Cinematical asks the pressing question, "Does Universal Know About ‘Jaws in Japan’?”

While the author doesn’t get into too much aside from hypothetical legal questions and a link to Amazon, distributor Cinema Epoch does!

Beautiful girls are in danger. At Sunny Beach, a huge shark is waiting for his prey.

So far, so awesome.

College students Miki and Mai arrive on a private beach on a tropical island. They can’t find the hotel where they booked their reservations, and have gotten hopelessly lost, until a handsome young man shows up, offering to take them to his lodge.

What could go wrong, you ask?

But something is not right about the place. The owner’s fingernails are tainted with blood and Miki feels something sinister lurking nearby.

I bet there’s a zombie shark nearby! But not to rain on the original post’s parade about Jaws becoming the next Ernest series in Japan. Secondly, I doubt John Hijiri is in charge of any “revamp" to the franchise.

It’s not uncommon for films to be remade across the seas lest we forget Fox International remaking (shot for shot) Sideways with four Japanese actors or an upcoming Japanese version of Ghost from an article in last year’s Times. In fact, to show some production proof that most major studios don’t give a shit about remakes, let’s remember those that came before us:

Seven Samurai (1954, d. Kurosawa) : The Magnificent Seven (1960, d. Sturges)
The Hidden Fortress (1958, d.Kurosawa) : Star Wars (1977, d. Lucas)
Yojimbo (1961, d. Kurosawa) : A Fist Full Of Dollars (1964, d. Leone*)
Kimba The White Lion (1965, d. Mushi Productions) : The Lion King (1994, d. Allers)
Pulse (1998, d. K. Kurosawa) : Pulse (2006, d. Sorenzo) only mentioned due to the American remake’s original trailer literally being shot for shot of the Japanese, complete with sfx shots.

Of course, then you can get into how Full Metal Yakuza is a stylized adaptation of Robocop, the J-Horror phenomena of the late 90s/early aughts and the unconfirmed triple-digits of sequels to the spaghetti western Django. But by then we’re comparing apples to durians—and that’s not even Japanese!

Suffice to say, I don’t think Universal is going to give a shit about Jaws in Japan. Instead I think we should all be more excited for The Season:

A stranded group of people in rural Iowa find themselves held captive by a deranged, excommunicated Amish family.

Awesome.

*Sergio Leone is about as American as the brand of Western he helped establish. And Fist was released in Italy prior to a stateside drop.