Tampopo

Rating:
Summary: Sweet, funny and sly
Review: This is a clever, sweet film (a rare combination). I recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Delicious
Review: Tampopo, a film about a woman trying to make a perfect bowl of noodles, is delightful in every way. Interwoven with the main story are funny, poignant, and sensual vignettes of characters who have no connection to the main storyline except their passion for food. The film offers plenty to think about - each story has its own theme revealed by how the characters approach food. This is done with a light touch and never distracts from the sheer fun of the film. If every film were this good I'd buy a big-screen TV and give up reading.

Rating:
Summary: Tampopo: Living as Eating
Review: Tampopo, one of the most charming movies ever made,is a story about a beautiful apprenticeship in which a woman at a roadside noodleshop begs a truck driver passing through (whom she understands to be an expert) to teach her how to be a great noodle chef. Sound absurd? Keep reading.

The plot line which concerns the training, aside from showing a culture in which people find it noble to make sacrifices to help others become self actualized, also exposes the viewer to the culture of the amateur in Japan in which any citizen may have astoundingly subtle understanding of the refinements of living...at one point, they fall in with a group of vagabonds who rhapsodize about food and wine and donate their leader to the pursuit of training Tampopo to make perfect noodles. The scene in which the vagabonds sing a farewell to their teacher is sublime.

Punctuating the plot are three "excursions" (almost like the rondo form in music)which are unrelated to the plot, but each of which consists of three self sufficient little vignettes all having to do with eating. These vignettes vary in tone from extremely funny, to joyful/carnal, erotic, poignant, and bizarre.

Each vignette shows a different significance of eating in Japanese culture. For example, the first vignette shows a group of business men being led into a private room for lunch. It becomes clear that the protocol involves the most senior person ordering first and everyone else, pretending to be making up their own minds, ordering exactly the same thing...until the most junior person is reached and the waiter is all but ready to write down "Sole, consumme and a Heinecken" like the others, when the junior employee stops and ponders (despite being kicked under the table) and asks knowing questions about the way food is prepared (Junior employee: "That's how it is prepared at Taillevant"...waiter: "Our chef trained at Taillevant, you are well informed, Sir".) The second vignette shows the erotic capabilty of food...I rate this as one of my favorite sex scenes ...because it's not heavy...it's wonderfully playful and imaginative.

The relation of life to eating is a powerful unifying but various concept, skillfully worked by the director Itami and by the the end of the movie, when you are watching a close up of a baby nursing over the closing credits, you are certain that you've seen something powerful about something that truly bounds our entire life.

Beautiful!

Rating:
Summary: A Food-lovers Film
Review: This wonderful little film belongs among the ranks of the best "food films" ever made such as Like Water for Chocolate, Babbette's Feast, and "Big Night." Make a night of it and, afterward, run out to a nice Japanese restaurant and have a big, hot bowl of Udon or Soba noodles! Apart from the delightful glorification of noodles, there are some truly wonderful performances and, as at least one other reviewer noted, a number of homages to other film genres, including the western. This is one of my all-time favorites. If you like "foreign films," Japanese culture, or just plain, old good food, I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Eating and sleep!
Review: It is not really funny or sexy at all. If you like cooking it gives you some hints about the Japanese kitchen. The DVD is not value for money.

Rating:
Summary: A sweet and sly little gem
Review: I give this film 4 1/2 stars, but there are no halves in the Amazon.com rating system. This is an engaging comedy that takes a simple story line and peppers it with likable, interesting characters and a fair amount of observational wit. Along the way are several side stories that don't intersect with the main plot but which collectively underscore the importance of the food culture in Japan. There's also a nice hat tip to the silent films to boot. Tsutomu Yamazaki brings a John Wayne-like confidence to his starring role and Nobuko Miyamoto plays the widow with a subtle dignity worthy of Lubitsch. My only complaint is with the DVD transfer: It doesn't have the clarity you expect; it seemed no better than watching the film on videotape. But it is in widescreen, which is a plus.

Rating:
Summary: What are you eating?
Review: I'm reviewing based on a memory of the film from '87. One of the first things that happens is the gangster coming up to the screen and asking you something like "What are you eating? Is it good?"

This is a truly funny movie. Not perfect. But as close as you can get...

Rating:
Summary: Funny, Sexy, and Crazy; A Cross Cultural Cuisine Classic
Review: This is the funniest movie ever made. I never knew how funny a movie all about food could be. Don't watch if you are hungry or you will never make it to the end. The sex scenes are steamy and filled with more passion and sensualness then any movie ever. The only criticism is the jumping of the plot but it seems to work in this movie. A Must SEE..

Rating:
Summary: 4 1/2 stars, actually...a cinematic feast!
Review: This isn't a perfect film, but it's damned close. The moniker of the first Japanese "Spaghetti Western" is a clever and good one, as this movie straddles the line between traditional Japanese flicks and Western-influenced individualistic themed films. One viewing of this film and a non-Asian can easily see the pitfalls of not cooking up the perfect batch of noodles. On that subject, it's no small irony that the teacher of making those same noodles--a prominent symbol of traditional "conformist" Japanese society--is the individualist truck driver who has the freedom to almost literally ride off into the sunset like a Old West cowboy. And there is also the hysterically funny near-throwaway scene in the Italian restaurant involving the female Japanese tour group vainly trying to pick up the proper way to eat pasta...a great case where "East is East, West is West, and ne'er the twain shall meet" (thanks, Mr. Kipling!). A first-level entry of any fan who values world cinema.

Rating:
Summary: From the surreal to the bizarre: food in Japan.
Review:

I bought Tampopo solely on the strength of the very positive reviews it got here. I'm not sorry I bought it. It was enjoyable watching and it's the kind of movie I'll watch a few times over time.

This is a funny movie but more bizarre than I expected. It was surreal enough so that one does not come away from it feeling that an insight into Japanese culture has been gained. In fact, I'd always wanted to visit Japan one day. Now I'm not so hot the idea.

I'll give Tampopo a 4 star review because it was a fun movie, a movie with some "intellectual" appeal, and because it was so completely different than any other movie I've ever seen. If you're considering purchasing Tampopo, go for it.