Tampopo is a Japanese comedy film written and directed by Juzo Itami. The storyline of this film is a pair of truck drivers, the experienced Goro and a younger sidekick named Gun, stop at a decrepit roadside ramen noodle shop. Outside, Gorō rescues a boy who is being beaten up by three schoolmates. The boy, Tabo, turns out to be the son of Tampopo, the widowed owner of the struggling business, Lai Lai. When a customer called Pisken harasses Tampopo, Goro invites him and his men to step outside. Goro puts up a good fight, but outnumbered by Pisken and his men, he is knocked out and wakes up the next morning in Tampopo’s home. 

Pisken feels bad for being too drunk to tell his men to stay out of the fight, so he offers Gorō another chance one-on-one. After the rematch ends in a draw, Pisken reveals he is a contractor and offers to make over the shop’s interior. Tampopo’s latest effort still comes up short, so Pisken teaches her his own secret recipe. The primary really subplot involves a young gangster in a white suit and his lover, who explore erotic ways to use food. In the end, the man is shot several times by an unknown assailant, to his lover’s horror, but uses his last words to convey his secret recipe for sausages.

The main characters of this film are Tsutomu Yamaz(Goro), Ryutaro Otomo(Ramen Master), Rikiya Yasuoka(Pisuken) and Kinzo Sakura(Shohei). 

 

The setting was in Japan, Tampopo features an extended scene where the protagonist and her son enjoy food with a band of homeless men.

 

The general role that food plays in film is the thread that connects together the different ideas Itami is trying to communicate. The love of the food is something they have in common, food has always been there. It appeared by the work of genius in 1985 for Juzo to create the Japanese film that uses food as a way to meditate on human behavior. Also food plays such an dominant role in this film. Yet the food possesses the double-edged potential to demonstrate it’s consumers. The food focuses on the audience and posting the food as a metaphor for the changes.

( Moore, 2017)

 

In this scene, a group of young women sit at a fancy restaurant while receiving intense instruction on how to eat spaghetti. When a foreign man starts to slurp his spaghetti at a different table, all hell breaks loose. The group of women, unable to contain their desires, break into a cacophony of spaghetti slurping. This scene illustrates this tension at a personal level. On the one hand these young women want to learn to be sophisticated western women. They want to eat spaghetti like Audrey Hepburn does. They want to vacation in Rome without committing a faux pas at the dinner table. They study spaghetti with the same intensity that they mustered for their college entrance exams. On the other hand, there’s a delicious looking plate of spaghetti in front of them, and they already know how to eat noodles. Ever since they were young, they’ve been slurping their noodles. It’s torture to ignore the sensual joys of spaghetti for the sake of western manners. In the end, all it takes is a nudge for these young women to throw out these foreign rules and return to traditional slurping. For the specific information from class this picture deals with Tradition and authenticity, the reason why it’s tradition and authenticity is because the foreign man teaches these women how to eat spaghetti because it has been a tradition for years. 

(Tampopo, 2012)

 

Lastly, in the main narrative of Tampopo attempting to save her ramen shop, the recurring theme of this dedication to food is manifested here as well. Throughout the whole movie, Tampopo, trying her hardest through her training, is willing to do anything to perfect her technique for making ramen. For food, she is willing to go to such length; her actions display her dedication for food and how the power of food is able to enable a person to have such a strong mindset. This specific information deals with Food history because she is trying to save the ramen shop, so she’s putting in the work on making sure the food is good and making sure it’s in people’s bowls. 

(Tampopo,2013)

In the mise-n-scene shown above Tampopo and her teachers proudly gaze upon their renovated restaurant with pride. This specific information for class is that it’s Family and identity. It deals with family the most, because they are laughing and gazing about how they renovated their restaurant with pride. Most notably being the sense of companionship and outright joy at reaching a goal together when viewing the characters smiles alone. This scene also is an attempt at unification and strengthens the idea that food, in particular, can be appreciated and valued in all aspects of life while forging a bridge between people of different lifestyles.

My opinion about this film is that I Rewatched it twice, it was very interesting to watch because seeing the family happy about renovating their restaurant gave me chills, they really put the work and pride into it. One scene made me sad, it was the scene where the man comes home to his wife and kids and the wife is laying on her deathbed. He wanted her to make dinner one last time before she passed. She made dinner and when he was saying grace she smiled and died peacefully. This was one of the film’s that really sticks to one story, other films don’t stick to one story.  

 

Itami, Juzo. (Producer,Director). (1985). ( Comedy/Western). United States: Miramax.