IMDb RATING
7.1/10
4.6K
YOUR RATING
An immigrant single mother disenfranchised by her regular life decides to take a chance working at a Japanese restaurant and realises her dreams to become a sushi chef to provide a better fu... Read allAn immigrant single mother disenfranchised by her regular life decides to take a chance working at a Japanese restaurant and realises her dreams to become a sushi chef to provide a better future to her family.An immigrant single mother disenfranchised by her regular life decides to take a chance working at a Japanese restaurant and realises her dreams to become a sushi chef to provide a better future to her family.
- Awards
- 11 wins & 9 nominations
Dixon Phillips
- Mr. Wagner
- (as Scott Phillips)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaDiana Elizabeth Torres took knife-training classes in order to do her own quick-knife slicing.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Sushi Master Rates 9 Sushi Scenes in Movies and TV (2021)
- SoundtracksEast Side Sushi Score
Composed and Produced by Alex Mandel
Performed by Alex Mandel
Strings conducted by Minna Choi and Performed by The Magik*Magik Orchestra
Percussion by David Brandt
Published by Vineland Records / Modern Works Publishing (ASCAP)
Record and mixed at 25th Street Recording - Oakland, CA
Featured review
East Side Sushi is the story of Juanna, a working class single mother in East Oakland, California who wishes to become a sushi chef.
Juanna Martinez and her widowed dad struggle to keep a living and raise her daughter by working a series of odd-end jobs like working in a supermarket, a gym, and selling fruit in a cart. After a particularly deadly incident while selling fruit in the streets, Juanna decides to look for a more stable and safe job. She spots a 'help wanted' advertisement in the shop front of a Japanese restaurant, Osaka, and decides to apply. Despite not having any previous experience in Japanese restaurants, she is hired because of her long history of working in Italian and Mexican eateries in the past. Once in, she diligently works her way in the kitchen. With medical benefits and the leftovers that she can take home, Juanna seems to have finally found some stability in her life.
Once she finds the stability, she starts to become creative with her job. She experiments on the Japanese dishes at home, and within a year, can be seen to have progressed enough to impress her reluctant dad and enthusiastic daughter, with her sushi. But, progress at work seems difficult, with a boss who seems determined to hold on to traditional ways of Japanese cooking. I would leave the rest for the audience to enjoy, because, even if we have seen empowering storylines like this before, and can predict the story beats, watching it unfold is still a pleasure.
Independent movies like this are a delight to watch for mw, because it feels like I'm watching real people struggling with real issues that I can find a few streets down my house. The acting is very natural, with the exception of a few stilted scenes, the emotion is real, poignant and earned. The cinematography reflects Juanna's mind, starting with muted colours during the hardship phase and increasingly becoming colourful as she finds joy and passion in her job. There is plenty of commentary about how society and economy is set up in a way to keep the working class working all their lives without ever being able to securely retire. There is also the narrative of personal development, of how someone can pull them up by their bootstraps, but the movie does very well to put it alongside the structural issues of poverty and economy rather than a reductive, fancy, neoliberal tale of emancipation.
RATINGS
Direction 6.5 Story 6.5 Acting 7 Cinematography Very Indie Overall 6.5
VERDICT: A wonderful one-time watch that combines food, multiculturalism and empowerment.
RATINGS
Direction 6.5 Story 6.5 Acting 7 Cinematography Very Indie Overall 6.5
VERDICT: A wonderful one-time watch that combines food, multiculturalism and empowerment.
helpful•52
- abhijith-alpha
- Aug 19, 2020
- How long is East Side Sushi?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official sites
- Languages
- Also known as
- Суши с Ист-Сайд
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross worldwide
- $50,869
- Runtime1 hour 46 minutes
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.78 : 1
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