Tampopo (1986)

 

Tampopo

“Tampopo” is a movie that defies all description. It calls itself a “noodle western”, though the only thing I can say with certainty is that it is a celebration of food. And that is not such a bad thing.

The frame story is centred around a small ramen restaurant. The owner and sole chef is Tampopo (Nobuko Miyamoto), a woman with a child. A truck drives up to the restaurant and the two drivers Goro (Tsutomu Yamazaki) and Gun (Ken Watanabe) walks in. The restaurant is in shambles. It is full of drunks and bullies, the place is decrepit and, worst of all, the ramen is not good. Goro takes a liking to Tampopo and sets out to help her get it right.

This project involves physical exercise to get the process right (think “Rocky”), finding the right broth and the best way to do noodles. Gradually the team grows with a broth expert (a homeless doctor), a noodle expert (the chauffeur of a banker) and a contractor (one of the original bullies). It is an odyssey that takes them many places until, finally, the ramen and the place is excellent. When everything is set, Goro drives on, into the sunset.

Throughout the movie, we get small vignettes that are either tangential or entirely unrelated to the frame story. The only common theme is food and specifically the enjoyment of it. There is the lowest ranking saleryman ordering an exquisite meal at a French restaurant, an old man instructing how to eat ramen, sex with food, eating oyster with a kiss and so on.

As mentioned already, this is all about food and as a viewer it is difficult not to get hungry watching this. All this eating and enjoyment of eating, striving to make excellent food and the pleasure of succeeding. We all love ramen in our home, and this food absolutely spoke to us. I can totally relate to getting a good ramen. I have also been to Japan and eaten ramen from just this kind of restaurant, and it is an extraordinary experience. Yam!

This is also a comedic movie. There is an undertone of not taking itself too serious (except that food is important), and at times it is almost breaking the fourth wall with characters referring to themselves as being in a movie. Several of the settings also plays for comedy and they are funny. I love the red faces of the business executives when the salaryman gets a much better meal than they do. Or the man with a toothache offering an ice-cream to a little boy with a sign on his chest not to offer him sweets. The vignette with the elderly woman touching food in the supermarket while being chased by the proprietor had me rolling with laughter.

The noodle western label comes from the unabashed referencing of classic Western themes. This is essentially “Shane” transplanted to a noodle bar in Japan. Goro is Shane, coming out of nowhere to set things straight at the little homestead/noodle bar. He is even wearing something akin to a Stetson and has some likeness to Charles Bronson.

It is easy to get confused watching “Tampopo”. Until you realize food is the only thing tying many of the scenes together, it feels like the movie is all over the place. I forgive it, though, because the food really is tying everything together nicely and because it is all told in so endearing a way that you cannot help loving it for all its zany elements and weird detours. It is a fable about the enjoyment of food and that message goes straight in. I get hungry just writing this. Loved it!

 Better get something to eat...