One of the most prominent names in the Japanese underground splatter scene, Noboru Iguchi has made a living being involved with films featuring plenty of extreme gore and wild exploitation elements. Working well within his means on this latest project, he surrounds himself with familiar faces as well as popular exploitation-friendly names to craft a fun and wild offering.
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Trying to appease her grandfather, aspiring sushi chef Keiko (Rina Takeda) bows under the pressure and eventually leaves her training and takes a job from Yumi (Asami) at a high-class hotel. Finding no more respect from her peers or the customers there either, her attitude about how the preparation differs from her training gets her in trouble with the rest of her employees. While attempting to figure out what to do with her life, a curse uttered on the food by a distempered ex-employee suddenly turns the fish into voracious flesh-eating beings, and forces her to put her skills to the test in order to save everyone at the hotel.
This emerges as an incredibly fun and goofy splatter comedy. Among the better qualities is the fact that there's plenty of fun in 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 serviceable to others. it is an incredibly goofy concept in general, focusing on her exacting processes and martial arts training, which is where it really goes overboard with the silliness. That carries over into the central premise of selling the idea that reanimated sushi are capable of going on a rampage and eating people alive. This provides the film with plenty of strong action, from the opening attack on the couple to the first attacks on the staff at the hotel, where the reanimated pieces begin flying around grabbing everyone, and there's a sense of fine cheese on display that continually appears.
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. Even the kung-fu scenes look good, and Rina Takeda is allowed plenty of opportunities to showcase her skills against the zombified followers of the sushi or the rude hotel guests that not only displays her skill set. Along with the enhancement of the giant fish-headed creature in the final half, the movie has a lot to enjoy.
The few bits we get about the cast are quite enjoyable. Rina Takeda as our intrepid heroine Keiko delivers a stellar, worthy performance here. Her put-upon demeanor and introverted personality after the abuse of her father and bosses makes her a sympathetic force. Granted the opportunity to showcase her martial arts prowess at several intervals, she acquits herself well and we certainly follow her along the journey. Kanji Tsuda as her mentor Chef Tsuchida is a spectacular figure that's quite appealing. Given plenty of backstory to denote his place at the hotel and why he's no longer working there, it's quite fun to notice him running around with her in the later half. As well, we get rousing turns from a series of regulars in these films from Kentaro Shimazu, Asami, Takashi Nishina and Toru Tezuka who play their roles rather nicely without overstepping anyone. They're familiar with these films and respond to their characters accordingly.
Still, this one does have its few minor flaws. The main issue here is the atrocious CGI, which is just utterly abysmal in how it handles the creatures. There are a plethora of scenes hat play-off a swarm of sushi-shaped globs floating around in mid-air attacking the people, and CG director Miyuki Wakamatsu's work 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. As is typical with Iguchi, there are times where everyone tends to fart at the right moment or to engage in odd bodily functions which is the hallmark of his humor that runs rampant in the film. It really does become somewhat of a distraction.
While it does have a lot to like, the film has problems involved that are somewhat troublesome to get over. This one is really only inviting to fans of Iguchi's other films or fans of the underground Japanese splatter scene, while those that don't play into either fan-group are advised to steer completely clear.
