Dead Sushi (Noboru Iguchi)

[Rowland]

IMDb (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2396429/)

http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn52/drowland811/dead-sushi-poster_zps2cdabfbc.jpg

[Llopin]

Saw this last year.

My expectations were kept low (since I don't particularly adore Iguchi's other movies) and I had a blast. This would seem like a run-of-the-mill one trick pony kinda concept, but I was suprised at how well it handed both the action and the humor. It loses its track near the end (when it gets too "monstruous") but remains inventive throughout. I feel as if Iguchi is "maturing" as a filmmaker, since both this and Zombie Ass are much more well-done (without losing their cheap-budget, indie look) than stuff like Karate-Robo Zaborgar or The Machine Girl, which I felt were not that entertaining - and too chaotic for their own good. In fact, I'd say Dead Sushi is his best effort to date, surpassing the likes of Tokyo Gore Police and RoboGeisha (and on par with his creepy horror Tomie entry). Or maybe I just connected very well with its campiness and absurd comedy.

Iguchi was present at the screening and boy, is he one weird dude. He behaved very politely but had a childish mentality. Among other things, he encouraged the audience to yell "tamago!!!" whenever the egg-sushi apperaed (it plays a Gizmo-like role, being insulted and dissed by proper fish sushi). A fun experience.

[Rowland]

I was surprised by the quality of the action as well, since Iguchi actually manages to capture some relatively fluid extended takes of coherently framed combat, which you wouldn't normally expect from this sort of thing. And speaking of this film's quality in relation to Iguchi's earlier output, his Tomie is worthwhile?

[Llopin]

Tomie

I enjoyed it quite a lot. It was part of a midnight marathon so I was a bit hazy, but I recall it being marvelously demented.

Thing is, it starts off rather seriously but quickly falls into camp and nonsense. Which is allright, since it's an Iguchi flick, only the silliness is replaced by creepiness. For the average asian horror viewer it'll be too absurd, but it's more inventive than any recent genre efforts I've seen. Disjointed, but fun, and certainly more entertaining than other Tomie entries I've seen.

[D_Davis]

Tomie is interesting. I like it quite a bit. I always think of it and Stacey together, but I like Stacey a lot more.