Unconfident and overly stressed, Keiko, the daughter of a world famous chef, runs from her father after feeling that she can not deal with his strict training regime on how to better her preparation of dishes. Soon thereafter, she finds herself working in a rural hotel doing menial work, constantly bullied and maligned by her superiors and the frequenting guests. When the president of a pharmaceutical company and his entourage stop in for dinner, a former researcher for the man also decides to pay a visit, vowing revenge for his ousting years prior. This retribution comes in the form of a serum designed to bring dead material back to life.
Do you remember what I said about select motion pictures being immune to criticism and legitimate reviews? Well, this statement can be applied to nearly every work spearheaded by eccentric Japanese oddball (and former adult movie director) Noboru Iguchi. Outside of the porn industry, his filmography primarily consists of works that are clearly not meant to be taken seriously, and mean to just entertain its audiences through sheer insanity. In that sense, works such as The Machine Girl and his horror-comedy Dead Sushi are closer to foreign versions of Troma Entertainment movies. And that's exactly what the latter does in wonderfully wacky fashion.
And in terms of what does this certain Japanese picture help stand out and earn the definition of being called "wacky?" For starters, before the carnage kicks in (and even during it), we're treated to several legitimate fight sequences between our head chef and several antagonists that aren't cooked with rice or fish. These scenes are remarkably well-choreographed when you consider that this is supposed to be a cheap, dumb little splatter picture. Though they may hail from different countries, it wouldn't surprise me whatsoever if Iguchi-san is secretly a fan of Stephen Chow or Jackie Chan, since every battle feels as authentically funny as it does look cool. Oh, I did say cheap above, did I not? Well, unlike a lot of other pieces in this field, Dead Sushi's lackluster CGI and often cheap-looking stop motion animation often make up part of its charm.
In between this crazed food frenzy (I know, I know), there is almost a heart beating underneath. Female chef Keiko's plight and frustrations with never being able to live up to expectations from her family are completely identifiable, if not a tad bit exaggerated when you see the training that she has to go through in order to become a true expert at constructing the cuisine (if this is how it's actually done, then I am very sorry). Before you get too easily led astray, the narrative doesn't forget about your wants and needs, and gives us moments such as a man eating a (literally) spiked tuna roll and another person's skin being torn from both sides of his face by a squid and tempura roll. Director Iguchi seems completely intent on not just filling in the blanks with a few gross or over-the-top pieces, but with one-upping himself after every few minutes or so. It makes for charming stuff, though it does begin to run out of steam towards the climax. It goes into full blown "anime" mode, and while as equally entertaining (if not a bit asinine), it feels like taking several shots of espresso after coming down from a very drunken, painful high.
During one scene involving the intercourse of two pieces of sushi which produces a mass explosion of sushi "babies," one survivor manages to utter the sentence "Things have reached the point where they don't make sense!" If that isn't this movie to a tee, then I don't know what is. It will either convince you to start living a vegan lifestyle, or make you more hungry for seafood than you've ever been in your entire life. After watching an extra on the DVD, wherein a tiny Austin, Texas crowd gathered at the yearly Fantastic Fest for a sushi-eating contest involving often-maligned (and quite frankly disgusting) ingredients, I'm willing to bet it could be an odd mixture of both. Still, it's watchable, and a lot of fun for those with a demented mind and a big group of likeminded friends.
After all, anything with a piece of egg salad sushi that sings and spits acid has to be worth at least a quick glance.
Alcoholic police officer Ciaran O'Shea is unhappy with his newly assigned partner Ms. Lisa Nolan, a workhorse who has transferred to his remote Irish island. After receiving a distress call about numerous whale corpses having washed ashore, and later with the disappearance of numerous townsfolk, the Gardai, alongside an English marine ecologist, discover the culprits of these attacks: giant blood-sucking beasts that have emerged from the sea. Whilst dealing with the monsters and wondering how to protect the island, the team come to a rather peculiar conclusion thanks to the "town drunk" on how to fend off and repel these invaders, and it may involve mass consumption of a familiar substance.
Speaking of taking shots, if Dead Sushi was today's selection for dinner, then Ireland's Grabbers serves as a fairly nice dessert. No, wait, it would be more appropriate to call this a strong pint or three to go along with your meal. I first became aware of this oddball horror-comedy thanks to the now-defunct, brilliant, and sorely missed Spill.com. A mention of this being the foreign equivalent to the 1990 monster flick Tremors caught my attention almost instantly, though I've heard that statement more times than I've ever cared to. True, that also drew me to a movie I like and now own in The Burrowers, but in the end, I feel that I will forever be a natural skeptic.
Even to the blind and/or deaf populace, it's fairly obvious that Grabbers was strongly influenced by Tremors, and unabashedly more so than the American-made The Burrowers ever was. It wears its adoration for the cult movie on both sleeves, and don't be offended if you can pinpoint specific scenes that were structured to be eerily similar to the franchise that introduced us to the underground creatures dubbed "Graboids." Hell, even the nickname given to the beasts is similar! But as I've said before, this isn't a ripoff as much as it is a love letter. Helping out is the recollection that the Irish possess a very underrated (and often unappreciated) sense of humor. Because of this, and I'm going to sound just a wee bit blasphemous, I actually found Grabbers to be slightly funnier than its forefather. *gasp*
Cast-wise, there aren't as many people that you'd have to worry about caring for since most of the film focuses on the duo of Ruth Bradley and Richard Coyle (who could be mistaken for Andy Serkis in another life). The latter doesn't lack any wit or intelligence, even if he is often mistaken as just a typical, sad drunk who lost most of what made him happy in life. His partner, the lovely Ruth Bradley, is fairly plain jane until the time comes for her to partake in drinking (around the latter half of its running time), thus breaking her free from a life of sobriety. After that, many of the movie's best and more memorably hilarious lines come from her slurring, silly childish charm. Don't worry though, because despite the fact that it is clearly stated that beer and whiskey help stave off any harm from these tentacled nightmares (don't get angry, it's in the bloody description box on Netflix), I'm almost certain that this movie does not encourage rampant drinking or alcoholism.
My gosh does it encourage wanting a baby grabber toy though. Well, that's what I came away with. Mind you, I don't care to own the real thing, since they'll try to feast on you and suck your blood. But a plush toy sure would be grand. Oh crap, I got sidetracked for a moment there. Well, erm, where was I? Ah yes. Grabbers certainly isn't going to go down as a classic by any means, but it's the furthest thing from bollocks and I could see some of the more uptight modern horror fans (the ones who claim that there's nothing good out there anymore but aren't looking hard enough) enjoying it too. Jon Wright's alcoholic monster mash makes for a jolly good time considering how much was done well with a paltry budget.
And perhaps I'm biased, but any motion picture that suggests feeding a priest to a monster because "unless it eats shit, it'll choke to death" gets an automatic three stars from me.
Tomorrow, it's time to enter into a two-on-one match with wrestling-themed horror films Overtime and See No Evil!
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