Jiro Dreams
of Sushi is the story of an 85-year-old award winning sushi chef who owns a
restaurant in a public transportation station. The film follows Jiro’s
continuing quest to perfect the art of sushi making. This documentary did a
beautiful job of giving a voice to the voiceless and exalting the everyday. You
would never think that following a sushi chef would be very exciting, but this
film made Jiro’s job look complex and exquisite. Jiro Dreams of Sushi aims to
portray sushi making as an art equal to play an instrument or painting.
This
film often uses slow-motion to show how artful making sushi is. There is a
scene in which a Japanese food critic describes that being served at Jiro's restaurant is like listening to a concerto. Each course brought out is different from the first but they all complement each other. During
this scene there is a piece of classical music playing over the images and the
whole scene is in slow motion. This technique was very effective. It really
helped me to see and understand how artful Jiro’s job is.
Something
else this film emphasizes is the amount of time and expertise it takes to
make the perfect sushi. Each morning Jiro’s son goes to the fish market to pick
out the perfect fish for the sushi. Each fish is purchased from a different
fish expert. One of the main ideas in this film is that you can be an expert in
anything if you work really hard and are passionate. Jiro buys tuna from his
favorite tuna expert; he buys octopus from a octopus expert; and he buys his
rice from a rice expert. Hard work and passion are major themes is this film. Jiro
explains that he was forced to leave his home at the age of 9, and he has been
working every since to become a master sushi chef.
Another
technique that is used in throughout this film is the fish eye lens. This lens
is mostly used in the fish market scenes. The lens gives the shots an
interesting look and also emphasizes the vastness of the markets. It is almost
unbelievable how big the fish markets look. The fish eye lens emphasizes this even more. I’m also sure that the fish eye
was used just because the whole movie is about fish.
With
this film it was very easy to love the main character, Jiro. The way he was
presented in the film it is obvious to see that he really loves the path he
chose for his life. Each time Jiro is interviewed, he discusses how he doesn’t
think he would be happy without sushi. He often dreams of new sushi recipes and
wakes up in the middle of the night to write it down. Even at 85 years old,
Jiro says that if he retired now he would be so bored and wouldn’t even want to
live. He won’t stop making sushi until he dies.
Jiro Dreams of Sushi seems likes a good documentary to watch if one appreciates a success story. I appreciate a film where the everyday life is exalted. The challenge in making this type of documentary comes at the depth the film maker wants to go into the subjects life. I feel that when a film maker exalts the everyday life of there needs to be a level of infancy with the subject in order to get a meaningful message across to the audience. It seems as though making documentaries that exalt the everyday life are something that I am going to have to get good at because this is the type of subjects that are more common. Learning from film makers such as the one that made this film will be key is becoming a successful documentary film maker.
ReplyDeleteThe use of the slow motion, fish eye lens, and showing all that goes into making the best sushi with Jiro's son going to the fish market and getting the freshest fish gives this film depth and texture. Using tools like the fish eye and slow motion really bring an emphasis to what is being done. The fish eye take the audience right to the action, and the slow motion let's the audience slow their minds down while watching the food being prepared. It sounds like this film did a great job capturing the beauty of sushi making and how complex it is.
I had planned to watch this film, but I ended up watching others instead, and this post convinced me to watch it anyway. I'm a firm believer that a person should have a passion that drives their life. Most people do have a passion of some kind, but I've met a few people who don't and their lives seem almost unlivable. Perhaps I'm just biased because I'm passionate about too many things.
ReplyDeleteRegardless, it's for this reason that films like this one are so interesting to me. I love to see what makes other people happy. The hard part, in documentary, is conveying the same feeling to the audience. It's not hard to get stuck on either side of the spectrum: making the person seem either crazy and obsessed or completely disinterested. It sounds like this film has a good balance and I can't wait to watch it.
"A level of infancy" Braydon?
ReplyDelete