Ramen Chef: You stupid amateurs could never appreciate my noodles!
Tampopo: But people who eat noodles are all amateurs! So why make noodles amateurs can’t appreciate?
This film is food. More so, it is a display of the appreciation for good food. Long seen as a Japanese classic, ‘Tampopo’ (タンポポ) is a story about a lonely widower who is encouraged to improve her ramen making skills and turn her failing restaurant into a success.
The main plot involves truck driver Goro (Yamazaki Tsutomu) and his colleague Gun (Watanabe Ken) stopping off at a ramen joint to get some food. Tampopo (Miyamoto Nobuko) runs the restaurant after the death of her husband, and is running it poorly. After criticising Tampopo’s noodles and getting in a fight with the hefty Pisken (Yasuoka Rikiya), Goro agrees to teach Tampopo and make her noodles great.
Directed by Juzo Itami, Tampopo has a delightful cast, including Yamazaki Tsutomu as the experienced truck driver Goro and a young Watanabe Ken as Gun. The film is a little quirky and has some side-plots that leave you thinking ‘What the hell?!…’, but generally it is an enjoyable film. Tampopo also has a very strong following of people who love Ramen.
There are several sub-plots to the film, all having something to do with food. The old woman who likes to squeeze food. The con artist who loves pancake rolls. They are all pretty peculiar, but entertaining nonetheless.
Many scenes have gained a lot of reputation. The opening scene is almost like a mantra on how to eat noodles. The sphagetti scene in the french restaurant shatters preconceptions about how foreigners eat.
A much loved scene is the hobo scene, where Goro takes Tampopo and her son to see a group of homeless food connoisseurs. [The expressions on their faces, they make me laugh every time!] The part where one of the hobos sneaks into a restaurant with Tampopo’s son to make him a rice omelette feels like a Warner Brother’s cartoon, as the avoid the security guard. Genius. Futurama pays tribute to this scene in the episode ‘30% Iron Chef’, where bender cooks for a group of hobos and learns the secret of flavour.
I recommend watching this film, and I’d give it 4.5 stars out of 5. Sure, the plot drifts at time, but the general feel of the film makes it enjoyable to watch. Take a look at the trailer, not the best trailer in the world but it gives you an idea.
On a similar note, out last year is a hollywood film called ‘The Ramen Girl’, which seems to share a similar storyline. I haven’t seen it yet, but from the trailer my thoughts are ‘meh’. Still, it has Yamazaki Tsutomu as the old ramen master, so i’ll have to wait and see. Here’s the trailer if you are interested. I’m not sure Brittany Murphy is the right person for the main role though.
Dave Smith is an illustrator with great interest in Japan and Japanese culture. Find out more about Dave at
Looks delicious! ^^; Haven’t seen this film, but it seems quite interesting and looks to give a glimpse of older Japan.
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It is rather good! I think this was done in the 80’s, but it’s done really well. I’m definately getting into Yamazaki Tsutomu though, he’s also in The Ramen Girl and Okuribito. Gotta check them out. Tampopo is well worth watching. I love Pisken too, he is awesome.
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I just got around to seeing this movie even though you posted this a while ago. I enjoyed it. It was quirky. I could have done without the tooth scene but aside from that I had a good time.
One thing is bothering me that I hope someone can clear up. Everywhere I read Tampopo and yet it looks to me like the Japanese is writing Tanpopo. My dictionary in jwpce says Ianpopo. Why do they translate it Tampopo and do I hear them saying Tampopo or is that just my imagination. It’s puzzling me.
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Thanks for your comment, glad you enjoyed it. I’ll get some more reviews online, spread the word about some good movies
It is actually Ta’m'popo. We know this because it’s on the international releases of the film, on DVDs and such. Although, this could just be at the translator’s discretion. On the note of M vs. N , the Japanese symbol ん (ン in Katakana), actually means both M *and* N. So Tampopo can also be read as Tanpopo. If you listen to someone say it in a Japanese accent, you’ll see there isn’t much difference in they way they’re pronounced. Both are very nasal-sounding.
Unfortunately there isn’t much way of telling which one to use. It goes to experience really. I think ‘N’ is used most of the time, with some exceptions. Luckily most of the examples are 和製英語 (Japanese ‘English’) which are English loan words written in Katakana, so you’ll probably have some reference to go on.
Hope it helps!
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