East Side Sushi is a 2015 American film about a Mexican-American single mother of a young girl, and her father, struggling with her father’s fresh fruit business in Oakland, California, selling fruit via a street cart. One day, Juana becomes robbed by two Mexican thugs while standing by her cart. They steal all her money, which discourages her from returning to selling fruit with a cart. It also signals her that she needs a change to create a better future for her family. Her father doesn’t want her to quit because he wants to work on his own business.
She seeks other jobs, until she finds kitchen work at a Japanese restaurant, Osaka. She does well in the kitchen, cleaning as well as learning to make all the Japanese dishes. She is fast, accurate, clean, enthusiastic, and she learns fast on the job. Her work impresses one of the Japanese sushi chefs, and they bond together as friends. She wants to work at the front sushi bar, but her friend tells her that the owner only wants Japanese men working at the front so that food will appear more authentic Japanese. She argues that she had proved that she can do all the food on the menu. But they still tell her that she belongs in the kitchen.
She decides to send a video for her sushi making to a Sushi Chef Competition that will be streamed on the internet. But she applies as “James Martinez” to be considered as an applicant. Her friend supports her by gifting her a sushi knife. They accept her in the competition because they like her video. When she arrives at the competition, the receptionist is shocked that the applicant is a woman named Juana, not a man named James. The receptionist talks with the others in the back, and they feel it is too late to make any changes. Besides, her video must have been good anyway.
She goes through hair and makeup, wears a white chef jacket, and ties her late mother’s lilac scarf around her forehead for good luck. She does well in the competition, competing with four Asian men, but she comes in, in second place. A Japanese man won the competition. Osaka employees, including the owner, had watched her performance on the internet video, and they were sad that she didn’t win first prize. At the end, the owner hired her to be a Sushi Chef, working at the front sushi bar. Her father, daughter, and her Japanese Sushi friend hang at a restaurant booth, eating Japanese food. The owner used her dish from the competition, Green Diablo Sushi, in the menu.
It is a good movie about starting out at the bottom and working hard to a better position, despite obstacles in the way. She proved herself to the Japanese owner, Asian employees, and the customers who liked her dishes. She also used her creativity to create innovative dishes with a Mexican accent.
