Jiro Dreams of Sushi

Jiro Dreams of Sushi is a documentary about Jiro Ono, an 85-year-old sushi master who runs Sukiyabashi Jiro, a tiny restaurant of about ten seats in a Tokyo underground passage. The menu offers only sushi, yet the place holds three Michelin stars and requires reservations far in advance. Jiro devotes himself to his craft with relentless discipline, still pursuing an ideal of perfection after decades at the counter. The film's central conflict lies not only in that pursuit but in its cost to those around him, particularly his eldest son, Yoshikazu, who trains under his father while knowing he will eventually inherit the restaurant and the expectations that come with it.

David Gelb directed the film, his first feature, followed in later years by The Lazarus Effect, Obi-Wan Kenobi: A Jedi's Return and Stan Lee. Kevin Iwashina and Tom Pellegrini produced. The film presents Jiro, Yoshikazu, Takashi Ono, Masuhiro Yamamoto, Daisuke Nakazama and Hachiro Mizutani as themselves, letting its subjects speak rather than relying on a narrator.

Released in 2011 and running 82 minutes, the documentary earned about 3 million dollars worldwide, a modest return that nonetheless far exceeded its small scale. On IMDb it holds 7.8/10 from around 40,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.7/10 from roughly 800 votes, indicating a strongly positive and fairly consistent audience response. A critics' rating of 7.8/10 from 93 reviews matches that reception closely, suggesting the film was received about as well by reviewers as by viewers.