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. ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Trying to appease her grandfather, an aspiring sushi chef instead takes a job at a high-class hotel where her attitude about how the preparation differs from her training ends up putting her skills to the test when a curse turns the food against humanity and forces her to save everyone.

This emerges as an incredibly fun and goofy splatter comedy. Among the better qualities of this one is the fact that there's plenty of fun to be with how it tackles the extreme concept. This one gets a lot of mileage out of sushi preparation and the extreme lengths people go to in order to make it servable to others which is an incredibly goofy and silly concept in general. Focusing on her exacting processes and martial arts training is where this one really goes overboard with the silliness. That carries over into the central premise in that this one is trying to sell the idea that reanimated sushi are capable of going on a rampage from a curse and eating people alive. This is such a goofy idea that it becomes a plausible storyline here with the series of outlandish antics that continually arise here. That provides the film with plenty of strong action, from the opening attack on the couple that starts the curse to the first attacks on the staff at the hotel where the reanimated pieces begin flying around grabbing everyone, there's a sense of fine cheese on display that continually appears to be featured in other aspects. The action is utterly enjoyable, from the sushi going wild on the corporate guides flying around the room and slicing up their bodies in reckless abandon to the individual battles against the creatures inside the hotel where the voracious creatures attack or manage to get put down temporarily to the later action of the ravenous swarms appearing as a group to launch their attacks by embedding themselves into different parts of the body make for a lot of fun as well as funny, cheesy goodness. Even the kung-fu scenes look good, and with the enhancement of the giant fish-headed creature coming into play in the final half, it has a lot to enjoy about its action overall. Combined with the silliness of the comedy and plenty of fine gory ideas present throughout here, this one has enough to hold it up over it's few minor flaws. The main issue here is the atrocious CGI that propels this one forward which is just utterly abysmal in how it handles the creatures. There's a plethora of scenes here that play off the swarm of sushi-shaped globs floating around in mid-air attacking the people, and it never looks even remotely believable. The creatures come off as laughable blobs that barely interact with their surroundings only for a series of ridiculous streaks of blood-splatter to come flying out of wounds they supposedly inflict on everyone. Some of the humor might not be for everyone, as there's a wide realm of body humor and silly sight-gags that might not be suitable or appealing for all audiences.

Rated Unrated/R: Extreme Graphic Violence, Nudity, Graphic Language and sexual acts.

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.

You should know one thing: This is OTT high camp, that only has one goal: To be as crazy as it can be. If you read the outline, you know what you let yourself into. Fun and silly, nothing more and nothing less. We shouldn't talk too much about acting in this movie of course. I think for a comedy of this sorts, it's more than decent. Something you can expect to see in here.

If this is the first Japanese over the top movie you're going to watch, you're either in for a treat or you will very soon find out that this isn't your cup of tea (or sake for that matter). Of course I'm not suggesting you should get drunk for this ;o) (though that might be an idea for a sequel .. Dead Sake!)

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!