Tampopo

This movie is among my surprise favorites - I saw it when I hadn't seen many/any foreign films, but Tampopo motivated me to broaden my horizons. I saw it again on this DVD after having first caught it on VHS a few years ago, and am please the actual movie is still lovely and great fun.DVD itself: Quality is reasonable. No special bells and whistles with DVD, but this is a movie that most people are just grateful to even FIND on DVD. I believe Netflix does not carry it for some reason. I was very excited when I saw it available here. Colors appear suitable and the many shots of food look fine. (Food often looks strange in films to me, but it looks all right here, so the quality of the image is more than acceptable.) If you are a blu-ray fiend and insist that you see every last hair, then no, the quality isn't like that, but I like the way it looks.movie itself: basic, basic plot: Woman goes on journey to make the greatest noodles EVER in Japan. On a larger level, movie is about the delight and seduction of food, and an interesting look at the appreciation of "little" things that Japanese culture takes pride in. Nothing will go over your head, and it's just such a good time. Watch it with someone you like after eating something you like.If you have children (I do not have children, and if you want to show this to kids, they're lucky): Some nudity, but nothing creepy or sexually explicit - I'd say for kids over 13, and kids who can understand why people would be obsessed with making noodles. Someone gets shot, but it's almost funny because it's over the top and it's not endorsing violence or anything. It's really about the journey and the effort you throw in that makes something wonderful, which I think is a good lesson for all ages.

This is a Japanese cult film and one which has had serious traction in the West. It contains the roots of the modern Iron Chef series and is a jewel in which is reflected many of the common-or-garden mores that make Japan such a rich and wonderful place. It is a must-see and will not be easily forgotten.It is a journey to mastery of ramen making and in this, a journey toward mastery itself. Tampopo, a 'noob' noodle chef, enlists the help of expert advisers one-by-one as she assembles the skills necessary to make a compelling ramen noodle soup in the competitive environment of Japanese ramen-ya (ramen noodle shops). Along the way she steals, bribes and cheats with the support of her advisers but, as the goal is honuorable, in good Japanese (and indeed in other nations') style, the ends justify the means.Apart from yielding the best ramen imaginable, the film is interspersed with a myriad of vignettes - all food related but otherwise unrelated apart from being elements of Japanese idiosyncrasy. These vary from an old lady who sneaks into delis to squeeze the food with a naughty abandon and then to be chased out by the bemused/confused staff to fabulous sequences with the young Iron Chef chairman as a food obsessed gangster exchanging the yolk of an egg in a kiss with his equally food obsessed lover (the roots of the Iron Chef series are clearly present in this film so if you love food ....).This is a wonderful film. It holds people for years after viewing with each remembering a different element of beauty. It drew me back after 20 years and I had to find it and see it again. Having just done this (and I cooked ramen to go with the viewing!), it lives up the memory!Alexander Roche

Tanpopo is one of the most inventive films made in Japan in the last 30 years. Some regard it as being atypical of Japanese cinema, almost European in construction, while others regard the subject matter as being representative of Japanese cultural essence. Both views can be qualified and verified, but the core of the matter is that Tanpopo is a film with a very simple basic story, a simple moral as found in any Hollywood feel-good movie, good character development, and some outstanding acting performances by both central and peripheral characters. Those are the standard elements, but what makes the film so unusual is that the core story is interwoven, to varying degrees of depth and connectedness, with other tales, all related by an obsession with food. The film has farcical slapstick, and dry, astringent humour, some of it very black, and tragedy with little or no humour attached.The DVD has no features, no special information, the case tells next to nothing of the content or production, and some of the sub-titles could have been better translated. It is not terribly cheap considering there is so little other than the film contained within, but that is the point: the film is so good, and can be watched time and time again that the price is certainly worth paying.Another point is that the disc claims to be region free, so can be enjoyed by anyone, anywhere (as long as their player is able to read and play NTSC system).If you can watch it without laughing, and without feeling that you really need a fine bowl of Ramen, then you would need to be insensitive to the subject matter, the vivid atmospheres portrayed, the somewhat bizarre construction, and the engaging characters. A fine thing to be savoured, even if not a grand heavyweight, classical masterpiece. A little like a fine bowl of Ramen.Five stars for the film. One deducted for the basic nature of the product as sold.