SUSHI GIRL

My finally getting to see SUSHI GIRL couldn't have come at a better time. Quentin Tarantino is a big influence on me and some of my recent script ideas over the past few years. It's very important to me that his influence never turns into copying. I loved SUSHI GIRL but in the end it reminded me what not to do.

SUSHI GIRL is an homage more or less to Tarantino, the heist genre, and exploitation film goodness.

Six years ago Fish went to prison. Six years alone. Six years he kept his mouth shut about the robbery, about the other men involved, and about the diamonds. The night he is released, the four men he protected with silence celebrate his freedom with a congratulatory dinner. In Japanese Yakuza tradition the feast is an array of Sushi served off the naked body of a woman. The woman is trained to be catatonic and ignore anything and everything that happens in the room. And I do mean anything.

So as you can imagine things get pretty heated as the thieves open old wounds over dinner finding out what happened to the missing diamonds. While technically being original a lot of this reminded me of the film RESERVOIR DOGS especially with all the flashbacks and torture scenes. The filmmakers did a good job of making an homage to Tarantino, but the lesson learned is that there is only one Quentin Tarantino.

The best thing about SUSHI GIRL is Mark Hamill (CORVETTE SUMMER) . He chews a lot of scenery here. Sometimes he lays it on pretty thick but the majority of the time he is amazing. I was getting tired of his shtick but by the third act he was really selling his character. Great stuff. Worth the price of admission alone. Being a low budget film and looking well made was another thing that really impressed me. I believe the budget was only a million dollars I think? I don't know for sure? It definitely looks more expensive than it probably was to make. The icing on the cake was the wonderful cameos from Grade A B-Movie actors like Danny Trejo, Jeff Fahey, and Michael Biehn.

My only complaint which is going to sound like a nit pick is one of the films music cues. The director of SUSHI GIRL should spend some time in Movie Jail for using the song 'Diamonds Are Forever' during the opening credits. I know DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER isn't the best James Bond 007 film but this type of borrowing just feels wrong,something you just don't do unless you know 100% that you're going to do it better. It didn't work for me. Gutsy move in my opinion.

Time will tell if SUSHI GIRL will become a cult classic or just be remembered as a Tarantino rip-off. It's definitely an homage but to call it a rip-off is way too easy and obvious. There are far worse rip-offs, far far worse.

If you like heist and or exploitation films then I rate SUSHI GIRL a must see.