Dead Sushi

Astounding is hardly a strong enough word to describe just how truly sublime DEAD SUSHI was...

This was perhaps the most tremendously fun cinematographic experience of my life! I cannot remember laughing as much while pulling my hair and jumping up and down my seat squealing every five seconds to a point where trying to restrain my reactions became impossible! I also never imagined ever feeling so incredibly hungry, sitting on the edge of my seat, holding my breath and literally drooling with my fists both against my chin while looking at a hundred flying zombie sushi famished for something human.

And yes. If you see me walking around, speaking softly to a small omelette sushi safely tucked on my shoulder, fear not! Omelette sushi are the most adorable creatures and they save lives. Yes. They do. ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

The daughter of a sushi chef, Keiko (Rina Takeda), tries to live up to her father's demanding training in both martial arts and sushi making, but it proves too much for her and she runs away. She finds a job as a waitress at a remote resort hotel that caters to special groups, such as the president and some of his associates running a major pharmaceutical company. Unknown to them, Yamada (Kentaro Simazu), a former researcher at the company who was framed and jailed on trumped-up charges, is living in the area - and he's angry! His research had involved bringing dead things back to life, and he uses his knowledge now to create.... killer sushi! Set loose amongst the guests and workers at the hotel, only Keiko and former sushi chef Mr. Sawada (Shigeru Matsuzaki) have what it takes to fight back, with the help of little dead/alive egg sushi, Eggy, of course....

This is one of those highly entertaining, completely nonsensical and over-the-top gory and funny films that the Japanese seem to have a lock on these days; at one point a character says "this has finally reached a point where it makes no sense any longer" and the audience wonders how it managed to take that character so long to come to that conclusion! My favourite line in the film is from disgruntled researcher Yamada who, at one significant moment, states that "I have been reborn as tuna!" An immortal line in anybody's book, I think. What keeps this film from flying all the way apart is its gonzo spirit and absolute commitment to its absurdity, and there are also some excellent martial arts sequences, particularly from Keiko - Rina Takeda is a rising martial arts star, and she was still a teenager when she made this film. Some people might object to the excessive blood-letting, but it's done in such an extreme fashion that it's really just hilarious, not nauseating.

If the FantAsia International Film Festival needs a descriptive film to show what it's all about, "Dead Sushi" is perhaps that very film, and it is really only right and proper that it had its World Premiere at this festival. The film was introduced by its director and co-writer Naboru Iguchi, and Ms. Takeda was also on hand to demonstrate some of her martial arts moves live; Mr. Iguchi encouraged the packed auditorium to yell out "danger!" or "sushi!" at appropriate moments, and the FantAsia audience took him up on it with great enthusiasm. Easily my favourite film of FantAsia 2012 so far, and one that I hope gets a wide distribution because it has to be seen (and guffawed at) to be believed!

I just had the pleasure of seeing this great Japanese comedy-horror film at the Fall 2012 HIFF film showcase tonight and I'm glad that I got tickets for it and went to see it! First off, I want to tip my hat to the director & his film crew for making a great film that will appeal to genre & foreign film fans. Also, I'd like to tip my hat off to the main actress, Rina Takeda who showed up for both screenings of this film at HIFF over the weekend. I always enjoy seeing any of the people involved with any film big or small show up at festival screenings and really show off and share their labor of love with the audience as well as interact and answer questions too.

If you don't know the director, Noboru Iguchi, go and look up some of his previous work such as 2008's Machine Girl and also check out his entry in the horror film anthology The ABCs of Death which is circulating around the film festival circuit. Not one to make your typical comedy OR horror film that the Japanese can be known for, Dead Sushi is no different from his previous work. What is really enjoyable about this particular film is how campy it is but also how it really seems like everyone involved had a good time making the film which is always a plus!

The basic plot of the movie is that Rina Takeda plays Keiko, a girl who is the daughter of a sushi chef in Japan. Keiko's father attempts to pass on the fine culinary art of sushi making to her but is disappointed that she has great difficulty in mastering the skill which eventually causes her to leave home and find another job elsewhere as well as her true calling. Short while later, we see that Keiko is working at a hotel-inn that is renowned as a popular getaway spot as well as supposedly for its sushi. Unfortunately, Keiko is pretty burnt out from working at such a soul sucking place where serving the customer is a high priority but she also gets picked on by her fellow workers(2 other hostesses). Just as the other 2 hostesses have finished playing a little prank on her by giving her the 2 trays of food they are each carrying, a big corporate client comes in with his entourage of businessmen looking for a nice inn to stay at and be served. Poor hapless Keiko, wanting to be as best a servant as possible, quickly but sloppily cleans herself off and comes out to join the other hostesses in greeting the visiting client(s) but winds up embarrassing the owners of the inn & herself by showing up rather disheveled with remnants of food hanging from her hair and yukata. Because of this embarrassment, the owner of the inn & his wife take her aside and chastise her for making a mockery of their business and tell her that she needs to take her job more seriously which causes Keiko great frustration. Shortly after this dressing down by the owners, she is approached by the groundskeeper Sawada who tells her not to give up and to keep trying her best.

Up until this point, the film is fairly straightforward and normal which isn't what you would expect from a Noboru Iguchi film but I promise you that things slowly but surely pick up from this point forward. The next scene features a young Japanese couple that have just landed in the area and have walked 20 minutes and found the hotel inn. The couple get into a brief little argument and start making out a little bit before they are interrupted by what seems to be a homeless man that is nearby and watching them make out while eating sushi. The young man that was making out with his girlfriend at this point decides to pick a fight with the homeless man and this basically results in death by squid(you have to watch to see the hilarity of this play out). It is from this exact point that the movie starts to move into the realm of the bizarre with the various seafood & sushi coming to life and attacking the hapless businessmen and the owners of the inn which all culminates in a ridiculous fight featuring:

-a battleship size sushi

-a million little baby sushi that are the result of 2 pieces of sushi mating

-a huge walking "Maguro(tuna) Man"fish

-sushi-zombies

If this all sounds wildly crazy, that's because it is! But if you've seen Noboru's previous work such as Machine Girl, you'll know that this is par for the course. Now you're probably wondering why I'm rating such a movie that is as ridiculous as this so well... Yes, this movie goes into the realm of the bizarre with "monster" sushi and other weird things including a talking egg sushi but it's all done very cleverly. As I mentioned earlier, you can clearly see that the actors are having fun with this film and enjoying themselves acting out ridiculous scenarios. The special effects are also really cheesy and obviously very low budget but again, that's not what you're here to see. In contrast to Machine Girl however, this film is a little more down to earth which is a little odd to say in the same sentence with "monster sushi", but trust me on this. By and large, what we have is a relatively mundane & normal situation taken to its extreme opposite but it never feels like the filmmakers and actors are going overboard and asking the audience to take things very seriously.

If you want to spend a fun night or would like to turn your mind off for a few hours and get a little cultural education about sushi and Japanese culture, this is a great film to do it with.

For as joyfully overdone as this is even in its first few minutes in every way - writing, direction, acting, music, and even the editing and effects - it's hard not to get our hopes up for a wild good time. The flick quite establishes its comedic stylings before its horror, predominantly with boisterousness that tends toward boorishness if not outright juvenility: grandiose accentuation of the culinary art of making sushi; wholly overcooked dialogue, scene writing, and characterizations; unabashedly ham-fisted, exaggerated direction and acting; physical comedy, and cheap jokes and gags surrounding sex and anatomy; and so on. For good measure cinematographer Nagano Yasutaka gets in on the ridiculousness with overzealous camerawork alongside Iguchi Noboru's cheeky orchestration of shots and scenes, and this is to say nothing of the infusion of martial arts and fight scenes that are sometimes equally cartoonish. Then, at last, there is the horror element, replete with purposefully bare-faced artificiality in the effects whether practical or digital, plentiful blood and gore, and of course, zombie sushi.

All this is just a reflection of what to expect from 'Dead sushi' and does not necessarily pertain to its quality. The blend of horror and comedy sometimes rides a fine line, and it can take little to push the amalgamation over the edge into either clever and fun if gnarly frivolity, or sheer puerile and/or overcharged raucousness. So how is the end result? For better and for worse, this picture rides that indicated line very consistently in that it has one foot on either side as it advances through these ninety-odd minutes. In its use of practical effects, in its most unapologetic and lighthearted cheesiness, and in the coy wit that says "you know what, sure, let's just go for it," this is actually very funny at times and kind of charming in its silliness, and these feelings extend to the cast and all others involved. In its use of very obvious computer-generated imagery, in its most tiresomely inane and childish bits of humor (e.g., fart jokes), and in its unbridled immoderation that lacks the discerning sense to ground it, this becomes dull and exhausting if not outright aggravating, and I wonder how those involved subsequently feel about their participation.

It's a very mixed bag. From one moment to the next the movie might be enjoyable, or it might try our patience, or maybe it will perfectly split the difference. To be a little of both, however, is not the sort of balance that a horror-comedy needs to be able to work. Moreover, if we're being honest, then insofar as the final product is a function of the good, the bad, and the questionable, the bad and the questionable work in concert to staunchly counterbalance the good, and threaten to overtake it entirely. The detractions aren't so severe as to completely drag down the viewing experience, and just as some aspects are especially bad, some are especially great. There was a lot of potential in the concept, and there really is a lot to like here, including the practical effects and special makeup, the spirited commitment of the cast in their performances, Fukuda Yasuhiko's music, the stunts and choreography, and other minutiae like the production design, art direction, and costume design, hair, and makeup. I'll even say that I appreciate Iguchi's screenplay, for aside from the utmost intemperance, there a lot of delightfully impertinent sparks of ingenuity all throughout - yes, in the dialogue, characterizations, scene writing, and the narrative at large.

So it's just unfortunate that the low-key brilliance we see when the film is at its best is not more fully represented throughout the length. The sprightly irreverence of embracing the goofiness succeeds only when the gleeful creativity of absurdity supersedes bombast of any sort. When all is said and done I think 'Dead sushi' can claim a fairly strong finish with its third act, and though we can endlessly debate the precise extent, I'm inclined to believe the sum total is slightly better than not. Why, as outtakes greet us over the end credits, it's evident that cast and crew alike had a blast making this, not least star Takeda Rina, and I'm glad that I can share that joy in some measure. I wish I could share it more wholeheartedly. In fairness, maybe all this is nitpicking anyway - there was a very low probability that this title was ever going to be a must-see riot, and having nevertheless served its purpose in providing entertainment on any level, is that not enough? Maybe so, or maybe not, since I can recognize how it might have been better. Ultimately I do like 'Dead sushi,' and I think it's worth checking out for something light and uncomplicated on a lazy day; perhaps that's all it ever needed to be in the first place.

While not as gruesome as the directors previous film The Machine Girl, Dead Sushi still manages to have a lot of bloody violence on display as a lot of laughs due to its zany humour and cut price CGI.