Tampopo (1985)

A truck driver stops at a small family-run noodle shop and decides to help its fledgling business. The story is intertwined with various vignettes about the relationship of love and food.

Director:

Jûzô Itami

Writer:

Jûzô Itami

Stars:

Tsutomu Yamazaki, Nobuko Miyamoto, Ken Watanabe

6 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Complete credited 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
Sen Hara	...	Old woman, pressing Camembert cheese
Isao Hashizume	...	Waiter
Hisashi Igawa	...	Running man
Toshimune Kato	...	Young Employee
Kensô Katô	...	Hira
Yoshi Katô	...	Noodle-making master
Yoshihiro Katô
Fukumi Kuroda	...	Man in White Suit's Mistress
Nobuo Nakamura	...	Old gentleman

Storyline

In this humorous paean to the joys of food, the main story is about trucker Goro, who rides into town like a modern Shane to help Tampopo set up the perfect fast-food noodle restaurant. Woven into this main story are a number of smaller stories about the importance of food, ranging from a gangster who mixes hot sex with food, to an old woman who terrorizes a shopkeeper by compulsively squeezing his wares.

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Plot Keywords:

noodle | kitchen | vendor | metafiction | ritual | 

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Taglines:

The first Japanese noodle western!

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Genres:

Comedy

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Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

September 1987 (USA)

Also Known As:

Dandelion

Company Credits

Production Co:

Itami Productions, New Century Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

114 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Many elements of the film closely parallel a classic Western. Goro is the mysterious stranger who rides into town; he saves the pretty girl from harassing bad men, and even has a brawl with another man at the edge of town.

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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.

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Connections

Spoofs The Burmese Harp (1956)

User Reviews

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.