We Are Tomodachi Spring 2018

7/38

7Japan is that even average consumers pay considerable attention to where their food originates from, whether it be meat, fish, vegetables, rice, or anything else. If it’s fish, they want to know where in Japan it was sourced from. If it’s beef, they again want to know the region, because they know the differences between beef from Kobe, Matsusaka, and Sendai. They also put tremendous emphasis on eating seasonal ingredients. In the U.S., consumers generally don’t pay that much attention to where the food originates from, and when they order a meal, I rarely see people discussing which fish or vegetables are at the peak of the season. In the U.S. people are more concerned about whether or not something is organic. I was intrigued to see how Japanese select their food in the same way Americans select wine based on the year, region, and type of grape.”One of Lucero’s favorite foods in Japan was yakitori, chicken dipped in or brushed with sauce and then hand-grilled over charcoal. He couldn’t put his finger on the secret to its remarkable flavor until he realized that many restaurants in Japan use a specific kind of charcoal, called bincho-tan charcoal, to give the yakitori a distinctive, more complex taste. “In the U.S., it is difficult to find restaurants that hand-grill their food over charcoal. But in Japan many restaurants post signs saying that they use this special charcoal, and again consumers are very aware of how that affects the taste.”Lucero also noticed that the Japanese approach to food was very similar to how he had made East Side Sushi. “Western food is about adding spices and seasonings in the right combinations to make a delicious dish, just like how many of the movies I had worked on previously incorporated lots of visual effects. But Japanese food tries to bring out the ingredients’ natural flavor with a minimum of spices, like using no visual effects in a movie and instead relying on the strength of the story and the acting to pull the viewer along. I could feel the chefs’ pursuit of pureness in Japanese cuisine and I feel I too was trying to capture a pureness in my film,” Lucero explained.One thing that left a deep impression on Lucero is that some Japanese people who watched his movie commented he had a Japanese soul. “At first I wasn’t quite sure what they meant, but after traveling around Japan, I came to appreciate the spirit of Japanese craftsmanship much more fully. Japanese craftsmen—including those pursuing the craft of sushi making—put their soul into their work to the point that their work becomes art. I put my soul into my film, and I am glad that my passion transcends across borders and people.”Lucero now lives in Los Angeles and is searching for an opportunity to use these and other areas of inspiration in his life to create his next film. After discussing East Side Sushi with Chukyo University Senior High School students in Nagoya, at an event co-hosted with the U.S. Embassy.Giving a talk at the American Center Japan in Tokyo after screening East Side Sushi, hosted by the U.S. Embassy.Bumping into locals at a yakitori restaurant in Kyoto. The secret ingredient was the bincho-tan charcoal.Anthony LuceroWorked as a visual effects engineer for George Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic on Star Wars: Episodes I & II, Pirates of the Caribbean, Iron Man, The Mummy, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, etc. Resigned his engineering position and went on to make the film East Side Sushi, which earned 14 awards and led to his trip to Japan. ©Blue Sun Pictures