Tampopo (The Criterion Collection) [DVD]

I first saw this film in a theater when I was in college then bought it on VHS. When I found it on DVD via Australia I had to buy it. Besides being a delicious comedy it is a great commentary on Japanese culture. If you want a linear tale this movie is not for you as it cuts between being a movie of a movie being shown (a ramen, not spaghetti western), the people watching the movie, and the previously mentioned commentary on Japanese culture and yet it is coherent, this is the magic of Juzo Itami.It plays better on larger and newer (hd) televisions, almost like watching it in a theater again, which is important since it is supposed to be like you are in the theater with the Japanese audience watching the movie that is within the movie. All of the experience seems better than watching it on a smaller, older television from a VCR.Yes there is a movie about a dandelion (tampopo) and ramen, you might even say it is a ramen jedi story as the traveling truckers do save the widow and her ramen restaurant from the bad guys and teach the widow and her son to stand on their own two feet and how to cook ramen just right. There is also the analysis, even the over analysis, of all things noodle and how the Japanese pride themselves in being more civilized with the noodle. But it is also the story of our movie watchers, the fated lovers (spoiler alert) who are at their last movie together. Unluckily Itami committed suicide so there are only a limited number of his movies and this is probably the best for westerners to be introduced to them. Once you watch this movie you will probably want to check his others like "A Taxing Woman" or "The Funeral". He definitely had a sense of humor and was intelligent.

Juzo Itami's masterful film about life and food takes us on an innocent romp through a variety of vignettes which manage between them to describe a remarkably wide and insightful sampling of human behaviour.Throwing a glance at the great Akira Kurosawa, and possibly a wry smile to William A. Wellman, Itami celebrates the great Western and Gangster genres by threading two plots through his irreverent patchwork of a film, but he does so as a way of creating reference points to keep the viewer from becoming confused and bewildered by what otherwise would be a series of shorts. Essentially Tampopo is a compilation of 5-10 minute shorts joined together by two stories of approximately 30 and 40 minutes. Yet this should deter nobody; there is something for everybody in Tampopo since we all love food and drama.Both satire and irony abound in the rich soup of Tampopo, yet the film still carries many important messages, several of which suggest desirable things we can do with food in settings as diverse as the bedroom, a posh restaurant, the kitchen, and of course that staple of Japanese culinary life: the noodle shop.Within this rich pastiche reside many original gems, including an explanation of the zen art of noodle eating, a sensually charged encounter with an oyster diver, and probably the most mouth-watering method of cooking eggs most viewers are likely to see. Note, the chef who prepares the eggs plays a vagabond off the streets, yet try to emulate his egg-cooking feat and my bet is it will take an experienced cook several attempts to get it right!Fun, astute, entertaining and informative, Tampopo achieves a type of magic that happens all too rarely in the cinema: the audience walks out all smiles, abuzz with comments and stories, and feeling both energized and optimistic, if for no other reason than they now have a clear idea of what they'd like for dinner!

This is one of those quirky movies that it seems only the Japanese can make. The film publicity calls it the first ramen western, riffing on the term spaghetti western, and is true to that for if you watch there are many western tropes, from the hat the 'hero' wears to the atmosphere, and, most amusingly, the last scene.The main story is how a truck driving drifter and his buddy (Ken Watanabe in an early role), for reasons never really explained, become involved with the widowed proprietress of a noodle shop, a really bad noodle shop. This principal story is essentially a Cinderella story and is sweet to watch.There are several vignettes along the way that have nothing to do with the principal story, all one-shot episodes 3-5 minutes but all focused somehow on food. There is one repeating vignette starring Koji Yakusho, who is described as an elegant gangster in a white suit and hat. He is most often with his girlfriend, the episodes are almost pornographic (so young children may need thier eyes covered, <snicker>) yet they also are moving in their way.The actors are fun to watch, not only for the generally good acting but also because of who they are; Ken Watanabe, Koji Yakusho, Nobuko Miyamoto, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Toshiya Fujita - think Meryl Streep, Jack Nicholson, a young Brad Pitt, Martin Scorsese, Robert DeNiro all doing a low budget film basically for the hell of it.The movie is a paen to food and to eating. It's funny, heart warming and occasionally tear-inducing. Just remember when watching that these people are not American and that as such they don't have American sensibilities and reactions. But this is well worth watching.