Institute History
Description
Things are lively, as usual, at the offbeat New York City pizzeria known as Pizza Napoli. The customers' eyes are glued to a wild gospel-style canzone performance led by the blues harmonica of Japanese-American waitress Mitsuko Takada. The singers are pizza chef Twobird Pielotta and Mamma Giulietta. You might not think it to look at them, but muscle-bound Twobird and slim, petite Mitsuko are, in fact, lesbian lovers.
Everything changes when Mitsuko receives a letter from her father Juro, who lives in Los Angeles. He tells her he's planning to shut down the California Dancing Sushi Bar, the shop he's run for years, the shop that, for Mitsuko, symbolizes the memory of her dead mother. Mitsuko tells Twobird she's going back to L.A. Embracing her, Twobird says she wants to go along.
By the time Mitsuko and Twobird arrive in L.A., the California Dancing Sushi Bar has already closed. They find Juro at home, but far from worrying about the situation, he's completely wrapped up in a strange sort of therapy for his alcoholism. Mitsuko explodes with fury. Thus begins her long struggle to re-open the shop by any means necessary.
With nowhere else to turn, Mitsuko is forced to borrow money from her vengeful stepmother Isabella. After many travails, Mitsuko is finally able to buy the shop back from the bank, only to find that the alcoholic Juro is no longer able to make sushi. His body shakes and shimmies like a jitterbug king. Even worse, Juro has made enemies of all the other sushi bars in L.A. There's not a single sushi chef in the city who will agree to help them out in their time of need. Mitsuko begs Juro to teach her how to make sushi, but his flat refusal comes straight from traditional Japan: "Woman can't be sushi chefs." Mitsuko turns to Twobird for help. Twobird reminds her, "I'm a woman too, you know." Still, Mitsuko's answer is hard to argue with: "Yeah, but my dad thinks you're a man."
Twobird's sushi training begins. In truth, however, Mitsuko takes care of all the difficult parts from behind the scenes.
However, every time they cross a hurdle, a new one appears. On the shop's opening day, Isabella and Juro get into an explosive argument. Out for revenge, Isabella decides to get back at them by opening a horribly gaudy sushi restaurant, right across the street. Once again, the Dancing Sushi Bar is in serious trouble. And to make matters worse, Twobird finds out that she's pregnant.
Mistakenly convinced that Twobird has been cheating on her, a furious Mitsuko decides to use the "male pregnancy" as publicity for the sushi bar. She contacts the press. Incredibly, this desperate strategy bears instant fruit. Twobird becomes famous overnight as the world's first male pregnancy, and the revived shop is re-named Mr. P's Dancing Sushi Bar. The 'P' is for pregnancy.
However, trouble looms on the horizon once again: after hearing the news, Giulietta appears from New York, determined to take Twobird back home with her. Taken to the hospital after fainting from the shock of it all, Twobird has reached the limits of her endurance. She opens her heart to Mitsuko, confessing that the baby was conceived when she was raped in New York. Mitsuko tells Twobird for the first time that she, too, was conceived in a rape. She confesses her love and tells Twobird that she wants to marry her and bring up the baby together.
A dramatic, fast-paced comedy, MR. P'S DANCING SUSHI BAR explores contemporary sexuality, the discovery of multi-cultural values, and the creation of new life in the souls of violated individuals.