Tampopo
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Movie Reviews of Tampopo
Movie Review: Justly adored - beautiful and mouth-watering.
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie is among my surprise favorites - I saw it when I hadn't seen many/any foreign films, but Tampopo motivated me to broaden my horizons. I saw it again on this DVD after having first caught it on VHS a few years ago, and am please the actual movie is still lovely and great fun.
DVD itself: Quality is reasonable. No special bells and whistles with DVD, but this is a movie that most people are just grateful to even FIND on DVD. I believe Netflix does not carry it for some reason. I was very excited when I saw it available here. Colors appear suitable and the many shots of food look fine. (Food often looks strange in films to me, but it looks all right here, so the quality of the image is more than acceptable.) If you are a blu-ray fiend and insist that you see every last hair, then no, the quality isn't like that, but I like the way it looks.
movie itself: basic, basic plot: Woman goes on journey to make the greatest noodles EVER in Japan. On a larger level, movie is about the delight and seduction of food, and an interesting look at the appreciation of "little" things that Japanese culture takes pride in. Nothing will go over your head, and it's just such a good time. Watch it with someone you like after eating something you like.
If you have children (I do not have children, and if you want to show this to kids, they're lucky): Some nudity, but nothing creepy or sexually explicit - I'd say for kids over 13, and kids who can understand why people would be obsessed with making noodles. Someone gets shot, but it's almost funny because it's over the top and it's not endorsing violence or anything. It's really about the journey and the effort you throw in that makes something wonderful, which I think is a good lesson for all ages.
Movie Review: Food, sex and history
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a Japanese cult film and one which has had serious traction in the West. It contains the roots of the modern Iron Chef series and is a jewel in which is reflected many of the common-or-garden mores that make Japan such a rich and wonderful place. It is a must-see and will not be easily forgotten.
It is a journey to mastery of ramen making and in this, a journey toward mastery itself. Tampopo, a 'noob' noodle chef, enlists the help of expert advisers one-by-one as she assembles the skills necessary to make a compelling ramen noodle soup in the competitive environment of Japanese ramen-ya (ramen noodle shops). Along the way she steals, bribes and cheats with the support of her advisers but, as the goal is honuorable, in good Japanese (and indeed in other nations') style, the ends justify the means.
Apart from yielding the best ramen imaginable, the film is interspersed with a myriad of vignettes - all food related but otherwise unrelated apart from being elements of Japanese idiosyncrasy. These vary from an old lady who sneaks into delis to squeeze the food with a naughty abandon and then to be chased out by the bemused/confused staff to fabulous sequences with the young Iron Chef chairman as a food obsessed gangster exchanging the yolk of an egg in a kiss with his equally food obsessed lover (the roots of the Iron Chef series are clearly present in this film so if you love food ....).
This is a wonderful film. It holds people for years after viewing with each remembering a different element of beauty. It drew me back after 20 years and I had to find it and see it again. Having just done this (and I cooked ramen to go with the viewing!), it lives up the memory!
Alexander Roche
Movie Review: fantastic and truly distinctive.......
Summary: 5 Stars
I am a great fan of the food film genre. This includes everything from LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE (from Mexico) to EAT DRINK MAN WOMAN (from Taiwan). TAMPOPO is a (more than) 20 year old Japanese film about the culture's love affair with and cultural connection to food. Particularly, ramen is showcased here (among other entrees). The film follows the chance encounter that two truck drivers, Goro (Tsutomo Yamazaki) and Gun (Ken Watanabe) have with Tampopo (translation: "Dandelion") (Nobuko Miyamoto), the owner of a small, failing noodle restaurant that they patronize one stormy night. Goro, the older, more experienced driver, agrees to help coach Tampopo in the art of gourmet noodle production, so she is truly a contender with her competition. Noodle making (and consumption) is truly a fine art, as well as a competitive sport. The provocative sub-plot juxtaposed with the plight of Tampopo is the relationship between a yakuza gangster (Koji Yakusho) and his mistress (Fukumi Kuroda). Food is central in their relationship, as well as in their love for one another. It is, both, metaphor and appetizer......
TAMPOPO's style is really hard to articulate in a simple review. Director Juzo Itami made this film a valentine and spoof of, both, the genre of spaghetti westerns (this, being the first "noodle" western of its kind--literally) as well as Japanese yakuza gangster films. It is at once satirically funny and poignant. Also, nothing is really what it seems. This I will say--you will want to grab a good bowl of soup afterwards.......I'm thinking soba, with a rich broth and maybe even some green onion on the side.
Movie Review: truly delicious
Summary: 5 Stars
I decided to see this film after seeing it mentioned in a lonely planet book about Japanese foods. Intrigued & as a lover of good food, I got it & truly enjoyed the film.
It's a wonderful primer about making good ramen & what it takes to make a truly good ramen. The dedication could be applicable to other foods such as a good burger etc. Since I have not been to Japan & not had japanese ramen noodles, I can't vouch for accuracy but it certainly stimulated a desire to try.
The movie also highlights the observation of John Pawson, the noted minimalist architect, that simplicity is the hardest thing to accomplish & this movie shows that making good ramen takes a lot of effort.
There was a scene where a dying gourmand gangster described that was truly memorable: Hungry wild boars consuming yams during winter are hunted & their intensines are cooked over an open fire. The cooked intensines become yam sausages.This observation was an eye-opener..
The movie also draws a connection between food & eroticism that may not be suitable for children under 13. One scene was quite similar to the food scenes in 9 1/2 weeks but more erotic & inventive.
There is a sense of non-linearity[snippets of stories not connected to main characters] to the story that I enjoyed but other people make not like due to hollywood sensibilities. I liked it also bec it gave a time-stamp of Japan & its people that probably doesnt exist anymore.
People who enjoy cooking & IRON CHEF Japan will really enjoy this movie.
Movie Review: Completely concerned with food. Oh, & sex & life too.
Summary: 5 Stars
This is on my top ten list of the funniest, most delightful movies of all time. The main plot line is a loving satire of the "adult" western of the fifties - "Shane" in particular - where the hero drifts into town, helps the poor widow get her life together and beat the bad guys, then drifts out again. Tampopo, the heroine, must make the best noodle soup in town to overcome the villainous other noodle houses.
But what makes this movie extraordinary are the vignettes, both within the plot-line and outside it, that mingle food, sex, cultural hangups, life and death in hilarious and sometimes very touching combinations.
The movie succeeds not only because of its marvellous material and fine actors but also through excellent direction and cinematography. For example, the scene toward the end where Tampopo & Goro are eating companionably in a restaurant: notice the camera movement from the food to the people; the positions of the actors conveying clearly the ambiguity of the relationship and their attitudes to each other; how at times Goro actually has his back to the camera; the cut to the symbolic passing train, nicely understated; the whole scene is an example of effective simplicity in movie-making.
This movie is ultimately unclassifiable; it is itself, funny, sad (sometimes both at once), shocking, absorbing; but above all funny. I have never seen another film quite like it, and it stays in the memory like the best of Fellini.