[As posted on Japanator]
Quantic Dream’s super-cinematic PS3 game Heavy Rain is about, among other things, a murderer known as “The Origami Killer,” whose victims are all found with a little papercraft crane-looking thing on their person.
As such, most of the promotional material for the game has featured at least some form of origami. You’re taught to make The Origami Killer’s signature sculpture by the game’s own installation screen. Even all the box art for the game has included a picture of the origami thing, though the US version crapped that all up by putting some strumpet wearing a wet shirt in the background.
It’s curious then, that the Japanese box art for Heavy Rain features no origami at all, opting instead to show off a dude’s nose and mouth. You’d think that Japan, being the home of origami, would have some of it on the box. I wonder why that is?
An article in Variety magazine about how Hollywood movies are marketed abroad has some suggestions. Poster designs sent to Japan almost always have interpersonal relationships emphasized to capture the drama-lovin’ Office Lady demographic.
The Japanese-dubbed trailer (which you can see below courtesy PlayScope) also seems to push the relationship angle too, seeing as the majority of footage concentrates on father-son interaction, the father also happening to be the sunken face seen on the box. Fancy that.
Incidentally, what do you think of Heavy Rain‘s Japanese dub? It seems quite well-done, to me.
[Image courtesy NeoGAF]
