Gorehounds will get their fill, and general auds will probably run a mile from "Dead Sushi," the latest campy schlocker by indefatigable Japanese helmer Noboru Iguchi ("Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead").
Gorehounds will get their fill, and general auds will probably run a mile from “Dead Sushi,” the latest campy schlocker by indefatigable Japanese helmer Noboru Iguchi (“Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead”). Throwing martial arts and leering titillation into a cheerfully ludicrous yarn about flesh-eating, sushi-gobbling guests at a country hotel, Iguchi scores with frequently funny setpieces, but the filler material is no big deal. Bound to be on the menu at fantasy-themed fests everywhere, pic should notch plenty of ancillary action following what’s likely to be a quick domestic rollout.
Trained by her overbearing master-chef father in sushi preparation and karate, Keiko (Rina Takeda) flees her unhappy home and winds up waitressing at a rural inn. Enter a tour party from a pharmaceutical company, and all hell breaks loose when disgruntled ex-employee Yamada (Kentaro Shimazu) shows up with a serum turning raw seafood into flying killers. Though the comic dialogue lacks zing and most perfs are pitched too high even for this type of nonsense, Takeda tones it down nicely and impressively kicks the butts of sleazy corporate types and seafood. Effects are super-cheesy; other tech work is passable.