Sushi Girl (2013)

it is the rare 'crazy' movie that actually has something to say.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

SUSHI GIRL is a single location thriller with a nice setting and sense of time and place. It was written and directed by Kern Saxton as an obvious labour of love and tribute to, not only Quentin Tarantino - whose RESERVOIR DOGS is an obvious inspiration - but the B-movie thriller genre as a whole. The setting is an elaborate banquet in which Japanese food is served on the naked body of a woman (the unknown Cortney Palm, effective in a difficult part). A gang of thieves lost a fortune in diamonds six years ago, and upon the release of one of their number from prison, they're determined to find out what happened to it.Obviously, how much you enjoy SUSHI GIRL depends on how much you like the actors involved. I had a ball with them. Tony Todd inevitably towers over everybody as the cruel boss but the rest of the cast match him, particularly Noah Hathaway's sympathetic rookie; you may recall Hathaway as a child actor in THE NEVERENDING STORY back in the day. James Duval (THE BLACK WATERS OF ECHO'S POND) actually plays his age for once, while Andy Mackenzie is completely believable as a brutal thug. Most notably we have Mark Hamill who hams it up in a Joker-style turn as a sneering, laughing villain. He's unrecognisable and certainly unforgettable in the part.The running time flies past and the film never bores despite the single location. The flashbacks of the robbery are done effectively and there's a fine sequence featuring brief cameos from Danny Trejo, Michael Biehn, and Jeff Fahey. Even better, the inimitable Sonny Chiba also cameos. The only thing that dragged this film down a bit was that the ending twists were very obvious and that there's a little too much dwelling on extensive torture scenes - never my favourite - to pad out the running time. Other than that, it's a decent B-movie.

About 3 years ago I saw a trailer for a movie. I had no idea what the plot was, who wrote it, or who directed it. It sorta just coalesced out of the indie film ether. A patchwork amalgamation of niche genres and indie tropes. It mesmerized me...The song is perfect. The visuals are strikingly grind-house. The girl is exquisite... and, wait, was that... Luke Effing Skywalker?! And Candyman? And Machete? Dwayne Hicks?! What is this nerdgasm, physically manifested on my video-sharing website of choice? It appears to ape, at least in spirit, Reservoir Dogs, and 70's exploitation flicks, and the kind of gritty crime dramas made mainstream by the likes of Tarantino himself.Must. Watch. Now.Fast forward ahead 3 years... A lot of junk happened, horrible movie schlock was watched, and... that one cool looking indie grind-house flick, what was it called, crap, Fish Lady? Salmon Female? Erin Brockovich?Well whatever it was called, I completely forgot about it. Hell, it took them a dog's age, it seems, to even get a limited release. So I start digging...After the movie was filmed, the director Kern Saxton and his production crew raised the money for a premiere on Kickstarter.And was met with mixed reviews. But, seeing as I consider myself, at least, a tourist in genre subversive independent film peeping, I decided to finally give it a whirl.How bad could it really be? Well... I was underwhelmed, to say the least. It's hardly a cinematic abortion *cough, all Adam Sandler films, cough* but the overly derivative nature of the narrative kept it from reaching god-tier.Let me explain; as is the case with any film, there's a right way, and a wrong way to tell a story. And any story can be interesting, it just boils down to execution. In the case of SUSHI GIRL (finally remembered the damn name), the lurid, seductive, visually entrancing, memorable opening pulls you in better than any indie flick I've seen in a while. I mean, it's got Sonny Chiba chopping up raw fish and placing it on a chart-topping unknown sex-exuding vixen (READ: the actual sushi girl).The perfect curves of her naked flesh laying on a table, centered amidst a Japanese themed hole-in-the-wall (which Mark Hamill's character, Crow, sarcastically points out is more Ming Dynasty in its design), effectively sets the mood for what's to come. It's a fantastic opening sequence... but then the characters start talking. Blah.Tarantino perfected gangster speak in Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction in such a fashion that, even though his characters are vile, mostly immoral, scumbags, you actually enjoy hearing their diatribes. It's one of the highlights of his films. Here, it just plays like a hackneyed imitation, devoid of any genuine thought or cleverness. Clunky is a good word for it.Continuing with that theme, as the plot chugs along, and you start to understand why these characters are meeting in a dive, partaking of the delicious spread, you realize what you're in for... Now, if I weren't dead inside already, I'd call the torture scenes graphic, gory, and ultimately unnerving. But alas, my imagination, and ability to suspend my disbelief, is so shot to hell that nothing grosses me out or unsettles me (unless I'm looking in a mirror... GET A TAN, YA PALE FREAK). Horror movies bore me, unless they're hilariously gory. Torture porn is a big yawn. But thankfully the story is written in a way that, as you piece together where it's all going, the twist ending actually slaps you in the genitals. You forgot about the bad jokes, and forced genre dialog. It was so memorable and out of left field, I honestly want to watch it again.Great music, pointless, albeit appropriate, cameos by horror and grind-house regulars, excellent cinematography, sub-par performances, with a few bright-spots here and there, and an unexpected twist, Goldfish Woman (pretty sure that's what it was called) was a surprising treat that unfortunately wasn't necessarily worth how long I waited to see it. But then again, that was my own dumb-ass fault. I, lukewarmly, recommend it.Now if I could only eat some SUSHI off a beautiful GIRL...

A thriller does not have to consist of constant shootings and chases (often unreal or beautified); it is good to remember from time to time that crime and treason are unpleasant phenomena. Thus, Sushi Girl gives a realistic and intense succession of events related to partners in crime whose heist went wrong and their booty got lost. Whose fault was this, who could have the diamonds? - Those questions were asked in an odd atmosphere in the presence of a live sushi table and angry criminals, using different kinds of "persuasion". Here, the most interesting characters are Crow and Duke (played by Mark Hamill and Tony Todd, respectively). Frequent flashbacks help to create the progression of the failed heist 6 years before, but all this does not become annoying, leading to a sophisticated ending. Of course, there are several references and links to Tarantino, Rodriguez and like (particularly Reservoir Dogs), but the movie is still made with style and logical plot. Torment scenes are pretty much naturalistic, but - as stated before - crime is no game, no fun, despite there are dozens of movies trying to give such an impression.

SPOILER WARNING!!!! You've been warned. Sushi girl is a wannabe Reservoir Dogs as far as the plot goes. It looks like it wanted to be a love letter to Tarantino, but unfortunately it falls really short. It is like Sushi Girl's writers took every cliché' stereotype bond/batman/reservoir dogs criminal they could think of and mashed it up. Crow is gay joker, period the end, and not gay as in the character really likes the same sex, but gay as in its all a character device (like Silver from Skyfall) specifically to up the creepy factor of the villain by playing to homophobia. Duke is the Japanese fetishist/yakuza lover who insist everyone following the rules...I knew someone would be losing a finger in this film the second the word Yakuza was uttered and shared a scene with a cigar cutter. Then you have Max the blunt object, all violence and no finesse or intelligence, Francis the one who has softened because he has a kid, and Fish, the new guy, who went to prison and didn't roll on anyone he barely knew, stashed the diamonds from the heist, and who becomes the victim of the rest. (Honestly though the audience is the victim here)None of the plot makes any sense, it all is force funneled into making sure the story, realism be damned, arrive exactly at the plot twist the writers need it to. I mean why is Fish suddenly the most stoic person alive while being beaten to death, if he knew where the diamonds were, why not tell? You can't spend them if you are dead? The idea of him double crossing the guys he didn't roll on in 6 years of prison makes little sense. He could've rolled on them for a reduced sentence, put them all away, got out, and spent the diamonds. Similarly if he was loyal enough not to roll, why not split the diamonds with them? Or even just crack under the torture that was way over the top? Garbage character motivation and realism is why. Also, many uncontrollable events that no one could've planned for had to happen just right to arrive at the last scenes with only the Sushi Girl and Duke, with Duke paralyzed from tetrodotoxin from the blow fish. It wrapped a little too neatly and again makes the whole thing feel forced. This movie seeks to get over just by hitting the beats of over the top cliché's, graphic violence/torture porn, casting, and the fact that there is a naked woman in almost every scene. So 14 year old boys will love this, and no one else. To be fair, I enjoyed the plot twist of the Sushi Girl getting vengeance, that was pretty satisfying unrealistic or not, but it was diminished by the train-wreck that was the first hour I had to suffer through getting there. So all in all, I wouldn't recommend this movie, which is a shame, there is a great deal of wasted potential that could have been salvaged with a better story, more well written characters, and a premise that started out as more than a random joke idea of "Hey dude? What if a bunch of criminals were gathered around a Sushi Girl talking about their crimes?"