Tampopo (1985)
November 12, 2018 9:18 AM - Subscribe
A pair of truck drivers happen onto a decrepit roadside fast food stop selling ramen noodles. The widowed owner, Tampopo, pleads them to help her turn her establishment into a paragon of the "art of noodle soup making".
OK so weird. I saw this movie in high school and loved it. And then, of course, forgot about it. Two weeks ago I was at the Alamo Drafthouse and they sell DVDs and Blurays and there it was! So I bought it. And now it ends up here. I haven't watched it yet because I want to make an appropriate meal to enjoy while I watch!
posted by miss-lapin at 3:35 PM on November 12, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by miss-lapin at 3:35 PM on November 12, 2018 [1 favorite]
Not sure how I missed this, but steps are being taken to remedy that. Hope you all get your kickback in a timely and complete fashion.
posted by Samizdata at 3:48 PM on November 12, 2018
posted by Samizdata at 3:48 PM on November 12, 2018
This movie should have a mandatory warning label: DO NOT WATCH WHILE HUNGRY.
posted by Nerd of the North at 6:00 PM on November 12, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Nerd of the North at 6:00 PM on November 12, 2018 [1 favorite]
I love so many things about this movie, especially the use of Mahler in the soundtrack.
posted by mefireader at 7:40 PM on November 12, 2018
posted by mefireader at 7:40 PM on November 12, 2018
I love the charming way the side stories are introduced in this movie. You'll be watching the main story and someone will pass by in the background and suddenly we'll follow them for a while. It's an interesting way to underscore the universality of the film's obsession with food -- any person you pass on the street is also the center of a story just as much as the characters you are watching.
posted by Nerd of the North at 9:07 PM on November 15, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Nerd of the North at 9:07 PM on November 15, 2018 [2 favorites]
My wife and I watched this for the first time this past week. We loved it! Our local video store (yes, we still have one!) had it on a rack of Thanksgiving-appropriate films. I thought Goro's character in particular was so perfectly sublime - I was always on the edge of giggling or laughing about him, but yet there was just enough gravitas in his bearing that I took him 'seriously.' Or, as seriously as the film intended.
posted by Slothrop at 12:33 PM on November 17, 2018
posted by Slothrop at 12:33 PM on November 17, 2018
Ramen Master teaches the right way to eat noodles.
He was played by Ryûtarô Ôtomo, a mainstay of samurai films from the late 1930s through the 1960s, who chose this as his very last role: the very day after shooting his scene, he committed suicide by jumping from the top of a building.
posted by growabrain at 3:29 AM on September 27, 2019
He was played by Ryûtarô Ôtomo, a mainstay of samurai films from the late 1930s through the 1960s, who chose this as his very last role: the very day after shooting his scene, he committed suicide by jumping from the top of a building.
posted by growabrain at 3:29 AM on September 27, 2019
I saw this again recently, because my SO had never seen it. I hadn't seen it since the early nineties. It's still so good.
In the interview with Nobuko Miyamoto she says Itami always wanted to make his films surprising, fun, and understandable by everyone. That sounds simple and Tampopo makes it seem simple.
posted by fleacircus at 7:44 PM on January 14, 2020
In the interview with Nobuko Miyamoto she says Itami always wanted to make his films surprising, fun, and understandable by everyone. That sounds simple and Tampopo makes it seem simple.
posted by fleacircus at 7:44 PM on January 14, 2020
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posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:19 AM on November 12, 2018