TAMPOPO

Goro: Tsutomu Yamazaki Tampopo (Dandelion): Nobuko Miyamoto Man in white suit: Koji Yakusho Gun: Ken Watanabe Pisken: Rikiya Yasuoka Shohei: Kinzo Sakura Written and Directed by Juzo Itami. Running time: 117 minutes. No MPAA rating (for some nudity).

Tampopo is a movie that has no known category for it to be placed in. The best description that I can come up with is that it's a cross between the Naked Gun movies and Saturday Night Live, a movie filled with skits of comedic and satiric situations. Regardless of what type of movie it is, it will still have the same result, which is that it will make you laugh until it hurts.

The movie opens up with an "Indiana Jones/Clint Eastwood 'No Name' outlaw" type truck driver named Goro (Tsutomu Yamazaki) and his trusty sidekick visiting a noodle shop. A sweet woman named Tampopo (Nobuko Miyamoto), who runs the shop and takes care of her son all by herself, owns the noodle shop. Unfortunately, her noodles are not as sweet as she is. Goro and his naive sidekick, two experts of noodleology, decide to help Tampopo turn her struggling shop into the perfect noodle shop in Japan. The quest leads the group into all sorts of adventures like finding the perfect recipe and also getting into fights with other rival shops. Along the way we will meet more outlandish characters that will help Tampopo with her quest, including a bunch of expert chefs, who oddly turn out to be homeless, but still have the resources to make wonderful dishes.

Tampopo is a movie about the power and the love for food. So serious is the topic that you would think that the characters care about nothing else. The topic is beaten into your head so much that you start to believe the character's idealization about what food really means to them and that it's the only thing that drives us. It is almost as if the movie has developed a new religion toward this practice.

For example, near the beginning, we see a noodle master with his apprentice sitting at an ordinary noodle shop. The two customers sit patiently, as they are served their meal. The apprentice quickly takes his chopsticks and starts to devour his meal, while the master sits quietly and stares at his bowl. Realizing his error, the apprentice stops and asks his master what he is suppose to do. The master starts to explain all his knowledge of noodles that he received from his old master. He explains every ingredient. How to cut it, how to cook it, how to address it, how to think of it, how to look at it, how to regard it, how to approach it, how to smell it, how to taste it, how to eat it, how to hold it, how to thank it, how to remember it, how to cherish it. The scene is hilarious and silly enough that you start to agree with the notion of how we should treat our food with a better appreciation. The director, Juzo Itami, makes the noodles seem like they were some sort of god that we should pay tribute to the noodles before we start to eat it.

The movie then interrupts the story to show us sketches of other characters that share the same fascination with food as the noodle master. The sketches almost feel like commercials, where they have no meaning to the story, but are merely an intermission before the movie starts again. The sketches are hilarious, as they contain mini-stories themselves. Some of the scenes I can't describe because they would ruin the episode itself, but my favorite one is the lady who has to poke at everything that she can get her hands on and the clerk who is desperately trying to stop her before his whole store is ruined. The scene plays almost like the Tom and Jerry cartoons I use to watch as a kid, as the woman is always one step ahead of the clerk. The movie never explains why she does it, but it was fun to just watch.

The movie also had sketches that were quite bizarre. I remember one "commercial" where we see a man running to get home. It seems that his wife is near-death and the doctors can't do anything about it. He starts yelling at his wife to live. It doesn't work, as she lies there waiting for Death to take her away. As a last resort, the husband then orders her to make dinner for her family and magically she start to get up. She slowly goes to the kitchen and starts to cook. I won't tell you what happens next, since it will ruin the story, but it displays the point of the movie itself, the power of food.

The movie then continues with our band of heroes, as they search for the perfect noodle shop. The ending is predictable, only because we expect it, as our sweet Tampopo will have her noodle store resulting in our proud hero to ride into the sunset. Actually a better description would be our proud hero to drive into the highway instead.

It was such a surprise to see a comedy from Japan. The only movies that the United States have ever gotten out from the country seem only to be Akira Kurosawa movies and animation movies like Akira. I hope this trend continues, as the mainstream audience hasn't caught on to the talented works from Japan.

Tampopo is a good and delicious comedy. Like Eat Drink Man Woman, the movie shows the power of what food can do to a person. It can either drive you into madness or even turn you into a criminal. The film's message seems to be that food makes the world go around. Even though we don't get hungry at the end, we still have a craving for some noodles. Then we can start to practice how to cut it, cook it, address it.......... Grade: B+

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