Dead Sushi

Can a seemingly silly Japanese gore film about murderous sushi really deserve five stars? It can if it is Noboru Iguchi's newest venture, Dead Sushi. I went into this film after a seven-hour drive at 23:30 at night, expecting to possibly fall asleep. Instead, I was crying with laughter 20 minutes into the film and would not stop until the credits rolled.

The surprisingly logical plot follows Keiko (Rina Takeda), a sushi chef's daughter who was trained harshly by her father, only to be rejected by him due to her gender. Disappointed, she turns her back on sushi making and starts to work as a waitress in an inn famous for its sushi. They need the extra hands, too, as a group of employees from a big pharmaceutical firm arrives for a weekend stay. Add a spurned ex-employee of the company with a serum to revive dead matter, an arrogant resident sushi chef who isn't all that good, the hapless inn owner and his cheating wife, a duplicitous romantic interest and the sage groundskeeper into the mix and you have the perfect breeding ground for amazing camp horror.

The characters are surprisingly well-rounded and the audience connects with them, despite their tropey concepts. Takeda and Shigeru Mazusaki as Sawada the groundskeeper carry the film beautifully, but the real star is the murderous sushi. Sure, the animation when the sushi is flying around or performing particularly difficult feats – such as flame throwing – is rubbish by modern standards, but this adds to the charm. The appearance of a sushi choir singing gloomy songs during a thunderstorm more than makes up for that.

The star on the sushi side however is Eggy, the bullied egg sushi that sides with the humans against sushi battleships, a tuna man and rice zombies. In truth, there are just too many crazy ideas that make an appearance in those 91 minutes to coherently put into a rewiew. I suggest anyone who likes Japanese humour and silly gore has a look for themselves.