Tampopo (Subtitled) (15)

(Subtitled)

Two Japanese milk-truck drivers help a restaurant owner learn how to cook great noodles in Juzo Itami’s iconic comedy.

What is it about food that brings out the best in filmmakers across the globe? From slicing garlic with a razor prison style in Goodfellas to the Big Kahuna burger in Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, food on film has provided some of the most visceral, most memorable big screen moments.  

Itami’s classic is no different when it comes to mixing culinary and cinematic pleasures. It has the irresistible freshness of a recipe that many have tried to copy and none have matched. Every aspect of life is filtered through the prism of food. Its rituals of preparation and consumption, its role as a social unifier or divider, its many healthy uses and perverse abuses.

With a wonderful cast, Tampopo is a film that celebrates food, celebrates films, celebrates sex. In short, everything that pleases the senses. And when trucker Goro and his sidekick first saunter into widow Tampopo’s struggling noodle shop, what unfolds is a funny, affectionate celebration of all of these things and their broad, lasting influence on both Japanese and Western culture.