If You Love Sushi Like I Love Sushi - by Patty Mooney

Like many of our industry cohorts, when attending a movie on the Big Screen, my husband, Mark, and I will stay and watch the credits.  We want to see the names of all the people who worked on that movie, through all the dog-days of slogging through the production work, hauling equipment, setting it up, getting make-up and special effects just right, and then suffering through takes one through 20, or 120, until the director has exactly what he wants "in the can." After the credits have finished and we glance around the theater, we are generally astonished to see any other people still there paying homage to the production people who as a team created that movie, for better or worse.  Sitting through the credits is paying your respects.

Last night I was gratified at the "Sushi Girl" World Premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard, to see MY name in the credits, and then that of my husband.  We have both supported "Sushi Girl" via my blogging and Mark's videography but we didn't do it for the credit.  We believe in this awesome indie.  Besides, how could a film boasting the likes of Mark Hamill, Tony Todd, Jeff Fahey, Noah Hathaway and Cortney Palm as the Sushi Girl be anything less than stellar?  So last night, after the credits faded to black and the lights came back up, to look around that immense theater and see that every seat was still filled with an enthusiastic audience, was a bit surreal.

But not as surreal as the film itself.  Tony Todd plays Duke, the suave yet troubled leader of a diamond heist that goes very wrong.  Six years later when Fish (Noah Hathaway) gets out of prison, Duke has planned a "celebration" dinner in Fish's honor with Sushi Girl on the menu.  Ironically Fish does not like sushi.  The other members of the diamond heist are present to pressure Fish into giving up the location of those diamonds.  And the villainous Mark Hamill pounds a chopstick - the last nail - into the coffin bearing any type-casting baggage from his squeaky-clean Luke Skywalker days.

If you are a fan of horror with a dose of sarcasm, this is a must-see for you.  Also, it is amazing to watch Cortney Palm's performance as a silent film star for the majority of the movie.  One glance, one salty tear, one slight movement of her toes - so subtle as to be almost imperceptible, and genius.

"Sushi Girl" played to a packed house at Grauman's Chinese Theater

Cortney Palm, the ravishing "Sushi Girl"

The irrepressible Tony Todd kindly poses with me and my niece, Erin