Stroll past any mainstream cinema, and the best you can hope for, if you like a little provocation and danger in your film posters, is a ludicrously muscled illustration of Tarzan, or a fetching photo of new kung fu queen Carrie-Anne Moss in a slippery-looking PVC one-piece. Independent cinemas might have more licence to thrill when it comes to advertising their attractions, but they, too, could pick up a few shock-value tips from Japanese 'Renaissance man' Shuji Terayama.
Terayama was such a prodigious and prolific creative force that he distinguished himself as a movie writer and director, playwright, theatre director, photographer, poet, novelist . . . and sports commentator.
He was also responsible for overseeing the creation of a stream of theatre and film posters to promote his work, many of which feature in a new exhibition of prints at the Arts Centre, staged as part of a homage to the man and his arresting visions. Don't go expecting a comfortable 10 minutes' viewing. The posters, brought from Japan, are dazzling, not least where they feature distorted, part-human bodies squirming in Hieronymous Bosch-style poses, but even those with humorous overtones are also composed of thorny images. Freaks adopt compromising positions; industrial contraptions inflict bizarre forms of torture; women wield whips before bound men as sadomasochism rubs up against erotic folklore; 1960s record cover-inspired scenes recall notorious musical Hair, or the Beatles' film Yellow Submarine; nudity is everywhere; Hitler makes a surprise appearance; and Monty Python meets Dada.
Although the posters were commissioned from a range of artists during the 60s and 70s, they all carry the seal of their real creator. 'Even though they're so different, you can tell Terayama was behind them all,' said Jimmy Choi, director of the Arts Centre's Film and Video Department.
'They're all so subversive: anti-establishment and anti-military. He was always innovative; he was a real Renaissance man, and although the posters give you a look into Terayama's world, they can show you just a part of it.
'He was only 47 when he died, but he wrote and directed six full-length movies and 14 short, experimental films, 38 works for the theatre, some of which are advertised on these posters, and 183 books. He founded an experimental theatre company, called Tenjosajiki, and was a well-known horse-racing and boxing commentator - sports which he made movies and videos and wrote books about.' The movies, short and long, constitute the bulk of the retrospective, which has been two years in the staging. Terayama's entire oeuvre will be shown (in Japanese, with English subtitles), and seminars on his output will be conducted, notably by his wife, Kyoko Kujo, and his mother's son, Henrikku Morisaki (Terayama), adopted after Terayama's death. (Morisaki, a former member of Tenjosajiki and an assistant director on Terayama's short films, gained Terayama as a posthumous half-brother on his adoption.) Here, Morisaki will star in the short film-live action 'event' Rolla, which calls for both on-screen and live drama, before discussing his mentor's work.