who has ever dreamed of jettisoning one's stale living standards and to start again a new life on a new basis? Such is the case in this film with Mathias (André Dussollier), a disillusioned professor who is sick of the world which surrounds him. To provide him solace, one night one of his Japanese students offers him a dish of sushi and finds it delicious. With his advice and a little help from his friends including his mistress Claire and Richard Souriceau (Jean-François Stévenin) a failed but cheerful man, he opens a home deliveries firm specialized in sushi, "Sushi-Express". At first, the firm has trouble to be profitable but with the arrival of M. Casier (Michel Aumont), it takes off and is widely known in the whole Paris. But things start to go wrong when it has to conform to the laws of marketing which make the leaders lose their identity and generosity.
With the help of three scenarists including Michka Assayas who has written a rich dictionary of rock in France, Laurent Perrin has elaborated and constructed a sparkling little comedy which plays on gags, witty remarks and comical situations. But the director goes beyond this and brings his thoughts about the leading of a firm which takes vertiginous proportions are to be found in the second part of the film. By conforming to the laws of money and profit, the values of money and a snobbish behavior will perhaps dwarf pure human qualities. And the film brings out an image of the world of work which rings true like this scene when the four main characters ask in turn to a Japanese chef if he's all right and the latter replies yes with every time a slightly irritated tone. Ditto for the representation of Paris with his inhabitants always in a hurry.
The drawbacks of "Sushi Sushi" are the character of André Dussollier. It's a little hard to swallow that he's ready to open a home delivery firms given the cynical vision he holds about the world. His trouble to keep her mistress as she's attracted to a young, ambitious go-getter are less interesting than the rest. And the actors act characters who are a little stereotyped. But it doesn't stop the audience to enjoy an eminently watchable flick buoyed by playful actors. I would grant a mention to Michel Aumont, this sponsor who refuses to rub shoulders with high society and I dig his line :"I don't come to the world, the world comes to me".
