Summary
A truck driver stops at a small, failing noodle shop and decides to help the owner, a young widow, turn the business around. Interwoven throughout the story are vignettes about food, love, and life.
My Thoughts
One thing that I love about watching foreign films (or films from the Criterion Collection- thank you for leading me this gem!) is you get a sense of different cultures, and by extension you’re introduced to a whole new way of looking at the world; it may only be something small- for example, the way that you look at a bowl of ramen- but that change compounds the more you watch, the more you read, the more you experience. This film is incredibly unique and it’s wonderfully strange in all the right ways- not only that, the film is a sensory experience; you can practically taste the food as they slowly pan over bowls of ramen, talking about waiting to eat so the eaters can appreciating the aroma, the “jewels of fat glittering on the surface, the shinachiku roots shining, seaweed slowly sinking, spring onions floating.” They talk about appreciating the three thin slices pork that float on the top of the bowl, and how to caress the surface of the ramen with chopsticks simply to express affection. This film is nothing less than a love letter to food and food lovers everywhere, and I, for one, loved every minute of it.
The film starts with two truck drivers, Goro (Tsutomu Yamazaki, “Kagemusha”) and Gan (Ken Wantanabe, “Godzilla (2014)”), as they make a stop at a run down noodle shop owned by Tampopo (Nobuko Miyamoto, “A Taxing Woman”). As they enter the shop, a customer named Pisken, who claims the noodles are terrible, harasses Tampopo. Goro steps in and fights the man, but eventually the Pisken’s goons step in and beat Goro into unconsciousness. When Goro awakens, Tampopo asks for his help in improving her noodle shop. Goro agrees, and together they embark on a quest to find a group of people who can train Tampopo how to properly cook.
Interspersed throughout the story are various vignettes about food and love and life. Most of the vignettes are quite funny, but a few are a little sad. There is one scene of food being used in the bedroom, which is rather strange, but it does fit the tone of the film.
Perhaps the best part of this film is it’s tongue-in-cheek irreverence. It’s meta before being meta was cool. In the opening scene, a gangster, who pops up here and there throughout the film, goes to a movie with his girlfriend, and talks directly to the camera, saying “Oh, you’re in a movie too, huh?” He then goes on to talk about how he hates when people crinkle candy wrappers during films, or smack on popcorn too loudly. He also asks what the viewer is eating, because, let’s be honest, to not have food during this film would be a huge mistake.
The film never takes itself serious, but it has a surprising amount of heart and depth to the characters. Tampopo is loveable and zany, and hers and Goro’s working relationship is one that you cheer on. Goro himself is a magician, one who has wonderful tricks up his sleeve; you never know what he is going to say or do next. The other characters the viewer is introduced to along the way are all unique and, in their own ways, humorous and affable. The vignettes, which pop up randomly throughout the film, act as a sort of smorgasbord of set pieces revolving around life and food. These little slices of life give a ton of depth to the world of “Tampopo”, which feels like it’s set in a world much like our own, but in a few ways, very different.
Verdict
I can’t say I’ve ever seen a movie quite like “Tampopo”, and as a film-zealot, finding a movie this original is something to sing about. It’s weird movie, true; but this film has created a world that I would jump at the chance to visit again and again. I watched this film last night, but the good mood that this movie put me in carried over to this morning. I honestly loved this film; it’s one that I want to tell all of my film-loving friends about, because I truly believe this is something that shouldn’t be missed.
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