WILLIAM FLANIGAN EAST SIDE SUCHI. Viewed on Streaming. Not the East Side of NYC, but Oakland, CA! Director Anthony Lucero (also credited as writer) using the ever popular Japanese movie plot of "zero-to-hero" conjures up a cross-cultural tale focused on the art of creating gourmet masterpieces using just about anything shored up by vinegared (sticky) rice. With sticky rice as a metaphor, Lucero goes after tribalism, bigotry, racism, sexism, and phony cultural authenticity in the restaurant business using a light touch with a minimum of lecturing. This proves to be a very effective approach (with a few less-than-subtitle messages tucked in here and there!). A Mexican-American single mother with a young daughter living with her widowed semi-retired and ailing father decides to refocus her life on moving up the socioeconomic ladder from fruit pushcart street vendor to becoming a renown suchi-bar chef. Lead actress Diana Elizabeth Torres seems perfectly cast as a strong woman determined to prevail against a myriad of antiquated male attitudes (including her father's) although her character's credibility suffers somewhat when the Director allows her to ham it up in confrontational scenes. Actress Kaya Jade Aguirre playing the daughter steals every scene she is in (which is customary for child players!). Cinematography (semi-wide screen, color) is excellent especially for hand shots of food preparation. Lighting and color correction are fine as is sound. Score is uneven (sometimes in the background, sometimes nearly drowning out the dialog) and over doses on taiko (drums). Subtitles are okay. Closing-credits song lyrics are not translated. An enjoyable feel-good fantasy. WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD. Details: Film = 7 stars. Cinematography = 8 stars. Lighting and color correction = 8 stars. Sound = 8 stars. Score = 6 stars. Subtitles = 6 stars. Translations = 5 stars.

rgordon-59262 That this movie was filmed on a shoestring or maybe a shoestring's shoestring makes me appreciate it all the more. In a time when finger pointing at those who do the jobs others won't or blame those who can't seem to get ahead, this gives some very subtle insights. When other decide what it is that we can or can not do, everyone looses.

pinokiyo Hollywood can't make this kind of Gold.I used to work at a sushi restaurant and the little things in the script is so hilariously true to life... right to the type of customers, the whole having to master cutting cucumber, getting mad at ordering teriyaki at a sushi bar... looking stuff up on craigslist -- the little things! (The only thing I found to be a little unrealistic was how the restaurant getting together during their lunch break(?) feeding their staff nice sushi and rolls... well, I guess they really are a nice restaurant and not stingy to their workers! What luxury...)The main lead, Juana, is beautiful!! She sort of reminds me of a young Salma Hayek, but cuter. She's great!The main lead's father deserves Best Supporting Actor award; his delivery and reactions are so natural and hilarious... he's immediately very likable. Aki, the Japanese chef, (and they actually got a real Japanese guy!) is good too. Just great casting overall - very very likable cast, even the young daughter. ('There's a Chinese man at the front door.' haha) I love the scene with the main lead and the chef having sake together; great script-writing. To me, that scene was touching (got me teary) and hilarious at the same time bringing up the issue about being a woman and races. (soo funny and true about assistant chefs being Chinese and Korean... 'he smells like ashtray!' haha Koreans love to smoke)I love how they intertwine Mexican and Japanese culture together. Very very cool. I really enjoyed it and was engaged the whole time; it went by really fast. If you work at a sushi restaurant/love sushi/like Mexican/Japanese cultures, or just want a movie to inspire to go after your dreams, watch it. You'll love it. It's funny, cute, touching film that you can enjoy multiple times. It's not a big budget movie and perhaps may have a little high quality TV-Movie feel, but who cares. These are the types of movies that's worth watching; real-life conversations and stories people can relate and be inspired to.Highly recommend! It has become one of my favorite movies. One funny goof I noticed... when the chef asks the girl to help him out with the phone orders, she puts it on regular plates instead of a to-go box. xDOh and when Mr. Yoshida was cutting the cucumber "art" and the customers respond in amazement/kind of sucking up to the chef is sooo funny - that really happens in real life... it's also funny because that cucumber didn't even look amazing at all. What the hell was that? Haha

no name given Normally this is the kind of movie I wouldn't watch or skip over after a few minutes but this has a compelling and different storyline that is wonderful to watch. It's not great film making. Most of the movie comes off like you would expect a low budget film but the movie (to me anyway) is about aspirations and things that get in your way and about stereotypes and prejudices that can keep you from getting ahead. I won't get into the details but for once white people are not the ones portraying the oppressors and it isn't about class struggle but just what real people have to deal with everyday. The actors are not great but for a change they have faces like your neighbors, not Hollywood caricatures. There's so many things about this movie to hate but I couldn't help but like it. I wish Hollywood (or canada) would make more movies like this.