Tampopo

Plot synopsis:
A pair of truck drivers, the experienced Gorō and a younger sidekick named Gun, stop at a decrepit roadside ramen noodle shop. Outside, Gorō rescues a boy who is being beaten up by three schoolmates. The boy, Tabo, turns out to be the son of Tampopo, the widowed owner of the struggling business, Lai Lai. When a customer called Pisken harasses Tampopo, Gorō invites him and his men to step outside. Gorō puts up a good fight, but outnumbered by Pisken and his men, he is knocked out and wakes up the next morning in Tampopo's home.
When Tampopo asks their opinion of her noodles, Gorō and Gun tell her they are "sincere, but lack character." After Gorō gives her some advice, she asks him to become her teacher. They decide to turn her establishment into a paragon of the "art of noodle soup making". Gorō takes her around and points out the strengths and weaknesses of her competitors. She still cannot get the broth just right, so Gorō brings in the "old master" and his superlative expertise. When they rescue a wealthy elderly man from choking on his food, he lends her his chauffeur Shohei, who has a masterful way with noodles. Also, through clever trickery they pry ramen secrets from their competitors. During the transition, the group agrees to change the restaurant's name from "Lai Lai" to "Tampopo".
Pisken feels bad for being too drunk to tell his men to stay out of the fight, so he offers Gorō another chance one-on-one. After the rematch ends in a draw, Pisken reveals he is a contractor and offers to make over the shop's interior. Tampopo's latest effort still comes up short, so Pisken teaches her his own secret recipe. When the five men consume her latest creation down to the last drop, Tampopo knows she has won. (Tabo also triumphs, beating all three of his tormentors). As customers fill her newly redecorated shop, the men file out one by one.
The main narrative is interspersed with stories involving food on several levels. Satirical vignettes involve a lowly worker who upstages his superiors by displaying his vast culinary knowledge while ordering at a gourmet French restaurant; a housewife who rises from her deathbed to cook one last meal for her family; and a women's etiquette class on how to eat spaghetti properly. Another subplot involves a corner store clerk who has to deal with an older woman obsessed with squeezing food. The clerk's scene segues into a restaurant involving an investment scam and the intended victim, who turns out to be a conman himself.
The primary subplot involves a young man in a white suit – an elegant gangster – and his lover, who explore erotic ways to use food. In the end, the man is shot several times by an unknown assailant, to his lover's horror, but uses his last words to convey his secret recipe for sausages.
Throughout, the film puns off stereotypical American movie themes, characters, music and camera set-ups and shots.

Tags: psychedelic, humor, satire

Review:
If you are interested in Japanese culture and you appreciate food in the least, you owe it to yourself to track a copy of this down and watch it, especially if you like a good bowl of ramen!
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).
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.
(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.(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!).
I am completely in awe each time I see this movie, and it never fails to make me stop and watch as Goro is instructing Tampopo on why the customer must, MUST, be observed upon entering the shop while Gun complains that the pork slices are too thin.
Above all, the pacing is some of the best seen in any comedy.Tampopo has all the qualities of good story telling: a hero, a disciple, a quest.
Ending the bicycle workout scene (with Goro and Tampopo) with the business party walking into the restaurant where the "How to eat Italian food" lesson took place, which, upon conclusion found the camera following a waiter BACK to the business party all occurred seamlessly and left a grin on my face no one else in the room understood.
Be aware you'll never look at your bowl of noodles the same way after watching this movie!!
Like so many other Japanese films before it, Tampopo may not entirely appeal to the western public, but it is by far the most accessible movie I've seen in years.
Simply the best film about food I've ever seen; peppered with homages and nods to great westerns, this lovely comedy is just a pure joy to watch.
(If you have ever had the opportunity/misfortune to try to eat mochi, this movie contains a scene that will have you rolling on the floor!)   It is an excellent example of the ability of the Japanese to laugh at themselves, at those things that are peculiarly Japanese, and at their love affair with western (and particularly American) culture.The Japanese have long had a tremendous admiration for the nerve and individuality of the Americans.
Their love affair with the American Western film genre is on display in the main story line in which the lone good-hearted cowboy  rides into town to save the damsel in distress.
The main narrative follows two truck drivers, Gun (Yamazaki Tsutomu) and Goro (Watanabe Ken) who stumble upon a run down, unpopular ramen noodle shop.
The film not only focuses on this narrative, but is interspersed with brilliantly transitioned scenes of people's interaction with food: a white-suited yakuza (Yakusho Koji) and his mistress perform erotic acts with food, a group of homeless turn out to be master chefs, a young corporate subordinate upstages all of his superiors with his knowledge of French cuisine at an expensive dinner, an old lady sneaks around in a supermarket just to feel the food, among others.Never missing a step, Yamazaki Tsutomu fully embodies the character of Gun. His tough assertiveness, along with the willingness to fight and instigate others, gives him many of the characteristics that John Wayne's famous cowboy persona's had.
The camera decides to follow the businessmen to their destination, a French restaurant, to watch them order their food, then follows the waiter out into the main seating area where it stops to observe a group of women receiving a lesson on proper Western dining etiquette (eating without slurpingalthough a Western man in the restaurant is slurping his noodles loudly, much to the chagrin of the teacher).
You can't help but enjoy the way this all works–the transitions make for a creative and ultimately successful approach to telling a story with multiple plot lines and random happenings.Itami created a masterpiece here, one that should be seen and loved by everyone.
With bifurcating stories about food as the bond in all human relations, from birth to death, to sex and back again, the men in the film finally get it right.
Free structure, all kinds of vignettes about food, the art of cooking (Itami, I believe, was a chef), closed with a loving image that tells all about us humans' urge to eat.
Best images are those beautiful erotic shots that illustrate the story of a handsome cinéphile gangster dressed in white (the scenes featuring an egg and a shrimp, are topped by the one with an oyster and a very young female fisher), but you will surely enjoy several comedy vignettes, that freely disrupt the central story, including the bureaucrats' lunch, the etiquette lady who is teaching young women how to eat spaghetti, the old master teaching his young pupil how to approach a bowl of ramen soup, the character with a tooth ache, the dying woman who prepares meal for her family But of course, the main story (taken from «Shane», of the stranger that helps a family) is very good, about how Tampopo, the owner of a cheap road café, is taught how to make good soup by a truck driver and several other characters, with industrial spying included.
The movie follows a spaghetti-Westernish story of a woman learning to become a master noodle chef in a world where it seems people think about little else but noodles, interwoven with various quirky episodes portraying food obsession.
On the other hand, some episodes seem dumb or pointless to me and the director is a little too willing to commit to a long shot of something not especially interesting, like people eating noodles in real time.While I didn't like it as much this time around, it is a fascinating portrayal of Japanese cultural via food.
The story centers around recent widow, Tampopo, and her desire to turn her noodle/ramen shop into something great.
Two guys happen upon a woman named Tampopo ("Dandelion") trying to manage a run-down noodle shop and they decide to help her turn the place into an economic and gastronomic four-diamond establishment.
.. Japanese people with a sense of humour, philosophical insights in the preparation and consumption of noodles, sizzling scenes with food..
And all this cast into a captivating adventure modelled after classic western stories.Compared to 9 1/2 weeks (which of course was only ever interesting because of the scenes with sex and food), this film makes so much more of the theme, and is far subtler in exposing the mixture of food, sex, and power.Tampopo is one of my all-time favourites, a film that really explores reality and gives you something worthwhile to chew on..
In this case the references  I'm talking tone and style here, not story and character  include as many Asian (mostly Japanese) references as western.We have the standard American film stereotypes.
The main story of a woman struggling to become a master noodle-chef is told in between self-contained ~5-10 minute long vignettes on birth, death, sex, etc., all relating to food in some way.
One of the best examples that sticks out afterward was the scene where the 5 men at the bar are trying Tampopo's noodles at the same time.
Each man makes similar movements in the scene while eating the bowl of noodles, so your attention is drawn to them, meanwhile Tampopo is in the foreground of the shot behind the bar still moving around and watching the men.
The film will make you hungry, so be prepared (although I was not sufficiently inspired to order pot-noodle from the in-flight catering) – this would be a great movie to watch with friends while slurping noodles and drinking sake..
It shows that in Japan, there is only one way to do things: the samurai way!But i liked especially the scenes that had nothing to do with the main story in the film.
1st watched 11/15/2009 - 7 out of 10 (Dir-Juzo Itami): Funny, perverted yet touching movie about a group of food critics that help a woman become a master noodle cook and start a restaurant.
The movie is really about food and the way that the Japanese culture views it.
They throw in mini-stories that revolve around food obsessions including a couple that begin the movie talking to us(the audience) and are shown at various times using food in their sexual encounters and their other normal activities of life and death.
The main storyline starts with a couple of truck-driving noodle soup enthusiasts visiting a restaurant then helping the woman named Tampopo and becoming her coach.
The movie is funny and fun to watch for the most part and gives you a good idea of how the Japanese like their Ramen!!
Some of the mini stories don't make a lot of sense except they revolve around food --- so overall this feel good movie is very enjoyable despite it's imperfections..
Perhaps its a testament to the artistic value of the film that so many people enjoyed and appreciated the Tampopo on a certain level without really fully understanding what it was about.Food and sex are related?--ok, but secondary.
It not about the food but about the traditional woman and in not in a belittling but in an extoling sense.BTW, I too enjoyed the film while missing this commonality of all of the scenes after watching it.
The use of food to connect everybody in this movie is extremely unique and is not like any other film out there, even until today.
One could also describe it as an anthology film because the main plot is interrupted by numeros anecdotic side stories about the relation between humans and food.
The movie has a positive message as it shows what human beings can accomplish when they support one another.The main story is already quite quirky as the cool truck driver with a cowboy hat who seems to come straight out of an American western of the fifties finds numerous people who help him improving Tampopo's ramen shop.
If you like creative filmmaking, food and Japanese culture, Tampopo is what you have always been looking for but didn't know existed.
After having watched this movie, I felt like going to a restaurant and have an excellent meal and this is precisely the film's entire purpose..
It also includes several odd, yet intriguing, short story scenes involving other characters love for other food...
when I say love, yeah, I mean literally too - there is a pornographic scene where they show this guy just having sexual encounters with a girl involving food basically every time...
Overall this is a good, arty movie, that doesn't really want to teach you anything, but the love to food and life.
the story telling, both main story and several side-tracks are all memorable; the integration of the excellent music (including Mahler and Liszt) is superb; for any foodie, this movie gives the sense of joy and disappointment possible with good and bad food (like good and bad people); the possibility of a romance that does not develop; the sense of pride and achievement; a view of the quirkiness of a facet of another culture.
All in all, Tampopo is a tedious movie that you might be drawn into watching because -again and again- people put it onto "Classics" lists.
You can accurately judge the whole film by the credits scene, which is a 2 minute close up of a woman's nipple as she feeds her baby.The film documents the rather Japanese obsession with food and the "correct" way to eat, prepare, or order it.
(There is no kissing or sex between any of the characters in the two main love stories, unless food is in their mouths.)The main story of a woman seeking to become the best noodle chef is supplemented by several short scenes of random strangers that are loosely based on the food theme as well, but otherwise have nothing to do with the main narrative.
Japanese films may be best known for their tragedies and depressing stories, but happily this is not one of them!This is the story of a widow and her quest to become a successful Ramen "chef" in order to take over the noodle shop formerly run by her husband where all the best sources of gastronomic genius and knowledge are the least likely characters (according to society): a truck driver, a lowely business man, a old homeless guy, a gangster, etc..This spaghetti western satire is interspersed with odd & bizarre vignettes which add to this a very enjoyable and amusing movie.
There is one very short & obvious fetish/erotic scene and others that are not so obvious (especially if you are not Asian or a psych student)- so be warned if that makes you squeamish, or if you are watching with those that might be...It is crazy & fun experience, but it will make you long for food!
Sporting a potpourri of vignettes overstating the relevance and importance of food in relationship to life, death, love, duty and sensuality, Tampopo runs the plot like a thin ribbon through them all, creating a charming, and sometime disturbing comedy of unique character.Some have called this no longer available film the "first Japanese Noodle Western", although that may be debatable.
One of my all-time favourites and the movie that even got my mother deeply involved with noodle-soup.
Food, sex and having a great time are the main themes of the movie, in which I had thoroughly enjoyed.
However, there is REAL animal cruelty involved in this film and therefore, makes the movie worthless.It begins with live shrimps that are used as a sexual object.
(And check out an early Ken Watanabe performance.) Numerous mini-stories weave through the central story, sad or funny or alarming, all of which ponder entertainingly on the love of food in some way, tying it to life, death, birth, love, crime, and which combine to give this film its own unique feel and 'taste'.
Etc: read the other comments for more.What I want to add is that Tampopo, alone in movie history, is precisely like a wonderful dinner.
The main story involving a cowboy type who helps a young widow perfect her technique of making noodle dishes that will create long lines at her resturant was funny enough.
Tampopo and her masters' quest to create the perfect ramen experience was comic and possibly a little bit over the top even for Japanese people.
One thing (among many) that I love about Tampopo is the way the story keeps peeling off from the central plot into crazy blind alleys like the man with toothache and the downtrodden salaryman who knows more about food than his stuffy bosses.
You may never look at food the same again.The main story is that of Tampopo, a noodlemaker at Lai Lai. One night a visitor, Goro, stops in her restaurant and gives her advice about the quality of her soup.
Asian cultures may look at this differently, and find it funny because of things the characters say (like the dentists who remove a man's absess in his tooth and have to run to the window because it smelled so bad), knowing that they too, hold food in the same value.
They, like Tampopo, talk of food with wide eyes and sly smiles, and are completely and utterly earnest.We see the same in the little vignettes sprinkled throughout the main story, and it creates an outrageous and absurd humour.
The main story is about a rather run down noodle shop owned by a lady named Tampopo.
In a way, it has the same sensibility as My Uncle...there's not a mean-spirited action or person in the movie, and we wind up liking the people we meet in the film.
a "noodle" western making fun of "spaghetti" westerns that is also a look into the importance of food in Japanese culture.
So, in the spirit of Shane, Goro decides (with the help of some friends) to help Tampopo make the perfect noodle soup.This is the main thread of the story, but weaved in amongst it are a succession of vignettes that show the role of food in Japanese society.
In fact the film as a whole tells us a lot about the Japanese character, not just how it connects with food.The ending is probably predictable: Tampopo's reinvigorated shop becomes a resounding success, but in all honesty, just like life itself, the journey to that point is the most important and interesting thing.
A very funny film doubly so if you are a Japanese noodle enthusiast!
I saw this movie years ago, and here it is 2011, and I still think of it and recommend it to friends whenever the subject of Japanese films--or food movies--comes up.
Just recommended it again today to a friend as we ate noodles in a Japanese restaurant--I must rent this movie and watch it again soon!
Also the dramatic death scene of the Americanized gangster as his distraught girl-friend holds him in her arms.The main narrative is a humorous noodles love story that is beautifully played by all the cast.This is really wonderful film that shows how great writing, direction and acting are all that is needed to produced a classic movie..