Keiko (Rina Takeda) is a black-belt karateka and the daughter of a celebrated sushi chef (Kentaro Shimizu), who considers her an embarrassment. He is so disappointed in her that she runs away from home and takes a job at a rural holiday inn where her colleagues treat her like shit, as do a team from Komatsu Pharmaceuticals who are staying there. Then an embittered former Komatsu employee (Takashi Nishima) arrives with a clandestine revenge plan: a serum that turns sushi fish into mutant killers! And when this sushi is consumed, customers are mutated themselves into ravenous, rice-vomiting zombies. Now, after discovering the first signs of an outbreak, Keiko must bury her insecurities and become an unstoppable mutant-sushi-destroying heroine. By her side is Sawada (Shigeru Matsazaki), a kitchenhand terrified of knives after a kitchen tragedy, sympathetic Komatsu representative Nosaka (Takamasa Suga), and an acid-squirting egg sushi whom all the other sushi bully.
Japanese writer-director Noboru Iguchi is evidently one unabashedly strange and trashy filmmaker. But you tell me: if you were browsing your local rental store and saw a movie called Dead Sushi with a fighting girl on the poster, would you be able to ignore it? He clearly knows how to provoke and to grab attention. And this movie certainly isn't for all tastes or demographics, but it's memorable in its own (intentionally) ridiculous way. Iguchi's dialogue actually feels rather overwritten occasionally, but only occasionally, and with action director Masai Suzumura's help he directs it all with such rhythm and vibrancy that it just becomes infectious. It's like through the film he's saying "I'm taking you on a ride which won't make a shred of sense, but doesn't even have to." In less confident, thickskinned hands this movie would feel like it tries too hard, but Iguchi rolls it all up into a very delicious treat. He even also provides layered characters with resonant arcs, and gets natural performances from his cast. With Dead Sushi, Noboru Iguchi has cooked up a winner.
Oh, and did I mention it also features a giant mutant tuna man and a man with a squid attached to his face, slowly tearing it off from either side?
Japanese writer-director Noboru Iguchi is evidently one unabashedly strange and trashy filmmaker. But you tell me: if you were browsing your local rental store and saw a movie called Dead Sushi with a fighting girl on the poster, would you be able to ignore it? He clearly knows how to provoke and to grab attention. And this movie certainly isn't for all tastes or demographics, but it's memorable in its own (intentionally) ridiculous way. Iguchi's dialogue actually feels rather overwritten occasionally, but only occasionally, and with action director Masai Suzumura's help he directs it all with such rhythm and vibrancy that it just becomes infectious. It's like through the film he's saying "I'm taking you on a ride which won't make a shred of sense, but doesn't even have to." In less confident, thickskinned hands this movie would feel like it tries too hard, but Iguchi rolls it all up into a very delicious treat. He even also provides layered characters with resonant arcs, and gets natural performances from his cast. With Dead Sushi, Noboru Iguchi has cooked up a winner.
Oh, and did I mention it also features a giant mutant tuna man and a man with a squid attached to his face, slowly tearing it off from either side?
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