Last night we watched Jiro Dreams of Sushi, a documentary film produced by David Gelb.
We watched the film on the recommendation of Brett Savaglio, our new Director of Social Media here at nyvs.com
It was a good recommendation.
Of course, Brett also suggested Moonrise Kingdom, so you can’t trust everything he says
But you can trust this one.
It is a lovely film, the story of Jiro Ono, who runs a 9-seat sushi restaurant in a subway station in the Ginza district of Tokyo. Â What makes Ono and his small sushi stall unique is that he is the only sushi chef (and doubtless the only 9-seat restaurant in a subway station) to have been awarded the presitgious 3-star Michelin rank – an honor usuall reserved for places like Jean Georges or Pre Catlan.
What makes the sushi so good is Ono’s sheer dedication to the craft, something he describes as minimalist. It is, after all, at the end of the day, a piece of raw fish. Â But there is deep beauty in his work, and the film, in its structure, complete reflects Ono’s passion of pure yet stunning minmimalism.
Jiro Dreams of Sushi crosses the line between film and art, and that is no bad thing. Â The cinematography is often stunning, but he rarely breaks the cardinal rule: don’t move the camera. Instead, the film is a composition of simply beautiful shots. Â The score, mostly by Philip Glass, only serves to reinforce the powerful nature of the work.
This is a film that could win a Michelin all on its own.
And it, like the sushi, is most powerful because of its minimalism yets its emphasis on perfection.
