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.

Never heard of this movie but so happy that I came across it on Amazon. Really just an amazing movie. The cast was perfect. Will recommend to all of my friends.

This was a great movie. I would call it the "Rocky" of Sushi Chefs movie. Great story about how a Mexican woman wants to become a Japanese sushi chef but she is of the wrong gender, the wrong race, nor does not have the right credentials (training) to become a sushi chef. It is also a movie about the inter-mixing of cultures, of how Aki, a Japanese sushi chef at the restaurant where Juana works at in the kitchen, comes to recognize Juana's skills. During the course of the movie, Aki develops a professional respect for Juana's culinary skills, and even though she is not Japanese, he goes to bat for her becoming a sushi chef. The movie also intersperses Mexican and Japanese cuisine and culture as well, which I enjoyed. The part where the owner of the Japanese restaurant (a very traditional man who believes only Japanese men can be sushi chefs) changes his attitude toward Juana was very heartwarming for me. It gives me hope that everyone can change when we look at people as people and not as people of a certain ethnicity. I highly recommend this movie.

This movie is all about the story, none about character development. All characters are one dimensional and the story also does not have much content. But here, less is more. Whatever the story, however short, is solid. There are all around awesome performances, weather it is our lead actress Diana or the supporting cast Rodrigo, Yutaka or even Kaya. The background music is a bit off putting and looks like it's been picked up from public domain. It always tries to over dramatize the situation. The movie has some clichés, but they are well put. This is one of those films which fills you with energy, while being far from an action film. Positivity oozes out it every single minute. If you want to watch a moral boosting, feel good movie, I highly recommend you this. But beware, you will end up hungry and craving for sushi till the end of the movie.