Tampopo (1987)

Like seeds of a dandelion blowing in the wind, the plot of Tampopo wanders in several directions, following the lives of a quirky collection of characters. At the heart of this film is a young widow named Tampopo (Nobuko Miyamoto), who is struggling to make ends meet by running a noodle restaurant. Goro (Tsutomu Yamazaki), a truck driver, saves Tampopo's young son from being beaten by a group of school girls and is rewarded with a bowl of very bad ramen (noodles). Goro tells Tampopo the awful truth about her cooking and she asks for his help. Together they search for the perfect ramen recipe.

Intersecting this part of the plot are several smaller and less well-realized stories. Koji Yakusho, who stars in Shall We Dance, appears as a sensuous gangster who would rather play with his food than eat it. Then there's the mysterious Noodle Master who lives with a group of street vagabonds and a young executive who knows how to order food from a French menu, but not how to preserve the dignity of his superiors.

While the film as a whole feels somewhat disjointed, writer-director Juzo Itami manages to infuse Tampopo (which means "dandelion") with a sense of Japanese joie de vivre that is worth experiencing. Take notes during the "soup scenes" and see what you can cook up for yourself. --Luanne Brown Amazon.com essential video

Nani?

I was 1st introduced to this film in 2002 in my Japanese class, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is very random at times detracting from the main plot, but still as many other reviews have said, deals with food. The movie does make me hungry when watching it, which shows you it has some power to it. If you like noodles or have a good sense of humor check it out June 20, 2008

A Delightfully Delicious Comedy!

I have seen this Japanese comedy by Director Juzo Itami several times over the years, and for the first time ever, I felt a little bit sad afterwards when I watched it again tonight; especially when I realized that director Juzo Itami committed suicide in 1997. However, he left behind a wonderful film that is highly recommended. It has been a couple of years since I last viewed TAMPOPO, and after viewing it again last night, it just seems to get better and better with each viewing. For those wishing to purchase the film, I have the FOX LORBER DVD, which is out of print, but it is available from a different distributor. However, this is a good thing, because the price listed for this particular DVD is way too high.

There have been some excellent reviews of this film, and if you give it half a chance, I am sure that you will come to enjoy the film. I remember when I first purchased this film I was on the fence. I liked it, but not greatly. After a couple of more viewings, however, I realized what a wonderful film it was. And it only gets better with each viewing. The film opens up with actor Koji Yakusho [one of my favorite actors] in a theatre talking about food etiquette, and then seques into the film. It is in the films opening that the viewer is introduced to the films main stars: Truck driver Goro, his partner Gun, and noodle shop owner Tampopo [dandelion in Japanese].

Goro (Tsutomu Yamazaki) and Gun (Ken Watanabe) are driving along the highway when they decide to get some noodles to eat: Due to Gun's reading a book about noodles. It is here that they both encounter Tampopo (Nobuko Miyamoto). [Who was the wife of the late director Juzo Itami]. In this begining [as well as the opening scene] you the viewer will notice the satirical fun that director Itami directs toward the Yakuza; a jibe that will someday incur their wrath in true life when he directed the film "Minbo no onna." The are many funny scenes in the film, and it is a delight to watch as Goro attempts to show Tampopo the proper way to make the ideal noodles.

But the film is not just about noodles. There are many other stories taking place in the film, and director Itami knew just where to take the audience in this delightful comedy film. There are many different genres going on at once, and as one reviewer noted, the film is difficult to categorize, which is fine with me, because the film does not disappoint the viewer. One more thing too, you might want to grab yourself a bowl of noodles while you sit down and enjoy this film, I know I sure did, as this film has a way of doing that to you. This film is very highly recommended. I am not sure who the latest distributor is, but I have seen the DVDs going for as low as $12 at my local video store, and it is well worth the purchase. April 17, 2007

fantastic and truly distinctive.....

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. March 11, 2007

Makes one Hungry

Besides a few major films created by such luminaries as Kurosawa Akira Kagemusha (1980) and Ran (1985) and a small handful of other films, the 1980s, although Japan's economy was booming, was a major dry spell for the Japanese film industry. Directors such as Oshima Nagisa were forced to look to other countries for financial support to create his films while the native film industry pumped its money into either foreign films or animation. It was because of this stagnant film industry that such directors as Miike Takashi, Kurosawa Kiyoshi, and Tsukamoto Shinya would soon make an impact with their direct to video releases; however, did the Japanese film industry have an outstanding director whose directing career spread across the 1980's? The answer is yes and that man was Itami Juzo. A noted actor staring in such films as Morita Yoshimitsu's The Family Game (1983) and Ichikawa Kon's The Makioka Sisters (1983), Itami Juzo was from a family with a rich history in film and made his directorial debut with The Funeral (1984) which cast a highly satiric eye at the economics of funerary practices in Japan.

In the west Itami's name is most often linked with the attack he received from members of the yakuza after the release of Minbo no Onna or The Gentle Art of Japanese Extortion (1992) which ended with his face being horribly slashed because of his vitriolic depiction of the gangsters. Itami committed suicide in 1997 after tabloids reported that he was cheating on his wife with a younger woman.

Itami released ten films during his career as a director and his second film Tampopo is probably is his most noted film in Japan and in the West. Tampopo opens in quite a fascinating way with a gangster, Yakusho Koji addressing the audience while a wonderful spread of food is placed before him in a movie theater. He explains to us the proper etiquette of eating within the confines of a movie theater and attacks a man who breaks this etiquette by munching loudly on curry flavored potato chips. After this confrontation we are introduced to Goro, played by the always impressive Yamazaki Tsutomu, and Gun, a very young Watanabe Ken, who are milk truck drivers. However within this scene the audience is also treated to a highly entertaining dialogue between Gun and a ramen master, he is reading a book on the proper etiquette of eating ramen while Goro drives the truck, which results in making Goro hungry for noodles. The duo stop at a rundown ramen restaurant named Lai Lai and critiques the establishment and its owner Tampopo who obviously is having trouble running the restaurant. This infuriates a large intoxicated fellow named Pisken who is quite infatuated with Tampopo and the two engage in a fistfight. A bruised Goro awakens the next day and is treated to a homemade breakfast prepared by Tampopo. He states that it is a wonderful breakfast, but that her noodles could really use some work. As he and Gun depart, Tampopo runs and begs Goro to stay to help her improve her ramen making skills. Reluctant at first, Goro finally decides to stay to help the widow.

My description above just scratches the surface. Tampopo is quite an amazing film that focuses on Japanese society and food: Japanese food, Korean food, Chinese food, Western food with noodles standing at the center, Japanese, Chinese, and Western varieties. Food is also shown as a class indicator with its depictions in both high scale restaurants and working class families. Also, while Goro and Tampopo's story acts as the core of the film, there are quite a few other characters such as the gangster mentioned above and his lover, a business group at a fancy French restaurant, an elderly thief, etc. who are not linked to the main story, but who give the audience more depictions of food. A wonderful film produced during a time in which few other notable Japanese films were made, Tampopo is not to be missed and it will certainly whet your appetite!
February 14, 2007

An outstanding, warm film about noodle soup and human relationships. How to make a rice omelet is included

Tampopo has been compared to everything from a Shane-like Japanese western (loner comes riding into town and winds up helping, against the odds, a young widow with a little boy) to an episodic Tati-like film that uses gentle humor to show what a lot of us are like. 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. Like My Uncle, it doesn't have a Hollywood ending, but a conclusion which is both satisfying and poignant. Tampopo, however, is its own movie, not a derivation, and a fine movie it is, too.

Goro (Tsutomu Yamaguchi) is a long-haul truck driver. With him is his young co-driver, Gun (Ken Watanabe). It's dark. It's raining and they're hungry so they pull over and stop at a small noodle shop. Inside are some rough characters, led by a drunk guy who is giving loud advice to the cook and owner. She, Tampopo (Nobuko Miyamoto), is behind the counter hustling steaming bowls of noodle soup. It's not long before Goro intervenes after telling Gun to go back to the truck. The next morning he's bruised, aching and wakes up in the noodle shop. And when Tampopo begs him and Gun over breakfast to honestly tell her what he thought of her soup, he does. It wasn't good, he says. Tampopo is determined to do better and begs Goro to stay and teach her. For the rest of the movie we're on a kind of surreal, metaphysical journey to learn how to make a masterful bowl of noodle soup. Along the way, we're going to encounter stories that have nothing to do with Tampopo and Goro, some stories that have a glancing relationship to them, and some that are very much part of their story...and the stories all are humorously odd, a bit off-center, and funny. We even have two death scenes, one so over the top as to be awe-inspiring (Note to self: Decline any offer to eat grilled wild boar yam sausage). The thing they all have in common is food...an old woman lasciviously squeezing the fruit and cheese in a modern supermarket...an awkward salaryman at a private luncheon with the elderly bosses, none of whom can manage the French menu and play follow-the-leader by ordering sole, clear consume and beer. Last to order, it turns out he can handle the menu and goes for the quenelles, the escargot and a specific wine vintage. He may not have a long career but it's a funny and satisfying moment...or the young wife who each week drops off her aging husband at a fine noodle restaurant for lunch, but then must quickly leave for an hour to visit the bank, accompanied by the young chauffeur...or food as an aphrodisiac, with dancing shrimp on a naked tummy, new uses for whipped cream, and a raw egg passed back and forth by mouth between two lovers. (Note to self: Take a pass on that one, too.)

We learn all kinds of good things...how to cook a rice omelet for Tampopo's little boy that had my stomach grumbling with hunger...sharing grilled Korean kalbi, snipping the hot, marinated meat from the short ribs, wrapping it in lettuce and munching...filling a thin pancake with a smear of hoisin, shredded scallion, pieces of crisp duck skin with fat and some duck meat, then wrapping it up and chewing it down. Most of all, we learn about noodle soup, the different kinds and styles. It's not just the broth that must be outstanding, so must be the noodles. "I see improvement, but we want customers to line up," says one friend and advisor discussing Tampopo's noodles. "They're beginning to have depth but they still lack balance," says another. "They're not alive enough. They lack vigor," says a third. "And they still lack profundity," adds a fourth. Tampopo has some exacting teachers.

All things sooner or later have their conclusions, and so does Tampopo. The side stories eventually are resolved, Tampopo's noodle soup is a great success. We don't know what might happen with Goro, but the drunken lout we met at the start of the movie has turned out to be a nice guy. And he likes Tampopo more than he lets on. We close with one of the happiest and most satisfying images about humans and food there is...a baby contently and single-mindedly having lunch at the breast of his young mother. It's a charming end to a charming movie.

This DVD is out of print. It is not anamorphic and has no extras. It has an adequate film transfer and, if the price is right, is worth getting. January 29, 2007

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