This film has had plenty of positive praise and it is part of the reason that it came to a wider audience however this also poses the problem that perhaps the casual viewer expects more of it than the film ever proposes to deliver. For me I wasn't sure what to expect but being a fan of sushi (although I do not think I have ever eaten "amazing", but at least good and very good) and also having recently visited Japan, I figured that it would interest me on at least some level. Many people have said what they took from the film – whether it is the story of the pursuit of perfection or the loving shots which they call "food porn" but for me the main thing was the work.
The film is about the beauty of craftsmanship. The sushi is prepared with pride, with a technique and with an expertise that is great to watch. It isn't that you are watching cooking as you would see on a Sunday morning with a celebrity chef, but rather you are watching a craft – not unlike someone doing painstaking mechanical work on a priceless watch or something like this. It helps of course to like sushi and seafood but even without this I imagine many will find this side fascinating. The film covers this element into the selection process in the markets as well and I found it very interesting even if by itself it doesn't quite fill 90 minutes.
The film makes up the difference thanks to the characters involved in the film. Jiro is driven but warm and indeed his sons are too. I liked that, although the work culture and mindset of Japanese people was not expressly laid out, there was certainly a lot here which captured it and was of interest. It doesn't ever go deep enough to become a character piece, which in some ways is a limiting factor in the film but mostly is for the best as this isn't what it is trying to do, but mostly it stays at a level which engages and compliments the focus on the craft.
It isn't an amazing film but it does have a certain beauty to it and I think for many people the core will be this sense of perfection and of creating something very precise with a skill that is honed. The camera captures that very well and, while many of the images look delicious, it was the precision of them that really appealed to me. Don't expect to be blown away by it, but there is a certain amount of beauty to this film.
The film is about the beauty of craftsmanship. The sushi is prepared with pride, with a technique and with an expertise that is great to watch. It isn't that you are watching cooking as you would see on a Sunday morning with a celebrity chef, but rather you are watching a craft – not unlike someone doing painstaking mechanical work on a priceless watch or something like this. It helps of course to like sushi and seafood but even without this I imagine many will find this side fascinating. The film covers this element into the selection process in the markets as well and I found it very interesting even if by itself it doesn't quite fill 90 minutes.
The film makes up the difference thanks to the characters involved in the film. Jiro is driven but warm and indeed his sons are too. I liked that, although the work culture and mindset of Japanese people was not expressly laid out, there was certainly a lot here which captured it and was of interest. It doesn't ever go deep enough to become a character piece, which in some ways is a limiting factor in the film but mostly is for the best as this isn't what it is trying to do, but mostly it stays at a level which engages and compliments the focus on the craft.
It isn't an amazing film but it does have a certain beauty to it and I think for many people the core will be this sense of perfection and of creating something very precise with a skill that is honed. The camera captures that very well and, while many of the images look delicious, it was the precision of them that really appealed to me. Don't expect to be blown away by it, but there is a certain amount of beauty to this film.