Woman Places Camera on Sushi Conveyor Belt and the Results Are Amazing

Conveyor belts in sushi restaurants are useful for on demand food—and over-estimating just how much you're going to eat—but now they've been proven to have a whole other use.

Julia Franco was visiting sushi restaurant Sushi Sumo in LA when she decided to place her phone on the conveyor belt while filming. The results were incredible and have been dubbed "cinematic" by some of the 12 million people who viewed it.

On July 21, Franco shared the video to TikTok, writing simply: "Putting my phone on the sushi conveyor belt."

After she placed the phone upright on the conveyor belt, along came the smiles, waves and overwhelmingly, peace signs.

Customers noticed one by one as the phone slowly approached them, causing joy among them as they laughed and smiled, nudging their companions.

At one point the phone even knocked over, only for a man to safely prop it back up and allow for the filming to be continued.

While those who noticed and posed for the footage have sparked infectious joy with viewers, one woman who didn't notice the phone's interaction has become the centre of compliments.

The woman who was eating alone thanked the waiter after he handed her the cheque

"When it got to that one woman with the pink suspenders and the waiter came up to her, it looks like part of a movie," wrote one TikTok user.

"It's so cinematic," commented another user.

"I love how comfortable and nice everyone was," noted another.

Franco's video is impressive in its own right, but it isn't the first time a sushi conveyor belt video has gone viral online.

In 2018, American YouTuber TkyoSam, who shares his life living abroad, also shared a video using a sushi conveyor belt as a filming tool—this time in Japan. Unlike Franco however, the reaction online sparked by the video wasn't as receptive.

In the video, diners at Sushiro were receptive to the camera, often smiling and waving at the camera, or in the case of one young male, jokingly flipping it off.

The video captured the separate eating booths in the restaurant and froze time on menial conversations and moments, or as TkyoSam called it a "beautiful slice of Japanese life."

Commenters celebrated how the video captured "separate little bubble worlds," and dubbed it "fascinating" and "calming." However, not all were so on board.

Many dubbed it an invasion of privacy and in response, Akindo Sushiro banned cameras from their chains. "It is not permissible from the viewpoint of hygiene management and the privacy of visitors who visited us. We will consider strict response, including legal measures," said the chain restaurant in a statement at the time.

TkyoSam however explained his reasoning in a comment on the video, noting that, "when i took the video everybody was happy with it, not a single person came up to me and asked me to delete the video."

"When I got the camera back the staff were extremely nice about the whole situation. I said thank you and left and everybody was smiling and we all went out for ice cream and high fives afterwards," he wrote.

Newsweek has contacted Julia Franco for comment.