Fantasia 2012: Interview with Dead Sushi Director Noburu Iguchi
Steve Barton
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Fantasia International Film Festival
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It’s not every day you get to interview one of Japanese’s biggest cult directors, but considering the fact that the Tokausatsu genre is amazingly prevalent for the Fantasia Film Festival crowd, it gave DC the chance to interview Noburu Iguchi about his film Dead Sushi!
Thankfully, we had a lovely translator on board to help translate our questions to Iguchi as we asked him about the filming process, his love for sushi and his loving homages to Joe Dante.
Since Noburu Iguchi is well known for his bizarre concepts, we took the opportunity to ask how long it took to come up with the “killer sushi” concept for the film and what actually inspired him to make this inexplicable film.
“For some reason, these crazy ideas come naturally to me during times of relaxation oddly enough. I wanted to make a film with lots of humor but also a film that no one has ever seen before. Sushi and tempura are so popular all over the world and I never made a Tokausatsu film about this kind of humor before and well, I love sushi,” Iguchi joked.
“First, I was concerned about the budget of the film because I had very little money to work with and I filmed the movie in 10 days. I wrote the screenplay in 3 weeks. We had 2 months to prepare for the movie including the effects and making the large amount of sushi and choreographing the action scenes.”
While watching the premiere of the film, it is obvious Iguchi has love for Gremlins and other “killer creature” films from the early Eighties. We asked Iguchi if there was indeed a connection to these cult favorites.
“Of course. Even the egg sushi sidekick in the film is a version of Gizmo. I love Gremlins and Gremlins 2, and the movie is definitely an homage to Joe Dante’s Gremlins and Piranha. I wanted to make a crazy movie with lots of blood!” Iguchi exclaimed.
For the uninitiated, Dead Sushi’s most talked about scene in the film did not involve any blood or gore surprisingly enough, but rather two lovers and an egg yolk. We asked Iguchi about the infamous kiss scene and why he put it in the film.
“It actually was important for me to put that in the film. I was inspired to put that scene in the film after watching Tampopo during the infamous egg yolk kiss scene. It was so funny and it’s definitely an homage to that scene. I wanted to exploit and parody the misunderstandings of Japanese tradition.”
During the interview, it became very clear that Iguchi has a funny bone and loves to make movies that showcase his sense of humor; however, Iguchi wanted us to know that despite the hilarious concept, Dead Sushi is NOT a parody.
“I wouldn’t call it a parody but rather a loving homage to all the movies I watched when I was a kid. I fell in love with Jaws when I was little, and it’s because of that movie that inspired my love for other “animal-attack” films as well.”
For our last question, we couldn’t help but ask if the unconventional director has any more goodies in store for his fans in the coming year, and his response was unexpected to say the least.
“I have a lot of projects on the go right now. One project I’m working on is a normal romantic film about two teenagers in love, and the second project is even crazier than Dead Sushi and guaranteed no one has ever seen what I’m cooking up before. ”
Noburu Iguchi making a romantic film? We find that news more shocking than anything we have seen in Dead Sushi!
Make sure to read our review for Dead Sushi, and thank you to Fantasia Film Festival for giving us this amazing opportunity!
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