{"id":80826,"date":"2026-07-06T09:26:01","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T01:26:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/calltoreason.org\/?p=80826"},"modified":"2026-07-06T09:26:01","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T01:26:01","slug":"tampopo-1985","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calltoreason.org\/?p=80826","title":{"rendered":"Tampopo (1985)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Digging deeper into the history of cinema and especially the works of not-so-well-known directors can be hit and miss. But every so often it pays off in spades. Tampopo <\/em>seems to be Juzo Itami’s best known and it is so delightful that it immediately made me want to check out the rest of his filmography. It’s already pretty rare that a Japanese comedy can work for international audiences and what’s more fun is that this is food-themed. I didn’t find all of the jokes funny as some seem rather dark. But it’s wonderfully creative, irreverent and has a heart of gold without being sentimental.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

One rainy night, two truck drivers, the cowboy hat wearing Gor\u014d and the younger Gun stop outside a ramen shop. It is run by Tampopo, a single mother raising a bullied son on her own and struggles to make good ramen. After getting into a fight with another customer who is urging Tampopo to sell her shop to him, Gor\u014d gives a critical assessment of her ramen and is asked to help elevate the quality of her cooking. Together they visit some of her competitors to learn their secrets. When she fails to replicate a competitor’s broth recipe, Gor\u014d enlists additional help in the form of an old culinary sensei who hangs out among the homeless. Occasionally the camera wanders away from this main plot to show unrelated vignettes. One recurring character is a gangster in a white suit with his mistress who breaks the fourth wall at the beginning of the film by admonishing the audience not to make noise while eating in the cinema. They are later seen involving food in their erotic activities. Other stories make fun of being overly polite while indulging in food, the embarassment of not knowing how to order in a restaurant and much more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The camera drifting off to focus on side character is reminiscent of Luis Bu\u00f1uel’s The Phantom of Liberty<\/a><\/em> for good reason. Itami cites it as a direct inspiration and uses the format to gently poke fun at Japan’s food culture. A good example is when Gor\u014d and Gun are reading from a book which describes step by step in meticulous detail how to properly a savor a bowl of ramen, which prompts them to stop for ramen themselves. The main plot gives the film structure and an emotional heart but I found these side stories funnier and more interesting. One of my favorites is when a group of Japanese executives dine in a French restaurant. Flummoxed by the unfamiliar menu, they don’t know what to order and so all repeat what the most senior executive orders. But then the youngest and most junior executive shows off his deep knowledge of French cuisine by ordering exactly what he wants, a social faux pas in more than one way. I found the story of a housewife cooking one last meal for her family very dark however and not funny at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are few egregious flaws. I’m a little uncomfortable about how it sexualizes very young girls and pairs one with a much older man. There is perhaps there’s a little too much emphasis on sex, reflecting the fact that Japan has different taboos and views on the subject. When it comes to main story, Tampopo’s son seems oddly absent for most of the film. On the plus side, this is a decently good record of 1980s Japan, especially of the working class neighborhoods it is set in. I’m not a foodie or a fan of so-called food porn but this film is apparently considered one of the founding influences of the genre and has even inspired real-life chefs. Certainly what shines through all of these stories is a passionate love for food and an exhortation to indulge in it without shame. This is a strong recommend for me and I’m eager to see how else this director has shone light on different aspects of Japanese society.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Digging deeper into the history of cinema and especially the works of not-so-well-known directors can be hit and miss. But every so often it pays off in spades. Tampopo seems to be Juzo Itami’s best known and it is so delightful that it immediately made me want to check out the rest of his filmography. … Continue reading Tampopo (1985)<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-films"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calltoreason.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calltoreason.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calltoreason.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calltoreason.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calltoreason.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=80826"}],"version-history":[{"count":43,"href":"https:\/\/calltoreason.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80826\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80933,"href":"https:\/\/calltoreason.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80826\/revisions\/80933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calltoreason.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=80826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calltoreason.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=80826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calltoreason.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=80826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}