''Sushi Girl'' is an American

crime film Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...

directed by Kern Saxton and starring

Tony Todd Tony Todd (born December 4, 1954) is an American actor who made his debut as Sgt. Warren in the film ''Platoon'' (1986), and portrayed Kurn in the television series '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'' (1990–1991) and '' Star Trek: Deep Space N ...

Mark Hamill Mark Richard Hamill (; born September 25, 1951) is an American actor and writer. He is known for his role as Luke Skywalker in the ''Star Wars'' film series, beginning with the original 1977 film and subsequently winning three Saturn Awards f ...

Noah Hathaway Noah Leslie Hathaway (born November 13, 1971) is an American actor and a former teen idol. He is best known for his roles as Atreyu in the 1984 film ''The NeverEnding Story'' and for portraying Boxey on the original television series ''Battlestar ...

Sonny Chiba , known internationally as Sonny Chiba, was a Japanese actor and martial artist. Chiba was one of the first actors to achieve stardom through his skills in martial arts, initially in Japan and later before an international audience. Born in Fuku ...

and

Cortney Palm Cortney Palm (born February 20, 1987) is an American actress and author known for '' Zombeavers'', '' The Dark Tapes'' and '' Sushi Girl''. Career Palm's career began after she was cast in the titular role of '' Sushi Girl''. She played Zoe i ...

also served as an

executive producer Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the making of a commercial entertainment product. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights o ...

. It premiered at a

TCL Chinese Theatre Grauman's Chinese Theatre (branded as TCL Chinese Theatre for naming rights reasons) is a movie palace on the historic Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States. The original Chinese ...

,TCL Chinese Theatre Premieres - 2012 Archive
/ref> played in several festivals and was then released directly to home media in 2012.

Plot

Fish (

) has been recently released from prison where he was serving time for his part in a diamond heist. He refused to give the authorities any information on his partners in crime nor reveal to them the location of the stolen diamonds. In order to locate and divide the stolen diamonds, crime boss Duke (

) invited Fish to dinner along with the rest of the gang, including his closest ally Crow (

), Max (Andy Mackenzie) and Francis (

James Duval James Edward Duval is an American actor. He is known for his roles in the Gregg Araki ''Teenage Apocalypse'' film trilogy—''Totally F***ed Up'', ''The Doom Generation'', and '' Nowhere''. His other notable roles include Miguel in ''Independence ...

). The meal is

sushi is a Japanese cuisine, Japanese dish of prepared , usually with some sugar and salt, accompanied by a variety of , such as seafood, often raw, and vegetables. Styles of sushi and its presentation vary widely, but the one key ingredient is " ...

, served on the naked body of a woman, the titular Sushi Girl (

), who must remain motionless and silent for the duration of the meal. When Fish tells the others that he doesn't have the diamonds, they do not believe him. He is tied up, with Max and Crow taking turns torturing him. Duke instructs Francis to take a turn as well, but he refuses. Francis goes to the bathroom and it is revealed to the camera that he is wearing a listening device. The sequences of torture are intercut with flashbacks to the heist, culminating in the gang being run off the road by another car, with Duke shooting the driver in order to escape. Eventually Max loses control and begins to beat Fish savagely, killing him. Max, Crow and Duke begin to argue savagely about who was responsible for Fish's death. Francis comes back from the bathroom, and wants to leave, accusing Duke of arranging this dinner in order to kill them all, and thus wrap up loose ends. Duke, in turn, accuses Francis of being a spy for the police. The others demand that Francis unbutton his shirt and prove that he is not wearing a wire. Francis responds by insulting Duke and taunting Max. Max finally loses control and assaults Francis, tearing open his shirt, thus revealing that there is no listening device. Despite this, Francis is shot by Duke. After more arguing the remaining three eventually draw their guns on one another and shooting breaks out. Only Duke survives. He returns to the Sushi Girl, who has remained silent and motionless all this time. Duke tells her that she is to be his 'consolation prize'. He eats a piece of fugu from her body and promptly succumbs to paralysis, whereupon she sits upright and tells him the fugu was purposely prepared leaving the toxins intact. A final flashback reveals that she was present at the heist's aftermath; it was her husband whom Duke shot, and she who recovered the diamonds after the bag was ripped open. She explains that she used her newfound riches to arrange this night and take her revenge upon the gang, and then she shoots Duke fatally and departs.

Cast

as Duke *

as Fish *

as Francis *Andy Mackenzie as Max *

as Crow *

as Sushi Girl *

as Sushi Chef *

David Dastmalchian David Dastmalchian (; born July 21, 1975) is an American film and stage actor. He has had supporting roles in a number of superhero franchises; he portrayed Thomas Schiff in ''The Dark Knight'', Kurt in the first two Marvel Cinematic Universe ...

as Nelson *

Jeff Fahey Jeffrey David Fahey (, born November 29, 1952) is an American film and television actor. He has portrayed Captain Frank Lapidus on the ABC series ''Lost'' and the title role of Deputy Marshal Winston MacBride on ''The Marshal''. Early life an ...

as Morris *

Michael Biehn Michael Connell Biehn ( ; born July 31, 1956) is an American actor, primarily known for his roles in science fiction films directed by James Cameron; as Sgt. Kyle Reese in '' The Terminator'' (1984), Cpl. Dwayne Hicks in ''Aliens'' (1986), and ...

as Mike *

Danny Trejo Danny Trejo ( ; born May 16, 1944) is an American actor. He has appeared in films including ''Desperado'', ''Heat'', and the ''From Dusk Till Dawn'' film series. With frequent collaborator and his second cousin Robert Rodriguez, he portrayed ...

as Schlomo

Release

The production team behind ''Sushi Girl'' raised the money for the world premiere via

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

site

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

and the film debuted at

on November 27, 2012. The film has been played at a range of festivals, including Montreal's

Fantasia International Film Festival Fantasia International Film Festival (also known as Fantasia-fest, FanTasia, and Fant-Asia) is a film festival that has been based mainly in Montreal since its founding in 1996. Regularly held in July of each year, it is valued by both hardcore ...

in 2012 and Melbourne's Supanova Pop Culture Expo in 2013. The film enjoyed a limited theatrical run in February 2013 following its VOD premiere in November 2012, and has subsequently been released on DVD, Blu-ray and digital platforms.

Reception

''Sushi Girl'' has received mixed reviews. ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' stated that "''Sushi Girl'' makes a strong impression with a lurid, finely twisted plot, but its excessive cruelty leaves a foul aftertaste," and the ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...

'' gave it two stars out of four and described it as being overly derivative of the work of

Quentin Tarantino Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, writer, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue, profanity, Black comedy, dark humor, Nonlinear narrative, non-lin ...

. ''

Film Threat ''Film Threat'' is an online film review publication, and earlier, a national magazine that focused primarily on independent film, although it also reviewed videos and DVDs of mainstream films, as well as Hollywood movies in theaters. It first ...

'' was more forgiving, likewise identifying it as being derivative but stating that due to "the power of great performances, ''Sushi Girl'' had me hooked from beginning to end, and I can’t wait to see it again." HorrorMovies.ca's review praised the film's style, calling particular attention to the torture scenes, which it called "memorable."Simon Rother (July 2012
''Sushi Girl'' Movie Review
HorrorMovies.ca, accessed May 1, 2013

References

External links

''Sushi Girl''
at the

Internet Movie Database IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

* {{Rotten Tomatoes, sushi_girl
Official ''Sushi Girl'' website
2012 films 2010s crime films American black comedy films American independent films American crime comedy films American films about revenge 2012 directorial debut films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films