“Jiro Dreams Of Sushi” David Gelb’s Documentary About Food

How ordinary food has turned into an extraordinary movie

East meets West

How can a documentary film like “Jiro Dreams Of Sushi” (2011) provide its audience with as much cinematic joy as a feature film?

“Jiro Dreams Of Sushi” tells us the story of delicious food, exotic culture, and great music. Though a documentary, “Jiro Dreams Of Sushi” moves us with its sensory details and uplifting message.

“Jiro Dreams Of Sushi” is a film about Japanese culture created by an American filmmaker, David Gelb. His cinematic grammars express a deep understanding and appreciation of Eastern culture resulting in a superb cultural combination where East meets West.

David Gelb uses Western classical music like Tchaikovsky, Mozart, Bach, and Philip Glass, a contemporary avant-garde composer as a background music for a documentary about Japanese culinary art.

He intends his musical choice to convey the movie’s universal message, “the nobility of a human pursuit” represented by a trivial deed of Jiro’s sushi making.

Repetition and a quest for perfection

Philip Glass’s repetitive motif, his musical signature, serves best to underscore the relentless quest of Jiro. Philip Glass happens to be David Gelb’s favorite composer.

As ‘an enthusiastic Philip Glass’s fan,’ he talks about the use of Glass’s music in his movie.

“In hindsight, I think it works because Philip Glass’s music is a kind of metaphor for Jiro’s work ethic because it’s repetitive but it also builds on itself and escalates, and it’s the same with Jiro’s work. Because every day he’s going, he’s doing the same routine and trying to do everything exactly the same, but just reaching for the one-step improvement, and I feel like the music’s doing the same thing, so they match perfectly.” 1

In the opening scene, Tchaikovsky’s Concerto in the background serves as an overture to the movie. Tchaikovsky’s music elevates the banality of Jiro’s trivial job into the sublime level.

The scene starts with Jiro’s speech, “You must love and respect your job no matter how insignificant. Your job demands total dedication from you, regardless.” Throughout the movie, Jiro never fails to keep his words.

Who is Jiro?

Jiro Ono is a three-star Michelin sushi master.

He is the owner of Sukiyabashi Jiro hidden underneath Tokyo subway station. At 85, retirement never enters his mind. Hospitalization for heart attack in his seventies never deters him from his dream of achieving ideal sushi.

One day in the life of Jiro doesn’t differ from any other for its routine, monotony and repetitiveness. Besides making sushi, a career he started in his teens, his day is uneventful.

Never has Jiro taken a day off from his job except for his only hospitalization or funeral attending. Day in and day out, Jiro gets up at dawn, takes the subway to work, and selects the best ingredients for his sushi of the day.

From ordinary to extraordinary

David Gelb, the American director, seems to have a profound understanding of Japanese culture. He regards sushi as a microcosm of Japanese worldview.

Sushi originates from a common food for workers to eat at a roadside food stall. In making a movie about the ordinary sushi, David Gelb has made the ordinary extraordinary.

How can a common and ordinary food become extraordinary?

Again, it is not an overstatement to say that sushi could be almost a miniature embodiment of Zen Buddhism whose ultimate truth lies in simplicity. All great thinkers, East or West, agree that simplicity is far from simple.

Hence, to achieve the most exquisite, yet simple sushi, Jiro needs to dedicate his whole life.

In an age of fast food, disposable commodities, and overconsumption, it’s such a rarity to see someone spends their lifetime crafting a tiny bite-size food. These people are trying to conserve the beauty of traditional culture against the influx of modernization.

Eating sushi at Sukiyabashi Jiro is like going to a concert

As the film progresses, the audience witnesses that far from its simple look, making sushi is intricate and time-consuming.

In making his sushi, Jiro never settles for less. All seafood ingredients must pass a delicate cooking process. An apprentice must knead an octopus over and over for at least 45 minutes to soften its texture. So, sushi consumers can savor the real taste of the octopus. The same goes for rice used in making sushi.

No wonder, undaunted by a year-long reservation, diners will wait and pay a steep price just to taste Jiro’s delicacy. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

The ‘voice-over’ of Yamamoto, a famous Japanese food critic, compares Sukiyabashi Jiro’s dinner to attend a concert for their similarity in aesthetic experiences. Each of Jiro’s sushi course is akin to a Concerto movement.

Bach’s background music in this scene underscores the message.

Nothing is more praiseworthy about mankind than this determination to fight despite the looming loss. Perhaps Jiro knows deep down that he can never achieve his perfect sushi. Somehow, undaunted and passionate, he never gives up.

For the audience, Jiro’s admirable and relentless pursuit counts. His grit and perseverance can make anyone proud. He is always true to himself no matter what. It’s the process, not the outcome that matters.

Though not achieving his dream, Jiro makes better sushi. At least, his three-star Michelin endorses his endeavor.

Philip Glass, like Jiro Ono, can turn the mundane routine in human life into a lofty art. The repetitive motif in his music captures the tragic boredom of life’s monotony.

Even though intensifying this absurdity of human existence at its best, his music shows human tolerance and the ability to turn the negative into the positive. No composer serves better to tell Jiro’s story.

Jiro dreams of his perfect sushi. What a foolish, yet heroic mankind!

https://en.wikipedia.org/Jiro_Dreams_of_Sushi

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