JAWS 大白鯊
Roy Scheider got slapped 17 times to get this shot. Bruce has gotten a lot of the glory over the years, so I wanted, for a change, to celebrate the incredible characters and their small town New England drama that make this movie what it is.
It’s the 50th Anniversary of JAWS. In 1975 JAWS was the highest grossing movie of all time, and was released overseas in dozens of countries. But you won’t typically find Taiwan on that list, because in 1975 Taiwan was no longer recognized internationally.
But it was released in theaters there in 1975, known in Taiwan as 大白鯊. My Mom personally watched it during its release, and even remembers billboards of it. But because of the complicated history of Taiwan, it’s not well documented.
I wanted to fix that and give Taiwan the flowers it deserves, so I made a retro Taiwanese JAWS poster. All text is in Traditional Chinese, which is distinct to Taiwan, HK, and Macau. My mom is always asking, ‘How come you make all these posters in Japanese? Can’t you do a Chinese one for once?’ So this one is for my Mom.
I want to give a big shout out to Rob Jones for art directing this. Thank you to my Mom for helping me translate and format everything Taiwan-accurate. And of course, thanks to CODA for having me in their official JAWS 50th Anniversary art show.
The exhibit opens at Art Alliance of Monmouth County in Red Bank, NJ with a reception on June 28 and will be on view through July 13.
