Is it just me or are there a lot of food related comedies coming out of Asia right now? There's Le Grand Chef out of Korea, the dueling barbecue movie Ryuhei Matsuda stars in, a film or two about baking cakes and now this ...
For those unaware, Yukihiko Tsutsumi is best known on these shores as the director of 2LDK, the companion piece to Ryuhei Kitamura's Aragami with both films supposedly being the result of a drunken bet. Kitamura gets all the glory thanks to the still lingering glow of Versus but Tsutsumi made by far the better film and now he's back with this, what looks to be a supremely silly comedy titled Sushi King Goes To New York. And with a title like that do you really need to know more?
He's never been away and Twitch covered his previous projects like SIREN and TAITEI NO KEN extensively. I just wish some clever distributor would grab the US rights to his 2002 movie EGG. It beats the hell out of me why nobody is aware of this film but I assume it has to do with the total lack of festival play it received. If there ever was a cult horror movie waiting to be discovered it's EGG.
PS: I totally agree about 2LDK vs. ARAGAMI.
I personally hope that the movie Sushi King goes to New York is as much fun as the tv series (Tv Asahi's Sushi Oji!)was, it was one of my favorites of the summer season. With the same cast and same director,Tsutsumi Yukihiko, it has the potential.
And with Jigyaku no Shi and 20th Century Boys coming up, he's really had a huge output over the last year.