Sushi Girl (2012) – You’ll Either Be Bored or Love It–I loved It

I don’t think I’ve said this on the blog before, but I generally don’t like torture horror. You know those movies where a guy is tied to a chair or something for most of the movie while he gets the crap beat out of him for what ever twisted reason. Well, Sushi Girl is one of these types of movies, and I really liked it.

What’s the movie about? Well, six years ago a group of 5 crooks pulled off a diamond heist that went bad at the last minute when their get away van was involved in a vehicle crash. Four of the five escape, with the new guy (and the guy responsible for the bag of stolen diamond), Fish (played by Noah Hathaway) getting caught. Fish ends up spending six years behind bars for the crime, never spilling the beans on his fellow crooks.

Now the six years have passed and Fish is being let out early for good behaviour and is met at the prison gates by a driver in a black limo. The limo delivers him to an ornate Chinese themed building where Duke (played by Tony Todd, the organizer of the diamond heist, has gathered together the original team. Duke, seemingly obsessed with Japanese culture and symbolism,  has had an elaborate Sushi dinner prepared for the group, served on the body of a living but still “Sushi Girl.” Duke’s plan is to have the group eat the sushi, starting with the mild stuff on the outside, working their way to the center ending with Fugu – a dangerous piece of sushi created by a toxic puffer fish that when prepared properly, causes some numbness and a sense of elation, but when done incorrectly causes death. Duke wants the group to eat the meal while they all discuss an important matter: where are the diamonds from the heist? You see, they’re all wondering what happened to the diamonds, as the police reported that the bag that the diamonds were in was empty. Believing Fish had stashed the diamonds before being caught, the crew now wants their cut, despite Fish’s insistence that he never had a chance to stash them. Fish, not wanting to beat around the bush, and not wanting to play any games is very adamant that he did not have the diamonds, and that he did the group a favour by doing his time and keeping his mouth shut. The others are not convinced, and Fish soon finds himself tied to a chair while the goons take their turns attempting to torture a confession, all the while with Fish refusing to tell them what happened to the diamonds, other than he didn’t have them.

The movie shows the original heist in fits, when fish occasionally loses consciousness and lapses in to his memories of the event. It’s an interesting way to fill in the back story and each flashback shows another key part of the original heist. Fish get’s brutally beaten over and over again, each time worse than the last.

The movie goes on like this for quite a while, and there is an amazing performance by Mark Hamill as Crow, an over the top, flamboyantly gay, sadistic fellow crook – he really stole the show with his portrayal of this character. The end of the movie is a twist that I did not see coming – I know that there was going to be a big twist – I just hadn’t figured out exactly what that twist was. Although I thought this movie was great, I have to say it is definitely not for everyone. I mean for most of the movie a guy is brutally beaten while tied to a chair. That said, if you can stomach that, then I say watch this movie, even if only to see Mark Hamill in a performance that just may be the best of his career.

Check out the trailer below: