This John Wick Food Scene Could Kill You If You Tried It

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By Karen Hart/Aug. 3, 2021 9:59 am EST

If John Wick fans have learned anything over the course of the character's three movies, it is this: Don't mess with Wick's dogs. However, if you are a sushi fan watching this trilogy, that might not be the life lesson you walk away with. John Wick's third installment, "John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum," definitely has sushi lovers talking, but not about all the cool fight scenes. Nope, it's the scene involving the sushi bar assassins that has foodies pausing and rewinding.

Why this scene? Well, it is not the cat sitting on top of the sushi bar — a clear health code violation — that happily receives fishy scrapes from sushi assassin Zero played by Mark Dacascos. Nor is it Dacascos' perfect casting, as he also plays the role of the chairman on "The Iron Chef," that keeps foodies up late at night deep in thought and conversation. Rather, it's the fish that Zero is hacking up with his effortless knife skills that is fueling a conversation. Per Insider, sushi master Endo Kazutoshi rated nine sushi scenes and his biggest problem — but not his only — with the "John Wick" sushi bar assassins scene is the fugu or puffer fish that Zero slices into to serve to the Adjudicator, who has been tasked with cleaning up the whole John Wick mess. Here's why.

Fugu requires a license to serve

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Sushi master Endo Kazutoshi explains that there are a wide variety of fugu and you actually need a special license to prepare and serve this fish. Per Insider, Kazutoshi said, "There are types of fugu skin you can eat and others you can't eat, but as a rule, you can't eat organs. If you eat fugu with a little blood on it, it depends on the amount, but you could even die from it. Hence, you need to be really careful." And this is not hyperbole.

The BBC explains that fugu carry a highly poisonous toxin called tetrodotoxin. It can be found in the skin, ovaries, liver, and intestines. Kunio Miura-san, who specializes in preparing fugu, described the lethalness of the poison to BBC: "People say it is 200 times more deadly than cyanide." It even requires a special method to dispose of those pieces so the fish does not contaminate other foods and put diners at risk.

Kautoshi goes on to share you are also required to use "a separate cutting board, knife, and gloves specifically for fugu" when preparing this delicacy — none of which happens in "John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum." For this reason, he only gives the scene a 6 out of 10 citing as his final verdict, "It's no realism, unfortunately. This preparation is not perfect. That's very, very dangerous."