East Side Sushi
Genuinely beautiful film celebrating Latinx and Japanese cultures, and the beauty of food and cross-cultural sharing. It feels like a blast against everything that Trump, Johnson, Putin and all those other hateful politicians stand for and speak against. And yet it isn’t like being smacked over the head with political cyphers — it’s subtle, nuanced and people shift gently in their character arcs. Even the ending is a surprise.
Feeling more like a documentary than a movie due to the sense of time passing The and hand held camera style, Juana Martinez (Diana Elizabeth Torres) and her dad Apa (Rodrigo Duarte Clark) work incredibly hard to earn money. Juana also has a daughter to support, Lydia (Kaya Jade Aguirre) and tries to balance out early starts to the fruit marker with school. Whilst her dad goes to another job, Juana runs the family fruit cart on the streets — and is violently mugged at gun points for her earnings. The vulnerability and fragility of Mexican-American livelihoods is shown in Juana’s bruised face and how she needs to stay strong and hide the truth from her daughter.
Curiousity gets the better of her and always a keen cook, Juana successfully applies to work in a Japanese run restaurant. Entranced by the creativity of the sushi chefs up front (and their knife skills), Juana watches, practices and learns. In time she helps out, (although as a woman and a non-Japanese person), this has to be done out back. Aki (Yutaka Takeuchi) is amazed by her knife skills, and her ability to select good quality fish, and sees her potential. Restaurant owner and star sushi chef Mr Yoshida (Roji Oyama) definitely does not — she was hired to work in the kitchen, and there she must stay.
Having tasted fresh sushi, learnt to use chopsticks correctly and how to mix wasabi and soy sauce, Juana keeps originating, using her family as taste guinea pigs. She has to fight not only cultural and gender assumptions within the restaurant, but her dad’s parenting style (Zombie movies for the very young! and resistance to fresh uncooked fish and sticky rice). However when Juana starts localising sushi with Mexican ingredients and gets the hang of the sushi rice, her dad becomes a fan (as does her daughter). So long as the sushi is drenched in soy sauce, Lydia is on board!
Battling the tech, Juana keeps wanting to improve and develop, leading to confrontation with Mr Yoshida and her rashly quitting her job. She also applies to a national sushi competition. In the midst of an arduous car valeting job, Juana is selected and her family are incredibly supportive and celebratory — buying gifts and literally getting alongside — her dad becomes her sushi assistant in the competition.
Aki comes to visit Juana at her family home and gets an introduction to Mexican food, on the street. He also rebels against Mr Yoshida, watching the competition on an I-pad at the counter and turning the volume up and up. Eventually everyone is engrossed. Here is the film’s only weakness — I wish it lingered more on the creation and cuts of the sushi — the editing is a little bit too quick. And I also wonder how one contestant got their sushi smoking — ice?
The outcome of the competition and the ending are not what we have been built up to expect. But what I love about this film is the nuance. With the Japanese characters we see the challenges and limitations of hierarchy and cultural expectations and assumptions, and subtly expressed a full range of emotions. Juana and her dad clash, support, love and disappoint each other, and yet this is a hard working dad who stands alongside, loves and values his daughter — what a celebration of relationship. Juana too is a proud Mexican-American — working hard, seeking to better herself, get fair recognition for her skills and creativity (and contributions) and make a better life providing for her daughter. She fights against cultural assumptions from her dad, Aki, Mr and Mrs Yoshida and even on the day, her formal acceptance to the televised competition is challenged. Lydia is a delightful child actress — remaining natural and an enthusiastic dunker into soy sauce. Juana succeeds — she gets her family appreciating sushi. Even Mr Yoshida is not unfeeling or unredeemble; he too is capable of grieving and sharing emotions.
A lovely touch too is how Aki and Juana learn from each other’s cultures (such as in sharing languages, concepts, even how to enjoy food). Not to mention how a fellow Mexican-American worker stands up for Juana when Mr Yoshida seeks to test his new worker by shouting at them in an unknown (to them) language. The relationships are captivatingly portrayed here and allowed time to breathe, much like the sushi.
Appreciate the sushi making and artistry. Appreciate the people working incredibly hard in low paid jobs to keep things working behind the scenes. Appreciate too having cultural assumptions challenged — such as the meat loving neighbour who handily owns a camcorder; the dad’s encouragement to stick to what you know culturally; and even the studio manager who manifests Japanese greetings but cheerfully states that they aren’t Japanese. Even the sushi chefs at the restaurant are Korean (Mr Yoshida) and another is Chinese. What does it mean to belong, to be authentic we are asked to consider. Most of all it celebrates contribution, the hard working single mother and good men (like Aki).
Neither a tragedy nor a comedy, but more of a feel of real life, totally worth watching and relishing — much like excellent sushi.
