Film Feast: Tampopo (1985)

Cooking is a constant learning process; we always strive to improve or tweak a dish, but it requires you to reach out and share with other cooks. Whenever I’m talking about food with friends, we always share the little tweaks we think we would make next time or how we deviated from a standard recipe by substituting ingredients and flavours. Food is a communal act; you can only truly thrive as a cook when you work with others to grow and develop your dishes and techniques. Tampopo takes you through every step of the process in the quest for perfection. From the first step of asking for help to the collecting and sharing of secrets and tips; all the way to assembling a crew of misfits to transform a failing business into the greatest ramen shop of all time.

You can stream the fully restored edition of Tampopo on the Criterion Channel.

The film opens with two strangers rolling into town on a rainy night. Big rig trucker Goro (played by a young Ken Watannabe) and his faithful sidekick/apprentice Gun. The character of Goro is already a mix of Clint Eastwood as the Man With No Name and Kurt Russell’s Jack Burton in Big Trouble in Little China. The two lonesome drifters are discussing ramen and decide to stop for a late night meal. Enter Tampopo (whose name translates to dandelion) and her innocuous ramen shop, already filled with a motley crew of regulars led by tough guy Pisken. When Goro gets jumped by Pisken’s crew, Tampopo takes in the two drifters. After patching them up she asks their opinion on her ramen; the verdict is what she fears - it’s boring. She enlists them to help transform her ramen into the envy of her competitors; Goro and Gun agree. What follows is a montage of assembling the dream team, from fellow cooks to homeless gourmets. This is intercut with numerous vignettes and side stories, from a grocery store clerk hunting down a produce-molesting old woman to a mysterious gangster and his lover as they erotically explore food and films together. There’s even a showdown between Goro and Pisken which devolves into a fistfight reminiscent of the epic rumble between Keith David and Roddy Piper in They Live. In the end everyone comes together to lend their particular set of skills to help Tampopo transform into a capable and confident chef. And at the end, Goro walks away from the shop, satisfied with helping Tampopo and ready for the next adventure.

Another fantastic, genre-bending director gives her thoughts on Tampopo.

But this film is about so much more than the ramen; it encompasses all food in its manic glory. Tampopo touches on so many film genres; western tropes, absurdist comedy, sport movie training montages and samurai master/apprentice dynamics are all woven into this kaleidoscope of a movie. It also hammers home the fact that following a recipe is only the first step; true joy in the kitchen is found twisting conventions and ideas until you’ve made something your own without any instruction but your own imagination. You’ll need to fuck up a bunch before you get to that point, but it’s worth it.