Tampopo (1985)

Director:

Juzo Itami

Writer:

Juzo Itami (writer)

Release Date:

September 1987 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

The first Japanese noodle western!

Plot:

In this humorous paean to the joys of food, the main story is about trucker Goro who rides into town...

Plot Keywords:

Cuisine | Breast Feeding | Death | Food | Kitchen

Awards:

4 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Tsutomu Yamazaki	...	Goro
Nobuko Miyamoto	...	Tampopo
Ken Watanabe	...	Gun
Kôji Yakusho	...	Man in White Suit
Rikiya Yasuoka	...	Pisuken
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Mario Abe	...	Resutoran no shachô
Izumi Hara	...	Old woman, pressing Camembert cheese
Isao Hashizume	...	Waiter
Hisashi Igawa	...	Running man
Kensô Katô	...	Hira
Toshimune Kato	...	Young Employee
Yoshihiro Kato
Yoshi Kato	...	Noodle-making master
Fukumi Kuroda	...	Man in White Suit's Mistress
Nobuo Nakamura	...	Old gentleman
Mariko Okada	...	Supageti sensei
Hideji Otaki	...	Rich Old Man
Ryutaro Otomo	...	Râmen no sensei
Yoshihei Saga	...	Sararîman
Kinzoh Sakura	...	Shohei
Setsuko Shino	...	Old Man's Mistress
Hitoshi Takagi	...	Restaurant Owner
Choei Takahashi	...	Sararîman
Akio Tanaka	...	Sararîman
Masahiko Tsugawa	...	Sûpâ no shachô

Also Known As:

Dandelion

Runtime:

114 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Australia:M | Canada:14A | Singapore:R(A) | UK:18

Company:

Itami Productions

Quotes:

Man in White Suit: I'll kill you if you make that noise once the movie starts! Understand? And... I also don't like watch alarms going off.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Frasier: The Return of Martin Crane (#9.4)" (2001)

Yummy

Tampopo is an extremely clever and a very original movie. Like so many other Japanese films before it, Tampopo may not entirely appeal to the western public, but it is by far the most accessible movie I've seen in years.

It is hard to define this film as anything but a story of life through culinary perspective. Major aspects of our every day experience are looked at by introducing food into them, sometimes resulting in a very comical effect. From the first scene, to the last few moments, you will probably be amazed by sheer originality of this movie. Simply coming up with ideas they came up with takes a unique and incredibly approach. Something that has never been done before.

In a sense, I can only compare Tampopo's approach at making us 'taste' what we see with a 2006 film Perfume which managed to describe olfactory experiences with as much success. But unlike Perfume, Tampopo also juggles around few other interesting movie genres just for the fun of it. If you watch carefully, you will begin to see western elements, gangster movie and even a police crime, all in one movie. They might not seem connected at first, but they will make sense in due time.

Overall however the side stories are only there to keep us interested in the main event.

If you thought that tasting things in cinema is impossible, wait till you see Tampopo.

10/10 for great cast, humour, story and acting.