Culinary Lovemaking: Tampopo

Hello everyone, I am back. It's been a minute. Been battling some demons in and out. Now I'd just like to talk about a film where upon seeing it just once instantly made it into my top films of all-time list.

So in my admittedly young life, I hadn't yet been exposed to the genius of Juzo Itami. It is rare, to say the least, to have the first film of a director I don't know be one of my all-time favourite films ever made. I thought that I was maybe getting a little too caught up in the hype of it all and took a few days away from the film. But over the course of 72 hours, I just could not get rid of the film from my mind. Every time I'd sit down to eat or even drink I'd start visualising the film and proceed to be left in hysterics.

My favourite ramen-eating scene in Tampopo (1985).

So I decided to watch it again. After watching it for the fifth time, I was more than convinced that I'd made the right choice. My all-time favourite film list is a sacred thing to me, it might sound dramatic but to me, those films understand me in a way that no one ever will. So it is quite a private thing for me but maybe one day I'll share my list.

So you may or may not recognise the young actor on the left side of the above picture, this film marked the debut of one of the greatest Asian actors to ever live, in my opinion. Ken Watanabe is known for his many Hollywood projects and even his performances on stage when he became the first Japanese actor to be nominated for a prestigious Tony Award. Now knowing that this film was his debut and the star-studded cast of this film, he had a wealth of masters to learn from. The irony is that they played his actual masters in the film.

Nobuko Miyamoto as Tampopo.

Despite my obvious love for Ken Watanabe, the main character of the film is actually Nobuko Miyamoto who breathes life into the character of Tampopo a novice ramen chef. The film follows Tampopo, the wife of a former ramen chef who's now passed. She dreams of running her own ramen shop but lacks the experience to pull it off. She struggles to find that ingredient the one to make her ramen whole. She then meets a cowboy and his apprentice who just so happens to be the best ramen chef she's ever seen. He looks rough around the edges but has such a refined palate. She then begs him to teach her to properly prepare ramen and run a successful ramen restaurant.

Tsutomu Yamazaki as Goro in Tampopo (1985).

Goro is basically Micky to Tampopo's Rocky. The film interprets learning how to make ramen in one of the most overtly hilarious ways and with such heart that you can help but laugh at their relationship but oddly enough relate to it on some level. Tampopo blends so many genres together that all signs just point to a mismatched mess of a film that's barely watchable. The fact that Juzo Itami uses comedy as the glue for this unbelievable amount of genre-blending is just about the smartest thing I'd ever heard. Personally writing comedy is hard due to the fact that it's a very subjective concept and there's no guarantee it'll work but this film pulls it off so brilliantly that I can't help but tip my cap to the sheer brilliance of Tampopo.

This film is more than just a foodie making a film. It's a classic film on par with the likes of Vertigo, Seven Samurai, Goodfellas, Reservoir Dogs, The Searchers and many more of those pillars of cinema. It is criminally underrated I cannot believe I hadn't seen this film sooner. This film is one that must be preserved for all time. I'll make my kids watch this if I have to. It is the greatest love letter to food you'll ever see. It is frankly above the title "food porn" because it simply won't do it justice. The downside of watching Tampopo is that now any food-related film you watch from then on will seem lacking to you.

Yakusho Koji (left) and Doguchi Yoriko (right) in the iconic Oyster Scene in Tampopo.

The above scene which has been dubbed 'The Oyster Scene' is one of the greatest scenes in the history of cinema in my humble opinion. This scene exudes the pure love of food in a way never presented before. This scene was way sexier than I thought it'd be. Frankly, it makes me tremble with excitement. The way it felt so natural and yet be so odd at the same time is the non-judgemental eye of film at its best. I rewound this scene over and over it was actually quite crazy. And even after all that, I'm still not tired of it. Every time I watch it is like seeing it for the first time. A truly magical scene that is not at all related to the main plot of the film.

Tampopo reminded me of the joys of living again. It turned my grey life back into colour. It gave me a renewed energy in my soul. It made me forget about the problems of life and instead reminded me of what it feels like to chase my dreams. To want something unapologetically. It is at its core, a film about life and living it to the fullest. There has been no film or series that has achieved what Tampopo has by blending genres like this. This is not simply a genre stew. It moulds genres to their liking. Making them play by its rules. A film not ruled by the confines of genres but instead one that rewrites those rules.

Thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed this blog post. If you want to see what I rated Tampopo, do check out my full review on Instagram: Tampopo Review

Do check me out on Letterboxd as well. I'll be dropping some mini-reviews and opening thoughts on there. My Letterboxd