This year, Fantasia Fest attendees were given a very special opportunity to attend the world premiere of Noboru Iguchi’s latest wacky, high concept feature, Dead Sushi, and boy did every single person in that audience have a blast!
Starring High Kick Girl’s Rina Takeda, Dead Sushi tells the story of Keiko, the daughter of a famous Japanese sushi chef. Convinced that sushi training and martial arts training are similar, her father instructs her in the art of both but she never lives up to his high demands and claims she always smells like a woman. After getting fed up, Keiko runs away and becomes a waitress at an Inn known for its world renowned sushi. There she is ridiculed by the Inn’s management and its patrons, the president of a Pharmaceutical company and his employees. Unbeknownst to all, a disgruntled employee by the name of Yamada has followed his former colleagues to the inn with a serum he created to bring dead tissue back to life in a violent, zombie-like way. When his pet infected squid starts killing everyone and turning the delicious sushi into flesh eating, piranha-like mini beasts, Keiko teams up with Sawada (Shigeru Matsuzaki), the inn’s former sushi chef, and Eggy, an acid shooting egg sushi, to battle the thousands of evil flying sushi, a giant axe wielding Tuna and other crazy creatures in hopes of surviving the violent local sushi apocalypse.
Yes, this film does exist and though it doesn’t fall under the Sushi Typhoon label it just as well could as this sushiploitation film has everything you’d expect from those crazy titles: blood, bad CGI, amazing facial expressions, ludicrously funny dialogue, hilariously choreographed fights and the typical unexpected events that make the movie a surprising joy to watch. The key lesson learned is that there is “no forgiving those who insult sushi,” all must pay…with their lives (mwah ha ha).
I thought I knew what I was getting myself into when I braced myself for the sushi mayhem that would unfold on screen, but man I was way off with how the sushi would come to life and how they would conduct themselves on their rampage. The sushi are essentially zombies with a conscience who are brought to life by a virus-like serum. Once alive we discover that the sushi have their own personalities and menacing laughs which is why they are so entertaining to watch. They travel by flying in the air and then kill using their little teeth, digging their way into people’s bodies.
There is nothing bad I can say about this movie because there is so much any outsider could claim as bad but in a theater with some context they’ll find it to be a blast. That being said, Dead Sushi is all about the experience. Most movies can be watched on your own but that usually isn’t the case with exploitation/splatter films, especially Japanese ones like Iguchi’s. If you’re going to watch Dead Sushi you need to see it in a crowd with 100+ people if you want to maximize its fun cinematic potential since everyone lets t
heir guard down and expects nothing. If you’re unable to do that, grab a big group of friends, maybe some beers because if you do, you’ll be in for a wild and fantastic night.
Dead Sushi plays out like a long Japanese cartoon episode, the dialogue is delivered in the traditional style of yelling at others, everyone is goofy in their own way and there is always a cute moment to be found amongst the insanity, even if it makes no sense. Rina and the gang deliver spot on exploitation acting by fully embracing the story and taking it to its max. As a result of all this, you can expect to see, and try and imagine this, sushi sex, a sushi battleship (just imagine what that sounds like), rice zombies, Asami doing the robot, sushi singing, exceptionally fun fight sequences with Rina kicking a ton of ass and the exchange of egg yolks via kiss (known as the special Japanese kiss). Oh, and this is the first Iguchi film I’ve seen where nothing comes out of people’s butts (farts excluded) and where I actually learned something (how to properly eat sushi).
Overall, Dead Sushi was a bloody culinary blast! A lot of it had to do with the crowd getting totally into the film, becoming completely engaged with the characters and voicing their emotions whenever something awesome or sad happened, but it also had to do with the unexpected twists and turns the film and action took. With Dead Sushi, Noboru Iguchi proves that he can take any ridiculous concept and turn it into a wildly fun and rowdy ride.
Exploitation rating: Full fledged killer sushi pandemonium that promises nothing but an eventful and mind-boggling time (7.5/10)
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