User:10000BL/Tampopo

Tampopo - Jûzô Itami

Tampopo (1985)

• Title: Tampopo (Translate: dandelion = paardenbloem)
• Year: 1985
• Director: Jûzô Itami

• Trailer

Annotation:

Truckdrivers Goro and Gun stop by roadside ramen shop Lai Lai. The shop is owned by Tampopo. She is a single mother of a child called Tabo. Goro and Gun order a bowl of ramen, but notice that the ramen is not well prepared/lacks quality (e.g. the water for cooking the ramen is not bowling ---> 'this is a bad sign' - Gun). In the shop are also eating Pisken and his gang. Pisken harasses Tampopo. Goro stands up and invites Pisken and his men to step outside. Toro fights good, but is outnumbered. The next day he wakes up in Tampopo's home.

Tampopo is making breakfast for Goro, Gun and Tabo. Goro and Gun admit the food is nice. Then Tampopo asks Goro and Gun's opinion on her noodles. They tell her that the noodles are not so good. When Goro gives Tampopo advice she asks him to be her teacher. He accepts and his goal is to make the shop the best ramen shop in the neighborhood. Goro takes Tampopo on a tour to see a her competitors, their strengths and weaknesses. She still can't make the perfect soup base so Goro invites an 'old master' to teach her. Tampopo also steals the best recipe for the soup base and together they decide to change the name of the shop from Lai Lai to Tampopo. Also Pisken becomes a friend of Tampopo and Goro after he and Goro have a rematch man to man. Piscine who is a contractor offers to give the shop a make over. He also gives Tampopo his secret soup recipe because Tampopo is still not able to create the perfect bowl of soup (Spring Onion Special). Tampopo makes again a bowl of soup for the testpanel and this time they finish the bowl till there is no drop of soup left. Tampopo succeeds in making the perfect bowl of ramen. Customers come in and are queing up outside and one by one the test panel leaves Tampopo.

The red threat in the movie is Tampopo's path to learn to cook the perfect bowl of ramen. To get there she trains both physically and in cooking, sneaks on at competitors, steals a recipe and is being taught by an old master. There are some side stories in the movie that involves food on several levels:

1. How to eat ramen? A set of rules that explains how to eat ramen.
2. The preparation of tomato rice omelet.
3. There is the story of a young man and his lover who explore erotic ways to use food (e.g. egg yolk juggling between the mouths). In the end, the man is shot and before he dies he reviews to his lover his secret recipe for sausages.
4. A business dinner of several superiors and one young lower ranked co-worker. The superiors are embarashed by the fact they don't know anything of the French menu and cuisine they are presented. One after another they order the same food and drinks. However the young colleague shows great knowledge and recognition of the French menu and asks several detailed question. He is the only one who is able to order something according to his wish and taste at that moment to the annoyance and at the same time amazement of the superior co-workers.
5. A woman's etiquette class about how to eat spaghetti. This means using fork and spoon. Placing 3 to 4 strings of spaghetti with the fork on the spoon, twisting them in a role and eating them silently. The class is interrupted by a white adult male who observes the class. Out of annoyance he starts to eat his spaghetti the Japanese way, that of loud slurping.
6. A housewife that is about to die is ordered by her husband to cook one last meal for the family ('Keep eating, this is the last meal from mother!').
7. The cat and mouse-game between a store clerk and an older woman who is obsessed with squeezing food.
8. pickpocket while eating pancakes with duck.
9. Dentist scene and the pass on of an ice cream to a child

What is the role of food in this movie? How comes food back in the movie?

• Food when you are doing something else; opening scene cinema, expensive food vs noise of food while eating.
• How to eat ramen?:

1. Observe the whole bowl and observe how it is presented to you
2. Appreciate its look
3. Observe the aromas
4. Touch with the tip of the chopsticks the surface of the soup and stir gently (to express affection).
5. Poke gently the pork with the chopsticks
6. Pick up the pork with the chopsticks and move them to the right side of the bowl in the soup
7. 'Apologize' (pay respect) to the pork by saying 'See you soon'
8. Start with eating noodles first
9. While you eat the noodles, slurp and look at the pork at the same time
10. Interchange what you eat (noodles, bamboo shoot, noodles, bamboo shoot etc.)
11. Sip some soup, do this 3 times
12. Look up after the last sip and sigh
13. Take the pork and poke it 3 times gently to the side of the bowl to drain
14. Eat

• The water for the noodles is not boiling when the noodles go into the water. This is a bad sign according to Gun.
• Goro orders Special Noodles, Gun orders Pork Ramen
• Eating for sustenance
• Fishcake is used as a weapon when Goro and Pisken start their argument
• Close up of cooking food (rice and meat, 12.25 min.--> nice shots)
• Breakfast and round table conversation ('Do you like my ramen?')
• Roll playing game: How to serve ramen to a customer? (15.12 min.)

1. Greet and look at the customer when it enters your shop
2. Observe the customer, imagine what is going on in him or her. Is he hungry? Waiting to meet somebody? etc.
3. Cut the pork slices with a sickness of 3 mm
4. Observe how the customer eats, it reveals how good your food is

• Training to become a good ramen chef both physically and in cooking
• Businessdinner, knowledge of French cuisine by young employee. The superiors all order the same food and drinks out of shame. The are afraid to loose face because of their lack of knowledge about the menu of the restaurant, cultural difference (Japanese).
• How to eat spaghetti-class:

1. Take the fork in your right hand and the spoon in your left hand
2. Take with your fork 3 to 4 strings of spaghetti
3. Turn them on your spoon
4. Eat spaghetti silently
5. The class is interfered by a white adult male who ordered spaghetti and observes the class. He is annoyed(?) by the class and its explanation of how to eat spaghetti that he starts to eat spaghetti as if it was noodles. This means eating with a lot of noise. The students of the class hear and see the man eating and as a reflex they start to eat to spaghetti the same way as the male. Eventually the teacher also starts to eat the spaghetti the Japanese way.

• Man in white suite that has a fetish for food and sex. First scene: nipple, salt, lemon, cream and shrimps. Second scene: to pass and return an egg yolk till it burst and the eating of an oyster and the cut it makes to the lip of the man in the white suit. The girl who sold him the oyster likes the blood of his lip.
• Training Tampopo

1. Go to competitors to observe how the organize themselves. There is a scene where all is bad (to much useless movements, don't remember which customer orders what, no unity) and a good example (efficient, happy customers, attention for the customer and its behavior)
2. training in remembering who ordered what
3. To buy/steal a recipe for the perfect soup

• To not finish the ramen is an insult for the owner of the shop. You either apologize or finish the noodles. This leads in a battle where the competitor is coming to visit Tampopo to taste her 'normal ramen'. They come the next day, but Tampopo is not ready, everything goes wrong and a fight is about to happen when Tampopo wakes up. It was all a dream.
• Consult of vagebonds, talk about (high) cuisine and cooking techniques
• Cooking of rice omelet with ketchup---> slapstick music (45.00 min.)

1. Fry the rice with ketchup
2. Fry the egg and by shaking the pan in a certain way the egg folds in a nice envelop
3. Place the rice on a plate with on top of it the egg
4. Finish with a stroke of ketchup
5. The smell of the cooking stays in the kitchen and is captured by a guard

• A worker from the train brings dim sum to a passenger who is on the who for an appointment with his dentist. The dentists solves the problem but almost 'die' because of the smell from the mouth that is released after drilling. The client is advised only to eat food with a soft texture. He eats an ice cream, but while eating he meets a little girl who has a note from her mother around her neck (don't give me any sweets'). The scene unfolds where the male gives the child the ice-cream.
• Class how to cook the base soup from master to Tampopo: (55.45 min.)

1. Use fresh products
2. Precook chicken and pork, because they have a strong taste. Rinse them with water
3. Don't shop the vegetables
4. Temperature is important, it releases the soul of the ingredients. But don't overcook because your soup won't be clear. Transfer the foam from the soup.
5. Secret ingredient is the head of a pig (Tampopo faints)

• The savior of an old man who chokes while eating noodles.
• Explanation of how to kill a turtle before cooking
• Sneaking at competitors to learn their recipe for the soup base (research through the trash & smart interrogations of chef of a shop)
• Tampopo is improving in her cooking skills, customers notice her progression
• Goro and Pisken become friends after a rematch of their fight. Pisken offers to help renovate the shop.
• Tampopo dresses up and she and Goro go on a date to eat pancakes with duck.
• Pickpocket scene, eating pancakes with duck and tries to steal a wallet. Is caught in the act, but begs to have one more bite, because he will miss it so much.
• Old lady who likes to squeeze food. Cat and mouse game with store clerk.
• Business dinner between superiors and one lower ranked co-worker. About cuisine knowledge, cultural shame, hierarchy.
• Last meal cooked by mother before she dies. Children dress the table, father observes his wife. Wife dies after cooking ('finish your food, this is the last meal mother cooks')
• Tampopo's latest test for the panel (Goro, Gun, Pisken, Master & assistant). Lots of slurping, mixed result. Better than before, but needs still improvements. More soul!
• Pisken gives his secret recipe to Tampopo: (nice close up, 35.51 min. part 2)

1. Cut the vegetables
2. Cut the pork meat
3. Little sesame oil
4. NAME OF THE DISH: Spring Onion Special ---> Panel likes it a lot.

• Final test for panel. Slurping, tasting, eating, finish the whole soup. PERFECT!
• Guy in white suit (fetish guy) gets shot. Girlfriend is there and he reveals his secret recipe for sausages (grill the boar, soy sauce and horsereddish). Girlfriend wish they could eat it together ('My last movies starting').
• Renovation of Tampopo is finished. Tampopo feels like a master chef. Test panel congrats Tampopo, you can do it. Customers come in, shop gets busy, Tampopo gets busy. One by one the test panel leaves. Toro and Gun go back to be truck drivers.
• Final scene: girlfriend of fetish guy is breast feeding her child. Breast feeding and sex goes together.