Any movie that has the cheek to kick off to the strains of "Diamonds Are Forever" and to rip-off the Bond theme motif throughout is likely to grab and hold my attention.
Fish is an unlucky career crim who has just spent six years behind bars keeping his mouth shut after an abortive diamond heist. On the eve of his release, he finds himself forcibly escorted to a gathering of his criminal comrades in an abandoned Japanese restaurant. The centrepiece of this gathering is a prone and stark naked girl (Cortney Palm) artfully covered in sushi dishes (the "Sushi Girl" of the title). The idea being that the food is eaten off of her naked body. The gang leader, Duke (Tony Todd), has arranged this "party" in order to find out from Fish what became of the diamonds, as they were never seen again following his arrest.
Borrowing heavily from Tarantino styling – hip dialogue, flashbacks, stories to tell, torture to be inflicted – this independent thriller-drama is a relatively diverting experience. There are cameos from Jeff Fahey, Sonny Chiba, Michael Biehn and Danny Trejo (complete with machete in hand).
Two things really stand out - and I'm not talking directly about Sushi Girl's ample physical charms. First is Mark (STAR WARS) Hamill in the best acting performance I've ever seen him give. As Crow, a straggly-haired, bespectacled, camp and utterly sleazy sociopathic sadist, he is quite a revelation – outshining just about every other cast member. Second, is the luminously beautiful Cortney Palm as the titular Sushi Girl. She has quite the most exquisite naked physique, and even though most of her role involves her just lying there motionless with food on her body, her minimal facial expressions and eye movements convey a multitude of obscure emotions and expressive reactions.
The twist at the end is unpredictable and not revealed until the last ten minutes, up until then it is impossible to know what part the Sushi Girl really has in this grand guignol interplay.
It's off the beaten track and is a nice mix of grisly black humour, unpleasant violence and dark mystery. A bit too contrived and theatrical, maybe, and perhaps a little too eager to be seen as a future cult item by design rather than default, yet certainly worth a look if a sub-Tarantino fix is what you're in the fish market for.
Fish is an unlucky career crim who has just spent six years behind bars keeping his mouth shut after an abortive diamond heist. On the eve of his release, he finds himself forcibly escorted to a gathering of his criminal comrades in an abandoned Japanese restaurant. The centrepiece of this gathering is a prone and stark naked girl (Cortney Palm) artfully covered in sushi dishes (the "Sushi Girl" of the title). The idea being that the food is eaten off of her naked body. The gang leader, Duke (Tony Todd), has arranged this "party" in order to find out from Fish what became of the diamonds, as they were never seen again following his arrest.
Borrowing heavily from Tarantino styling – hip dialogue, flashbacks, stories to tell, torture to be inflicted – this independent thriller-drama is a relatively diverting experience. There are cameos from Jeff Fahey, Sonny Chiba, Michael Biehn and Danny Trejo (complete with machete in hand).
Two things really stand out - and I'm not talking directly about Sushi Girl's ample physical charms. First is Mark (STAR WARS) Hamill in the best acting performance I've ever seen him give. As Crow, a straggly-haired, bespectacled, camp and utterly sleazy sociopathic sadist, he is quite a revelation – outshining just about every other cast member. Second, is the luminously beautiful Cortney Palm as the titular Sushi Girl. She has quite the most exquisite naked physique, and even though most of her role involves her just lying there motionless with food on her body, her minimal facial expressions and eye movements convey a multitude of obscure emotions and expressive reactions.
The twist at the end is unpredictable and not revealed until the last ten minutes, up until then it is impossible to know what part the Sushi Girl really has in this grand guignol interplay.
It's off the beaten track and is a nice mix of grisly black humour, unpleasant violence and dark mystery. A bit too contrived and theatrical, maybe, and perhaps a little too eager to be seen as a future cult item by design rather than default, yet certainly worth a look if a sub-Tarantino fix is what you're in the fish market for.