Tampopo-Cedar Herald Index

is a 1985 Japanese comedy film written and directed by Juzo Itami, and starring Tsutomu Yamazaki, Nobuko Miyamoto, Kōji Yakusho, and Ken Watanabe. The publicity for the film calls it the first "ramen western", a play on the term Spaghetti Western (films about the American Old West made by Italian production studios).

Plot

A pair of truck drivers, the experienced Gorō and a younger colleague named Gun, stop at a decrepit roadside ramen noodle shop. Outside, Gorō rescues a boy who is being beaten by three schoolmates. The boy, Tabo, is the son of Tampopo, the widowed owner of the struggling ramen shop, Lai Lai. A customer called Pisken harasses Tampopo, demanding that she sell the shop. Gorō suggests Pisken be quiet so he can enjoy his meal, then provokes a physical confrontation. Gorō puts up a good fight but, outnumbered by Pisken and his men, he is knocked out and awakens the next morning in Tampopo's home.

Tampopo

The next morning, she kindly cooks Gorō and Gun breakfast in her home kitchen and sends Tabo off to school. While eating breakfast, Tampopo asks for their opinion of her ramen, Gorō and Gun tell her they are "sincere, but lack character." After Gorō gives her some advice, she asks him to become her teacher. They decide to turn her establishment into a paragon of the "art of noodle soup making". She and Gorō visit her competitors and he points out their strengths and weaknesses. She still is struggling to fix the broth, so Gorō visits a homeless encampment to enlist the "old master" and his superlative expertise. When they rescue a wealthy elderly man from choking on his food, the man lends her the services of his chauffeur Shohei, who has a masterly way with noodles. Through clever trickery, they pry ramen secrets from their competitors. Gun and his friends give Tampopo a makeover as a modern proprietress. During the transition, the group agrees to change the restaurant's name from "Lai Lai" to "Tampopo".

Tampopo

Pisken feels bad for being too drunk to tell his men to stay out of the fight, so he offers Gorō another chance one-on-one. After the rematch ends in a draw, Pisken reveals he is a contractor and Tampopo's childhood friend, and offers to renovate the shop's interior. Tampopo's latest effort still comes up short, so Pisken teaches her his own secret recipe. When the five men consume her latest creation down to the last drop, Tampopo knows she has won. Tabo also triumphs, beating all three of his tormentors and subsequently befriending them. As customers fill her newly redecorated shop, the men file out one by one.

Tampopo

Throughout the film, other minor scenes of other characters are featured. A group of business executives visit a French restaurant but have no idea how to order and are upstaged by a surprisingly worldly subordinate. A women's etiquette class on how to eat spaghetti silently in the European manner abruptly changes course on observing a white man slurping his noodles. A supermarket clerk catches an aged woman obsessed with squeezing food. A con man uses an elaborate meal to lure a victim into an investment scam; the victim is himself a thief but is so taken by the meal that he fails to leave with the con man's wallet before being arrested. A housewife rises from her deathbed to cook one last meal for her family, who mournfully eat to memorialize her. A man and his lover explore erotic ways to use food. The man is ultimately shot several times by an unknown assailant, to his lover's horror, though he is satisfied at the end of his life and hopes to see it play out like a film. A woman on a park bench breastfeeds an infant.

Cast

Tsutomu Yamazaki as Gorō

Nobuko Miyamoto as Tampopo

Kōji Yakusho as Man in White Suit

Ken Watanabe as Gun

Rikiya Yasuoka as Pisuken

Kinzō Sakura as Shōhei

Yoshi Katō as Noodle-making master

Hideji Ōtaki as Rich Old Man

Fukumi Kuroda as Man in White Suit's mistress

Setsuko Shinoi as Old Man's mistress

Yoriko Dōguchi as Pearl diver (Oyster girl) Masahiko Tsugawa as Supermarket manager Yoshihiro Katō as Man in White Suit's henchman Mariko Okada as Spaghetti sensei Ryūtarō Ōtomo as Ramen master Toshiya Fujita as Man with Toothache (un-credited)