Tampopo (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

This is a phenomenal movie if you haven't seen it - very funny and iconic. It's the kind of movie you remember for a while after watching and chuckle to yourself about the funny scenes. This is also a great release - criterion always gets you the best audio and visual fidelity as well as great accompaniments in the package with random things relating to the movie. I love it

I first saw this film in a theater when I was in college then bought it on VHS. When I found it on DVD via Australia I had to buy it. Besides being a delicious comedy it is a great commentary on Japanese culture. If you want a linear tale this movie is not for you as it cuts between being a movie of a movie being shown (a ramen, not spaghetti western), the people watching the movie, and the previously mentioned commentary on Japanese culture and yet it is coherent, this is the magic of Juzo Itami. It plays better on larger and newer (hd) televisions, almost like watching it in a theater again, which is important since it is supposed to be like you are in the theater with the Japanese audience watching the movie that is within the movie. All of the experience seems better than watching it on a smaller, older television from a VCR. Yes there is a movie about a dandelion (tampopo) and ramen, you might even say it is a ramen jedi story as the traveling truckers do save the widow and her ramen restaurant from the bad guys and teach the widow and her son to stand on their own two feet and how to cook ramen just right. There is also the analysis, even the over analysis, of all things noodle and how the Japanese pride themselves in being more civilized with the noodle. But it is also the story of our movie watchers, the fated lovers (spoiler alert) who are at their last movie together. Unluckily Itami committed suicide so there are only a limited number of his movies and this is probably the best for westerners to be introduced to them. Once you watch this movie you will probably want to check his others like "A Taxing Woman" or "The Funeral". He definitely had a sense of humor and was intelligent.

Juzo Itami's masterful film about life and food takes us on an innocent romp through a variety of vignettes which manage between them to describe a remarkably wide and insightful sampling of human behaviour. Throwing a glance at the great Akira Kurosawa, and possibly a wry smile to William A. Wellman, Itami celebrates the great Western and Gangster genres by threading two plots through his irreverent patchwork of a film, but he does so as a way of creating reference points to keep the viewer from becoming confused and bewildered by what otherwise would be a series of shorts. Essentially Tampopo is a compilation of 5-10 minute shorts joined together by two stories of approximately 30 and 40 minutes. Yet this should deter nobody; there is something for everybody in Tampopo since we all love food and drama. Both satire and irony abound in the rich soup of Tampopo, yet the film still carries many important messages, several of which suggest desirable things we can do with food in settings as diverse as the bedroom, a posh restaurant, the kitchen, and of course that staple of Japanese culinary life: the noodle shop. Within this rich pastiche reside many original gems, including an explanation of the zen art of noodle eating, a sensually charged encounter with an oyster diver, and probably the most mouth-watering method of cooking eggs most viewers are likely to see. Note, the chef who prepares the eggs plays a vagabond off the streets, yet try to emulate his egg-cooking feat and my bet is it will take an experienced cook several attempts to get it right! Fun, astute, entertaining and informative, Tampopo achieves a type of magic that happens all too rarely in the cinema: the audience walks out all smiles, abuzz with comments and stories, and feeling both energized and optimistic, if for no other reason than they now have a clear idea of what they'd like for dinner!

This is one of those quirky movies that it seems only the Japanese can make. The film publicity calls it the first ramen western, riffing on the term spaghetti western, and is true to that for if you watch there are many western tropes, from the hat the 'hero' wears to the atmosphere, and, most amusingly, the last scene. The main story is how a truck driving drifter and his buddy (Ken Watanabe in an early role), for reasons never really explained, become involved with the widowed proprietress of a noodle shop, a really bad noodle shop. This principal story is essentially a Cinderella story and is sweet to watch. There are several vignettes along the way that have nothing to do with the principal story, all one-shot episodes 3-5 minutes but all focused somehow on food. There is one repeating vignette starring Koji Yakusho, who is described as an elegant gangster in a white suit and hat. He is most often with his girlfriend, the episodes are almost pornographic (so young children may need thier eyes covered, <snicker>) yet they also are moving in their way. The actors are fun to watch, not only for the generally good acting but also because of who they are; Ken Watanabe, Koji Yakusho, Nobuko Miyamoto, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Toshiya Fujita - think Meryl Streep, Jack Nicholson, a young Brad Pitt, Martin Scorsese, Robert DeNiro all doing a low budget film basically for the hell of it. The movie is a paen to food and to eating. It's funny, heart warming and occasionally tear-inducing. Just remember when watching that these people are not American and that as such they don't have American sensibilities and reactions. But this is well worth watching.

A perfect movie experience. I dare you to try not to crave noodles afterwards.

👍👍Très belle histoire, on ne s'ennuie pas 👍

Juzo Itami's film is a sweet, funny, romantic sometimes bizarre but always delectable ode to the multi-layered and multi-flavored relationship between man (or woman) and food. The film's title (which means Dandelion) comes from the name of the protagonist, a middle-aged widow with a bullied kid, struggling to run the Ramen restaurant left by her husband. When cowboy trucker Goro (and his buddy Gun) enter her life after having saved the kid from a beating and fended off her coercive suitor, she finds in their honest criticism of her cooking a chance to improve her skill and make a better life for herself. Goro (and a host of other people, including a band of gourmet hobos) come together to aid Tampopo in honing her craft and and push her to achieve her own holy grail of Ramen. Intersecting this main artery are several vignettes with other characters, all of which explore the almost spiritual importance of food in our lives: In a delicious jab at the culture of subservience and lack of individuality, a junior executive embarrasses his protocol-slave bosses by ordering a stand-out lavishly flavorful meal at a company lunch after all of them have opted for identical bland fare. Another episode shows a sick woman cooking a final family dinner before she drops dead. In some we see people going to desperate, even life-threatening extents to satisfy their food indulgences. Weirdness comes in the thread where a gangster and his moll indulge in kinky food-meets-sex games, including repeatedly passing a raw egg yolk between their lips till it breaks. With this wonderful smorgasbord, Itami, himself a gourmet, expresses his philosophy of food with an almost reverent air. The technical aspects of the film, its visuals and sounds, are dedicated to the service of this meditation. This was one of the early films to have a dedicated food stylist. Assuming you're not a vegan/vegetarian that gets offended by the very sight of animal food (and in one scene a young turtle is killed on camera), I dare you to watch it on an empty stomach without drooling. Like warm soup on a rainy day the film is very cheering, and the plot thread of the gangster with its kinky sex and weird metaphors for virginity is about the only thing that keeps it from being recommended as family fare. Coming off a fresh 4K restoration, the film looks and sounds mouth-watering on Criterion's blu-ray (I got the region B-locked UK release). Apart from the main feature, there's a vintage 90 min making of, hosted by director Itami himself. There are also new interviews with the lead actress (his wife), the food stylist and featurettes about the legacy of the film (including one that talks to a bunch of Ramen noodle restauranters). The cover unfolds as a full-size poster on the back of which is a single decent though not very essential essay.

Enligt recensioner skulle det finnas japanskt språk och engelsk subtitles. Det finns endast japansk språk och fransk subtitles. Tyvärr var det lögn!

Incrível filme, restauração impecável e extras ótimos.

Ein liebenswürdiger Film, der von der unschuldigen Natürlichkeit der Myamoto lebt. Tampopos Begabung, ihr bedingungsloser Lerneifer, ihr rückhaltloser Einsatz und ihre vollkommene Bereitschaft, von Könnern Belehrung anzunehmen, machen sie endlich zu einer meisterlichen Köchin von Nudelsuppen. Diese Energie lädt hilfreiche Menschen, Meister und wissende Außenseiter ein, sie zu unterstützen und ihre aufrichtige Bemühung zum Erfolg zu führen. So bleiben denn zum Schluss auch die ersehnten Gäste für das von ihr geführte Lokal nicht aus. Dieser Erzählstrang wird einfallsreich garniert und durchsetzt mit zahlreichen fantastischen, skurrilen, überraschenden und aberwitzigen Szenen ohne direkten Zusammenhang mit ihm, in denen es immer ums Essen geht. Ich habe geschrien vor Lachen. Der Gangster und seine Geliebte führen auf deutliche, ja drastische Weise den Aspekt der Erotik des Essens vor Augen. Die Auftritte und Erscheinungsbilder der Männer weisen auffällige Bezüge zum amerikanischen Western und zum Mafia-Genre auf. Die Kampfszene zwischen den beiden Rivalen um Tampopos Gunst erinnern an den aufwändigen "Abschied" zwischen Gregory Peck und Charlton Heston in 'Weites Land'. Eine unerwartet schöne Chordarbietung von offenbar obdachlosen Pennern, alle Gourmets, überrascht mit einem Ohrenschmaus, der den allgemeinen sinnlichen Genuss aus einer zusätzlichen Richtung ergänzt und untermalt. Auch die Augen kommen nicht zu kurz, denn nicht nur werden die Gerichte optisch verführerisch ins Bild gesetzt, sondern wenn die sonst eher unscheinbare Tampopo sich plötzlich in Schale wirft und vor Glück strahlt, bricht sich überwältigende Schönheit Bahn. Auch die Gangsterbraut ist von ausgesuchter Schönheit. Soviel sinnliche Atzung erfüllt den Zuschauer mit Glücksgefühlen, wenn er denn fähig und bereit ist, diese zu empfinden. Hier zeigt sich Japan von seiner reichen, gewinnenden Seite. Wunderbar.