Tampopo ( Dandelion )

I originally got to watch this at an arthouse cinema in Liverpool, I then watched it several more times without getting bored. When I went to college a lecturer screened clips of it to emphasise the importance of observation as a market research tool - a lesson that has stuck with me to this day. Decades later I get Tampopo on Blu-Ray via Criterion Collection re-issue.The print is way richer and better than what I saw a few times in Liverpool and it still holds my interest.Ramen western?Before we get into the film I want dispel the idea of the ramen western. Every magazine review you see of Tampopo will use the term 'ramen western' which was apparently coined by publicists during its international release. It's a lazy phrase in the case of Tampopo for a number of reasons.Yes, one of the protagonists has some clothing that might evoke the image of a cowboy, but that's like writing the entire film from a few curated still images. The clothing is more about evoking the rugged individuality of a truck driver, in a largely conformist society. Their neckerchief is more about lorry cabs having no air conditioning at the time.The best spaghetti westerns like A Fist Full of Dollars actually were adaptions of Japanese films. In the case of A Fist Full of Dollars, it's the retelling in western setting of the Akira Kurosawa film Yojimbo. So the Ramen Western reference is basically saying 'it's a Japanese interpretation set around a neighbourhood restaurant of an Italian plagarisation of a Japanese samurai film classic'.The reality is that Tampopo is more complex than the simplistic ramen western label would have you believe.Juzo ItamiDirector Juzo Itami was an auteur: actor, script writer and director. Tampopo was his second feature film and he would eventually direct eight more. Itami's later films courted controversy with him being attacked by Yakuza members. His eventual suicide is widely believed to have been staged by members of the yakuza to prevent a film that discussed the gang's links with a buddhist movement.Back to TampopoTampopo revolves around food as art and food is also the MacGuffin for the film. In the main story, a widow is struggling to manage her ramen shop following the death of her husband the cook and shop owner.A jobbing truck driver and drivers mate stop to eat and get sucked into a quest. The widow who is named Tampopo (Japanese for Dandelion), the truck driver and driver's mate to make great ramen and rejuvenate the fortunes of the shop.So if Tampopo isn't a ramen western, what is it?The simple answer would be an action comedy revolving around a ramen shop and the art of cooking. But there is so much more in the film.There is a second story about 'the man in white' which has heavy overtones of French new wave cinema and features a basket of European food fit for a decadent picnic. The fourth wall is broken and one of the characters speaks directly to the audience, adding an additional layer of complexity. We are both audience and (minor) character. Over new wave vignettes in the film include:Salarymen having a meal at a French restaurant A women's etiquette class on how to eat spaghetti silently in the European mannerSupermarket staff stopping an older woman with a compulsion to squeeze foodA con man uses an elaborate meal to lure a mark into an scamA woman breast feeds her infantTorakku YarōThere are references due to the plot structure to the idea of the ronin - the unattached samurai helping out common people in the plot structure. But just as important the film references Japanese culture around that time. There is a clear parallel between Tampopo and a series of trucking related comedy films that were made from 1974 - 1979. Torakku Yarō which roughly translates as Truck Guys or Truck Rascals. It is a series of ten films made over a four year period to cater for the popularity of the genre.The plots were standardised.Truck driver falls in love with woman he meets on the road.Truck driver through his actions actually helps her fall in love with another man.Truck driver ends up going on a quest to help reunite the star-crossed lovers under some sort of time restriction.In this case cooking ramen is substituted for the 'other man'. The connections don't stop at the plot structure, one of the main characters Pisken is played by Japanese Italian actor Rikiya Yasuoka - who appeared in the first instalment of the Torakku Yarō series.Torakku Yarō itself was based on an earlier series of comedies called Otoko wa Tsurai yo: translated as It's tough being a man. 48 films were made in this series from 1969 to 1995 based around the same formula.Tora-san falls in love with a womanTora-san argues with his extended familyTora-san's love of the woman is not reciprocated and he leaves heart-brokenWhile the humour may not fully come out from Tompopo, it's a visual tour-de-force with great acting and a distinctive vision behind the film. I look forward to rewatching it again in the future.

Juzo Itami's film is a sweet, funny, romantic sometimes bizarre but always delectable ode to the multi-layered and multi-flavored relationship between man (or woman) and food.The film's title (which means Dandelion) comes from the name of the protagonist, a middle-aged widow with a bullied kid, struggling to run the Ramen restaurant left by her husband. When cowboy trucker Goro (and his buddy Gun) enter her life after having saved the kid from a beating and fended off her coercive suitor, she finds in their honest criticism of her cooking a chance to improve her skill and make a better life for herself. Goro (and a host of other people, including a band of gourmet hobos) come together to aid Tampopo in honing her craft and and push her to achieve her own holy grail of Ramen.Intersecting this main artery are several vignettes with other characters, all of which explore the almost spiritual importance of food in our lives: In a delicious jab at the culture of subservience and lack of individuality, a junior executive embarrasses his protocol-slave bosses by ordering a stand-out lavishly flavorful meal at a company lunch after all of them have opted for identical bland fare. Another episode shows a sick woman cooking a final family dinner before she drops dead. In some we see people going to desperate, even life-threatening extents to satisfy their food indulgences. Weirdness comes in the thread where a gangster and his moll indulge in kinky food-meets-sex games, including repeatedly passing a raw egg yolk between their lips till it breaks.With this wonderful smorgasbord, Itami, himself a gourmet, expresses his philosophy of food with an almost reverent air. The technical aspects of the film, its visuals and sounds, are dedicated to the service of this meditation. This was one of the early films to have a dedicated food stylist. Assuming you're not a vegan/vegetarian that gets offended by the very sight of animal food (and in one scene a young turtle is killed on camera), I dare you to watch it on an empty stomach without drooling. Like warm soup on a rainy day the film is very cheering, and the plot thread of the gangster with its kinky sex and weird metaphors for virginity is about the only thing that keeps it from being recommended as family fare.Coming off a fresh 4K restoration, the film looks and sounds mouth-watering on Criterion's blu-ray (I got the region B-locked UK release). Apart from the main feature, there's a vintage 90 min making of, hosted by director Itami himself. There are also new interviews with the lead actress (his wife), the food stylist and featurettes about the legacy of the film (including one that talks to a bunch of Ramen noodle restauranters). The cover unfolds as a full-size poster on the back of which is a single decent though not very essential essay.

It is a wonderful sexy hilarious movie about the search for the perfect ramen.

This is a quirky movie - in Japanese with subtitles - with sub plots running along in the story line. Tampopo is a girl in a man's noodle world who is trying to outdo the competition with the help of a few "friends". Noodle shops are an art form in Japan and the right noodles, texture, soup etc are all required to keep the customers coming back. Despite her initial lack of success, things improve of course building up to the finale. There is a new Japanese restaurant chain in Singapore called "Tampopo", but none of the staff have ever heard of the movie - though I imagine the owner has; probably a fan of the movie like me. The food is good too, especially the Black Pig shabu ramen at Liang Court (River Valley Road). If you live in Sing, watch the movie then try to stop yourself visiting the restaurant immediately afterwards!