight unseen.

domino harvey wrote:Because of this forum, Viridiana got redesigned, so now everyone thinks they can sway Criterion. Hell, I tried to last year with Breathless.

Believing that a redesign is possible and believing that we can sway Criterion are different things, surely.

Cronenfly wrote:One positive, though, is that the packaging/menus/etc could still be pretty solid; Breathless' cover still does nothing for me, but the overall design was very nice. Same thing with Walker (to a lesser extent), to cite another recent example; in this regard, I have faith in Criterion to do the movie justice, as they often build positively on their covers (even the bad ones) in the rest of the presentation.

on that note, I was surprised that I liked The Lady Vanishes cover when I actually got it in my hands.

edit: either way I'd bust down Criterion's doors to try and change this cover. What circumstances allowed the Viridiana change that aren't around now?

One has to wonder if the designer of Mishima had even seen the film. It seems like a simple enough logic, but to me, it's like the just assigned the cover to a designer who had just discovered what a kaleidoscope does and went "oh, cool, man" and went bonkers. My gf is a graphic designer and I've worked with graphic designers at past jobs, and this really strikes me as something done by someone just out of school who is still fascinated with all the funky options in Photoshop and Illustrator that everyone tries once, and never uses again.

Breathless, while surprising (and a design I think ultimately works), at least was true to the spirit of Godard in some sense. I have no idea what to make of Mishima. Looking at the cover, it's like I'm gearing up to watch *****THE TRIPPED OUT ON TOTALLY AWESOME TABS EDITION%$#@##$****

Before anybody blows out an artery, lets just take a moment to reflect on the fact that the official artwork has NOT yet been finalized or released. We've had a lot of artwork change after the press releases were sent. If that cover makes it the website looking like that, then I'll certainly start cleaning my pitchfork and lighting my torches, but lets wait for it to happen first.