Tampopo

Rating:
Summary: Howdy There Pahdner!
Review: I'm guessing that the director, Itami, had a great love for all the movie genres, including Westerns, gangster movies, comedies, you name it, because they are all loving reflected in this movie.

As others have noted, the plot is definitely patterned after Italian Spaghetti Westerns--a handsome but weathered character (Goro) comes into town and spots a widowed mother in distress (Tampopo). With the help of his eccentric friends (including a band of culinary hobos that sing in exquisite harmony a farewell song whenever their leader leaves them for a time), Goro helps Tampopo turn her fortunes around by becoming a noodle soup master! I could definitely see John Wayne playing the part of Goro every time he adjusted the brim of his cowboy hat or the bandana around his neck.

In addition to the main story line of the winsome noodle shop owner, several unconnected episodes are included. What ties them all together seems to be the theme of enjoying and appreciating and living for food, from the story of the noodle master imparting his wisdom on the perfect noodle soup to the disciple, to the old woman who sneakily wanders through an upscale grocery store just to TOUCH food, to the charismatic gangster whose dying words to his lover are about the wonders of an esoteric food delicacy, the intestines of freshly killed boars who have dined on yams that make a natural yam sausage.

Sounds odd, I know, but the director has a warm, affectionate viewpoint that lets us enjoy the eccentricities of the characters while still feeling good about them. There is not the faintest trace of meanness or cynicism in this movie. Laugh out loud scenes make this one of the funniest movies I've seen in years, and the honesty and poignancy of the wonderful characters will make this movie live in my memory for many years.

Rating:
Summary: The Wild Bunch at the noodle shop. Slurp!
Review: There are any number of very funny scenes in this lightly plotted and highly episodic romantic comedy from acclaimed Japanese director Juzo Itami. You may recall him as the guy who got in trouble with the Yakuza, the Japanese "mafia," because they didn't like the way he made fun of them in Minbo no onna (1992). You may also know that he committed suicide at the age of 64 in 1997 after being accused of adultery. He is the son of samurai film maker Mansaku Itami. I mention this since one of the things satirized here are samurai films.

But--and perhaps this is the secret of Itami's success both in Japan and elsewhere--the satire is done with a light, almost loving touch. Even though he also takes dead aim at spaghetti westerns and the Japanese love affair with food, especially their predilection for fast food noodle soup, at no time is there any rancor or ugliness in his treatment.

If you've seen any Itami film you will be familiar with his star, his widow, Nobuko Miyamoto, she of the very expressive face, who is perhaps best known for her role as the spirited tax collector in Itami's The Taxing Woman (1987) and The Taxing Woman Returns (1988). She has appeared in all of his films. Here she is Tampopo ("Dandelion"), a not entirely successful proprietor of a noodle restaurant. Along comes not Jones but Tsutmu Yamazaki as Goro, a kind of true grit, but big-hearted Japanese urban cowboy. He ambles up to the noodle bar and before long establishes himself as a kind of John Wayne hero intent on teaching Tampopo how the good stuff is made. Along the way Itami makes fun of stuffy bureaucrats, macho Japanese males, heroic death scenes, Japanese princesses attempting to acquire a European eating style, movie fight scenes, and God knows what else.

The comedy is bizarre at times. The sexual exchange of an egg yoke between the man in the white suit (Koji Yakusho) and his mistress (Fukumi Kuroda) might make you laugh or it might just gross you out. The enthusiastic description of the "yam sausages" from inside a wild boar is strange. Surely one is not salivating at such an entre, but one can imagine that such a "delicacy" might surely exist and have its devotees.

Indeed an Itami film has a kind of logic all its own. An exemplary scene is that of the stressed and dying mother of two young children, who is ordered by her husband to "Get up and cook!" This (reasonably relevant) scene is juxtaposed with the one with the college professor which is about being and getting ripped off--which seems to have little to do with the rest of the movie, yet somehow seems appropriate, perhaps only because they are at a restaurant. Another typical Itami scene is the businessmen at supper. They hem and haw until their chief orders and then they all pretend to debate and consider, and then order exactly the same thing except for one brash young guy who dazzles (and embarrasses) the old sycophantic guys by order a massive meal in French with all the trimmings.

The climax of the film comes with plenty of musical fanfare. As Goro and others sit down at the counter, they are served Tampopo's final culinary creation, the noodle soup now hopefully honed to perfection. As the tension mounts, a musical accompaniment, reminiscent of something like the clock ticking in High Noon (1952), rises to a crescendo. All the while Tampopo sweats and frets and prays that she will triumph, which will be in evidence if, and only if, they drain their soup bowls! (Do they?)

The final credits roll (after some further misdirections and some further burlesque) over a most endearing and ultimately touching shot of a young mother with a beautiful and contented infant feeding at her breast.

Perhaps this was Itami's best film.

Rating:
Summary: Bizarre but excellent
Review: The movie starts with a mafia character entering a movie theater, ordering a banquet and talking about how he hates interruptions (he threatens one of the audience with death if he chews during the movie), and then talks about how he doesn't want to be interrupted when he life flashes before his eyes in his "last movie." Of the course of the movie, he also appears and demonstrates his weird food fetish.

Then while the main male character Goro is on the road with his partner Gun, they read some book about a man who looks at the pork while eating ramen, and everything is to apologize and to appreciate to the pork.

Then Goro entering the restaurant trains this woman named Tampopo how to cook noodles, and while she cooks there is the background music that was from the old serial Flash Gordon. This is the main story.

Then there is a woman who squeezes food at the supermarket. After chasing her around, the guy sneaks up behindc her and slaps her hand with a fly swatter.

Finally, there is this woman who is found dead by her neighbors. Her husband sees her like this, and asks why she is lying down when she should be cooking. So she gets up, fries some rice, and serves up to them. She hears them compliment then falls over again.

Rating:
Summary: A gem in the tradition of movies about food
Review: After one rental viewing, I had to own this hysterical, absurd parody of Japanese food, culture, and the American Western. From the beginning scene when a well-dressed connoisseur of food and film introduces the film - and rules of film etiquette - to the segue into the real "movie" with Goro, our hero, complete with cowboy hat and riding in his tanker truck, cab decorated on top with a pair of bull horns, this film celebrates everything it purports to, including Japanese food and film.

Goro decides to mentor Tampopo, the owner of a corner noodle stand in improving her apparently very sub-par soup. There ensues a montage of preparation and work-outs that could if been lifted straight from "Rocky."

Excellent scene, as well in which a group of homeless people review various 4 star restaurant establishments based on their leftovers. Genius.

A wider variety of cinematographic choices - close ups, approaching shots, and vaseline-lensed romance sequences - are almost characters in and of themselves, adding to the absurdity of Tampopo.

The sometimes meandering quality of the film gives us a wonderful window into the role of food in EVERY aspect of Japanese life.

The acting performances are solid. I can imagine the fun they had making "Tampopo".

Some of the funniest parts of the film are the references to various hack devices from American Westerns. The absurdity of a showdown over a bowl of Ramen noodles is brilliant.

I see funny new details everytime I view this film, and I plan to do so MANY more times.

Rating:
Summary: very funny, great scenes
Review: This is one of my favorite food-based movies. In this movie, the food truely takes the center stage. The main plot centers around Tampopo, a woman running a small noodle soup shop, trying to improve the quality of her noodles & soup. She is taught by a collection of noodle-experts from the unlikiest walks of life: a truck driver, a homeless noodle master, etc.

The scene where the truck driver is coaching and timing her with a stopwatch (like an olympian in training) as she prepares food is one of several hilarious scenes in the movie. Her actions and expressions are great! You may find yourself going back to re-watch a couple of the sequences after you finish the movie -- they are quite funny.

Another scene shows a noodle-master teaching an apprentice the art of eating a bowl of noodles - very funny.

As a aside, Tampopo actually makes some excellent examples throughout the movie about customer service in general, knowing your customers, studying your competition. For example, the truck driver points out that she should look at each customer entering her restaurant to figure out whether the person is in a hurry, being leisurely, etc. And when the customer finishes, is there any soup left, why?

Another good sequence is when one of her competitors discovers that she and the trucker have not finished eating their soup, is insulted, and confronts them.

The subplots also all center around food in different settings ranging from: a business meeting, a hobo breaking into a restaurant in order to cook a gourmet omelet, women being taught how to eat noodles when visiting a foreign country, and an especially sensual sequence of the use of food in the bedroom.

The sensual food use was quite sensual and well done, if not somewhat bizarre. These sequences involve some brief nudity, but are quite suggestive and very well done as such. But, this is also the reason I'm giving the movie 4 stars... I know you can't (and shouldn't) make a movie that appeals to all audiences, but in this case the sensual food use is not pivotal to the main storyline and will likely prevent some people (and kids) from watching or enjoying the whole movie, even though they would have enjoyed it otherwise. I liked the whole movie very much, but I've found myself somewhat selective in which sets of friends I loan the DVD to due to these (short) sequences.

If you've seen A Taxing Woman and thought it was just ok (me too), don't let that stop you from giving Tampopo a try. I found Tampopo quite different and much funnier. If you liked A Taxing Woman then you are sure to like Tampopo.

I will certainly watch, enjoy, and laugh at Tampopo again in the future.

Rating:
Summary: A nearly flawless experience
Review: This is a masterful movie by director Juzo Itami. It is a story of the truck-drivin' cowboy Goro who strolls into town, sets things right and rides off into the sunset. Rather than kill the bad guys however, he helps a widow become sucessful running her late husbands ramen shop. Itami lends a mosiaic quality to the movie with many character sketches about food's pervasive influence on human behaviour. Tsutomu Yamazaki who plays Goro, and Nobuko Miyamoto who plays Tampopo, both from Itami's "A Taxing Woman", give wonderful performaces. The DVD contains a complete filmography that is a great window into Itami's other works. The DVD is letterbox and looks good. The sound is 3-channel, Japanese only with English subtitles selectable. The timing on the subtitles is at times sloppy, which is too bad since it is a subtitle-only release. I would have liked very much to see directors commentary but language may have restricted this. The DVD gets 4 stars for minor subtitle issues, and lack of more deluxe treatment, but I give the story, and my review, 5 stars. This is really a must have, in a decent package for a foreign film.

Rating:
Summary: Still Tastes Great
Review: I watched this one with a group of friends last night... it's been about 15 years since my first viewing and 8 since the last one. It's still brilliant, quirky and as enjoyable as ever.

A very John Wayne like truck driver plays noodle guru to a single mom struggling to be a master noodle chef. A whole host of characters are brought in to assist and some very unlikely types prove to have esoteric food knowledge. This is a quest for enlightenment in guise of perfect ramen.

The main story is broken by 2 and 3 minute glimpses into amusing (and at times bizarre) but totally unrelated stories revolving around food (with the food-sex connection illustrated vividly).

One of my favourite films.

Rating:
Summary: So where is the 'Iron Chef' when you need him ...
Review: This 1987 movie from the master director Juzo Itami was a blast for those of us that enjoy this genre of film magic .... For the Japanese, ramen soup is a fast food like hamburgers in the USA. Just like hamburgers every restaurant burger is prepared with some slight difference and everyone always tries to find the one
that matches our particular tastes.

The director pokes fun at Japanese culture and society in this modern truck driving samurai type film. Just like 'Man Woman Eat Drink' and 'The Wedding Banquet' two Chinese movie masterpieces food is one of the main characters in this movie and do not be surprised that you'll probably run to the kitchen to whip op a batch of pork ramen after watching this flick.

What I also thought was an added blast is that the young well dressed mafisoso thug with a penchant for food and food related sex resembles the host on 'The Iron Chef' weekly cooking show so much, both in appearance and actions, that I'll never be able to watch the TV show without thinking of Tampopo. LOL

Anyway this movie may not be everyone's cup of ramen but it sure ranks up there as one of the classic food movies .....

Rating:
Summary: You will be hungry for real ramen!
Review: It can be very difficult to describe this movie and what the premise or plot is. Oh, there is the central plot, make no mistake, but the entirity of the film is a flurry of sub-stories and vignettes that act like ingredients to the ever-present ramen (Japanese noodle soup) otherwise known as this brilliant gem out of Japan. The bottom line, the final product is a fancifal tale based around food and how our lives are encompassed by it, how we struggle with it, and most importantly how integral it is to human beings on the whole.

Tampopo also is an homage film to a few genres depending on the scene. For example, Goro (an obvious samurai reference) drives into town on a truck... with cow horns on the top! He wears the cowboy hat constantly and those themes are as thick as the noodles he's seeking out. There is also a tribute to Chaplin/Keaton and the silent comedies with one of the vagabonds in his efforts to make a rice omelette. There are a few mob movie shots as well, including the semi-narrator or guide of the man in the white suit. Beyond celebrating these genres, though, as well as film itself, this really is a story about food.

Tampopo is a widowed soup cook who can't really make soup. Ramen, one of the staple Japanese foods, is as varied and unique in stores throughout the town as there are chicken soup recipes in the US. She can't seem to make a good bowl, though, and Goro feeling bad for her, decides to stay on and help her out with the help of his sidekick Gun. Along the way, they pick up a colorful band of characters each with his own addition to the recipe and technique that helps Tampopo understand the importance of finding that perfect bowl of Ramen.

Light-hearted, more than a bit hilarious, and full of twists and turns, Tampopo is definitely one of the best movies to come out of Japan. Aside from comedy or possibly drama, one would be hard-pressed to try to define this movie as the movie more defines itself and others like it. A life story for sure, definitely a good laugh, and a little eye-opening at times, too. Not for children, though, as there is some nudity and minor violence. Film buffs should already own this movie and anyone else who has a love of film or a desire for one of the most fun movies ever made, pick this one up. You will not be disappointed. Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: Warning
Review: This DVD is in my garbage. I bought it for a young person who is learning Japanese. There is some good stuff, humor, cooking, but the cruelty is such that I could not give it to her. The worst is the live, struggling small turtle being sliced straight down, all along the body, just behind the head in front of the shell. There are also some unpleasant sex scenes, including a man stimulating a young woman by placing a container of live fish to wiggle against her bare abdomen. What a disappointment!