Tampopo
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| Tampopo | |
 pamphlet cover |
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| Directed by | Juzo Itami |
|---|---|
| Produced by | Seigo Hosogoe Juzo Itami Yasushi Tamaoki |
| Written by | Juzo Itami |
| Starring | Tsutomu Yamazaki Nobuko Miyamoto Ken Watanabe |
| Release date(s) | November 23, 1985 |
| Running time | 114 min. |
| Language | Japanese |
Tampopo (タンポポ or 蒲公英, literally "dandelion") is a 1985 Japanese comedy film by director Juzo Itami, starring Tsutomu Yamazaki, Nobuko Miyamoto and Ken Watanabe. The publicity for the film calls it the first noodle western, a play on the term Spaghetti Western (films about the American West made by Italian production studios).
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[edit] Plot summary
Tampopo begins when a pair of truck drivers, an experienced one named Goro and a young sidekick named Gun (played by Tsutomu Yamazaki and Ken Watanabe respectively), happen onto a decrepit roadside fast food stop selling ramen noodles. The business is not doing too well, and after getting involved in a fight, the heroes decide to help the widowed owner, Tampopo ("Dandelion", played by Nobuko Miyamoto), turn her establishment into a paragon of the "art of noodle soup making".
The main narrative is interspersed with stories involving consumables on several levels. The primary subplot involves a white-suited yakuza gangster (Koji Yakusho) and his mistress (Fukumi Kuroda), who find eyebrow-raising new ways to use food. Other satirical vignettes involve a lowly office intern who upstages his senior management superiors by displaying a vast and cultured culinary knowledge while ordering at a gourmet French restaurant; a housewife who rises from her deathbed to cook one last meal for her family; and a women's etiquette class in learning how to eat spaghetti in the gaijin way. One of the longer subplots involves a corner store clerk who has to deal with an overly zealous older woman in her quest to squeeze food, and then that clerk's scene moves into a restaurant involving gangsters and stock market scams.
[edit] Style and cultural impact
The camerawork and cinematic techniques were sophisticated for the time. The several strands of the story transition one to another on the fly, and some of the characters address the audience directly or ham it up deliberately.
The main storyline has been compared by some to that of the Western movie Shane, and also to the movie Seven Samurai and the Western based on it, The Magnificent Seven.
The film was popular in Japan and on the North American art house circuit in the late 1980s where it was appreciated for its quirky approach. While many ramen restaurants in Japan claim to be the one that motivated the shop in the story, no one has been able to figure out which, if any, is correct.
The film is often cited as being a good reference for learning about Japanese culture, particularly the role and importance of food in Japanese society. The film also displays the almost fanatic following that well-prepared ramen has in Japan.
The animated science fiction show Futurama's episode "The 30% Iron Chef" paid homage to Tampopo's hobo scene.
The Japanese cartoon Naruto's episode "Mix It! Stretch It! Boil It! Burn Copper Pot! Burn!" paid homage to the film's ramen appreciation lesson scene.
[edit] See also
- Babette's Feast
- Big Night
- Chocolat
- Eat Drink Man Woman
- God of Cookery
- Like Water for Chocolate
- Osaka Wrestling Restaurant
- Tortilla Soup
- The Wedding Banquet
[edit] Further reading
- Ashkenazi, Michael. "Food, Play, Business, and the Image of Japan in Itami Juzo's Tampopo." In Anne Bower, ed., Reel Food: Essays on Food and Film (New York: Routledge, 2004).
[edit] External links
- (English) Tampopo at the Internet Movie Database
- (Japanese) Tampopo at the JMDb
- Review: Hinson, Hal, 'Tampopo', June 17, 1987, Washington Post. Accessed 2008 March 29.
