Latest news with #Jinsei
Eater
4 days ago
- Business
- Eater
Malort Headquarters Serves Some of Chicago's Fanciest Sushi
Joto Sushi's beverage pairings for its sushi omakase meals do not include Jeppson's Malört. Chicago's famous bitter spirit, savored by the city's two-fisted drinkers, was made on premises at CH Distillery, where Joto opened this spring off Randolph Street in the West Loop. In recent months, the spirit's production has shifted to Pilsen. Still, the drink's connoisseurs visit CH as a pilgrimage, but their visits reveal a surprise. The home of the nation's most polarizing liquor also serves a 14-course omakase sushi feast featuring dry-aged bluefin tuna for a relatively affordable price of $125. There's also a 19-course variation Thursday through Sunday, and they've launched a more affordable Monday omakase for $100 aimed at drawing restaurant and bar workers who have the day off. There's feelings of anxiousness and curiosity for those who walk in, says CH Distillery General Manager Tony Frausto: 'They think we're just a bar, then they literally ask 'oh you guys do sushi?'' CH Distillery has no ties to Japanese cuisine or culture. The West Loop bar began serving sushi in March 2022 during the pandemic, using the name Jinsei Motto. It was one of those trademarked pandemic pivots to make use of its kitchen, left unused after COVID dining restrictions. After four successful years, building a strong following of regular customers, Jinsei closed in April. Co-founder and chef Patrick Bouaphanh plans on opening a new restaurant using the Jinsei name. Frausto calls the story of Jinsei a happy one, a tale of overcoming adversity and doing what he calls the best sushi in Chicago. The founders' departures gave CH an opportunity for a reset, to reimagine the space. They've added a kitchen for yakitori, donburi, and more veggie options: 'Our biggest challenge is that not everybody likes sushi,' Frausto says. Dry aging is the centerpiece of the menu. The process, about 32 days, imparts different flavors, and, as Frausto says, it also helps sustainability efforts. For folks who don't like salmon, Frausto estimates that about 40 percent of the population, dry aging can eliminate the oily texture some dislike, making it melt in your mouth. At Joto, they enjoy talking to customers about the process. The kitchen goes through about 250 pounds of tuna per week. The malört business was going so swimmingly with efforts to sell the liquor across state lines. Thus, CH needed to move production to a larger facility that could handle said success. Moving distillery equipment gave management the chance to redecorate a bit. They've taken steps to make it feel more like the streets of Tokyo. Joto Sushi , inside CH Distillery, 564 W. Randolph Street Sign up for our newsletter.
Japan Times
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Japan Times
For his first feature film, director Ryuya Suzuki created a masterpiece
Film — whether live-action or animation — is an inherently collaborative medium. Even with a strong-willed director at the helm, a movie is pieced together by a cast and crew of dozens or even hundreds of people. Unless you're Ryuya Suzuki. Suzuki, 30, emerged on Japan's indie animation scene during the COVID-19 pandemic with a series of self-produced short films. Then, over the course of 18 months and entirely by himself, he animated his first feature film, 'Jinsei,' which debuted in Japan on Friday. 'Jinsei' (also known as 'Mumei no Jinsei,' or 'nameless life'), follows the life of a boy from rural Japan (voiced by rapper Ace Cool) who lives in a run-down apartment with his father-in-law (Shohei Uno) after his mother is killed by an elderly driver. The sullen boy is picked on by his classmates but eventually makes a friend who convinces him to audition to be part of a boy band. As the story unfolds, the protagonist faces both triumph and tragedy over a life that eventually spans an entire century. The film, which probes themes of identity and societal issues with a dark comic touch, was created by Suzuki as he went, without knowing where the story would lead. 'Rather than a script, I started with a format,' Suzuki says. 'The idea was to tell the story of a person's life over the course of about 10 chapters.' Among his inspirations were classic films like 'Citizen Kane' and 'Scarface' as well as the 2021 Norwegian comedy-drama 'The Worst Person in the World,' all of which trace the lives of their protagonists over an extended period of time. Over the course of 18 months and entirely on his own, Ryuya Suzuki animated his first feature film, 'Jinsei.' | Matt Schley Growing up, Suzuki was a frequent visitor to his local video rental store, with punchy films like Kinji Fukasaku's 'Battle Royale' inspiring him to become a filmmaker. But after graduating from the Tohoku University of Art and Design and working for a small production company in Tokyo, he felt burnt out and eventually found himself working for — and later running — an oyster bar in the Kabukicho entertainment district. When the pandemic shut down the bar, Suzuki decided to reach for a nearby iPad (nominally the bar's digital cash register) and install some animation software. 'The biggest reason I got into animation was that it didn't cost any money,' says Suzuki. 'I started out thinking I'd draw some illustrations, then decided to animate those illustrations and turn them into a short film. I just kind of jumped in.' The result was 'Mahoroba,' a roughly 10-minute dark satire about the issues of the day like overwork and the effects of the pandemic. The short won awards at festivals such as the Shimokitazawa Film Festival and Pia Film Festival and, along with his next short, 'Lawless Love,' put Suzuki on the map of Japan's indie animation scene. 'My first two shorts went to festivals around Japan and built up some word of mouth,' says Suzuki. 'So I thought the timing was right to try my hand at a feature.' To fund the feature, Suzuki turned to crowdfunding, setting a goal of ¥1.5 million (about $10,000), figuring that would cover his basic needs and equipment as he moved back from Tokyo to his family home in Sendai to focus full-time on the film. The maximum donation was set at ¥3,000, for which each supporter received a hand-drawn portrait in the film's closing credits. Each day of Suzuki's 18-month production schedule followed a similar pattern: Wake up (usually around noon, five years of working in Kabukicho having transformed him into a night owl), put together a plan for the day's work, then sit down at his iPad and animate for about 10 hours, only stopping to eat and bathe. Despite the solitude, Suzuki rarely lost motivation. 'The fact that I didn't have a script was a big factor,' he says. 'I myself didn't know what was coming up next. It felt like a kind of game.' While he didn't have a script, he did have a theme: names and the way they shape your life. Over the course of his 100 years, the protagonist is given all manner of nicknames by the people he encounters, each reflecting a different aspect of his personality — with only his given name conspicuously absent. 'When I was working at that bar, all of the regulars had nicknames, and when we became friends on social media, they had separate nicknames there, too,' says Suzuki. 'I realized you pick up so many names as you go through life. Which one is your 'real' name? How do these names help form your identity? I found that idea fascinating.' From life in rural Japan to joining a boy band, the protagonist of "Jinsei" (voiced by rapper Ace Cool) faces both triumph and tragedy. | © Ryuya Suzuki After about a year of work, Suzuki finally got his first round of feedback when he showed a rough cut to animator Kenji Iwaisawa, whose 2019 'On-Gaku: Our Sound' was made with a similar DIY, one-man-band spirit. 'He said it was good enough for a theatrical release, which was a huge relief,' says Suzuki. One key bit of casting was the choice of rapper Ace Cool, who had never acted either on-camera or in a vocal booth, as the film's protagonist. 'While making the film I was listening to a lot of Japanese hip-hop, and that's when I discovered his music,' Suzuki says. 'I felt a link between his album and the film, as both had an introspective feel, and I thought it would be interesting for a non-actor to play the role.' When going through official channels didn't lead to a response, Suzuki sent Ace Cool a direct message on Instagram. The rapper responded and, after looking over materials sent by the director, said yes. 'He told me later that direct message was what sealed the deal,' says Suzuki. The rest of the cast is made up of an eclectic group that includes actors Kanji Tsuda ('Sonatine') and Taketo Tanaka ('Hijacked Youth: Dare to Stop Us 2'), comedian Ryotaro Nishino of the manzai group Synchronicity and TV newscaster Miho Ohashi. 'There are a lot of different things going on in the film, so I thought it fit to have a cast from many walks of life,' Suzuki says. Following the film's release in Japan, it will play at France's Annecy International Animation Film Festival in its Feature Films Contrechamp section. Suzuki plans to attend in person. And for his next project, the director plans to return to the dark comedy vein. 'I want to keep making films with the power to surprise audiences, the same way 'Battle Royale' and 'Scarface' surprised me,' he says. One big difference: He wants his next project to be live-action. 'After all,' he says, 'I can always go back to sitting in a room and animating once I'm old.' 'Jinsei' is currently screening at select theaters nationwide. For more information, visit (Japanese only).
