PICTURE BRIDE

Original U.S. 27 inch x 41 inch 1-Sheet Poster for the 1995 Kayo Hatta Japanese Drama PICTURE BRIDE starring Youki Kudoh, Akira Takayama, Tamlyn Tomita, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Toshiro Mifune and Yoko Sugi.

The film follows Riyo, who arrives in Hawaii as a “picture bride” for a man she has never met before. The story is based on the historical practice, due to U.S. anti-miscegenation laws, of (mostly) Japanese and Korean immigrant laborers in the United States using long-distance matchmakers in their homelands to find wives.

Poster photography by Renne Iijima.

”My interest in art began when I was a small child watching television in my grandparent’s living room. I taught myself how to draw from Mickey Mouse cartoons and from illustrations in children’s books. My mother took me to art classes at the Honolulu Academy of Arts (now the Honolulu Museum of Art). Then I studied drawing and printmaking at the Claremont Colleges in Southern California, and I received my BA in studio art from Pitzer College in 1980. I returned to Honolulu and took classes in the graphic design program at Honolulu Community College. Through HCC’s excellent intern programs, I worked at a local advertising agency and eventually obtained a position at the Art Directors, where I did commercial illustration and design. While working, I returned to Honolulu Community College and studied commercial photography. During that time, I became quite serious about fine art photography. In 1991, I had my first success showing a portfolio of photographs in Image XVII, an annual exhibition held by the Image Foundation, and showing a single piece in Artists of Hawaii.” (Renne Iijima)