Jiro Dreams of Sushi: Preserving A Way of Life

 

Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2011) chronicles the day-to-day work life of 85-year-old Jiro Ono, a world-renowned sushi chef and owner of Sukiyabashi Jiro, a prestigious ten-seat sushi restaurant in Tokyo, the only restaurant of its kind with a three star Michelin rating. Although this prestige attracts sushi lovers from around the world to make reservations months in advance for one of the few seats at Jiro’s sushi bar, it is Jiro and his sons, rather than the restaurant, that provide focus for this revealing documentary.

Although the film’s production notes suggest the film “is a thoughtful and elegant meditation on work, family, and the art of perfection,” however, the relationship between Jiro and his eldest son moves beyond revealing the complexity of Jiro’s multiple roles as culinary success and loving but demanding father. The relationship also reveals the changing attitudes toward the environment that must be embraced for the dream of sushi to continue. In order to continue the traditions Jiro establishes as a sushi master, his eldest son Yoshikazu must encourage an aquatic conservation missing from Jiro’s experience. The drive to maintain his father’s reputation as a sushi master, then, parallels the desire to preserve the sea life that sustains it.