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The Ramen Girl - Robert Allan Ackerman

Title: The Ramen Girl
Year: 2008
Director: Robert Allan Ackerman

Trailer

Annotation:

Abby decides to move to Tokyo to be with her boyfriend. She also found a job at a Japanese company as a copy editor. Unfortunately her boyfriend is asked by his work to go to Osaka. Abby asks him to stay, she came for him and is not happy to see him leaving so soon after she arrived. Her boyfriend refuses and It turns out he was not so happy that she came to Tokyo to live with him. The (sort of) break up. Abby is emotional (after the break up) and visits the ramen restaurant that is situated in front of her apartment. Because she is so emotional the owners give her a free bowl of ramen.

The eating of the ramen triggers Abby to see a big Maneki Neko (lucky cat) that moves his paw as if it is luring her into the business of making ramen. This is a magical scene. She comes back the coming days to the ramen restaurant and she sees the Sensei cooking ramen. This is the second magical scene. After eating there for the third time she burst out into laughing while eating ramen (from sad to happy because of the ramen). Her wish from then on is to become a ramen chef. Sensei is initially not happy to teach her and the movie is all about this struggle and stubbornness in cooking/learning how to cook ramen. Sensei and Abby often collide because of cultural differences (Japanese vs. American) and misunderstandings because of language., she can't do anything good in the eys of Sensei. Sensei dislikes her cleaning, decorating the restaurant with Christmas items, introduction of corn as an ingredient for ramen. Abby's main activity throughout the movie consists of repetitive cleaning (reminds me of the Karate kid). The relation between Abby and Sensei stays mostly of the movie difficult, the wife of the sensei is less harsh for Abby and they seem to like each other.

Abby finds out that Sensei has a lost son in Paris and in one scene she sees Sensei crying while looking at the pictures of his son. Sensei would have liked his son to become his successor. For whatever reason this is not possible and Sensei announced in the final scene that Abby is his successor. Abby accept.

In between the struggled relationship of Abby with Sensei, she meets Toshi, who becomes in the end her new boyfriend. There is also a cooking competition where Abby is competing with another chef. For this contest Abby introduces corn a new ingredient. She loses the competition, but learns to cook to perfection. She learns how to cook with love. In the end Abby is back in New York is the proud owner of her own ramen restaurant.

What is the role of food in this movie?

Eating ramen triggers emotions both negative (crying---> when Abby cooks her ramen for the testpanel) as positive (Cheering up, laughing---> After Abby's break up with her first boyfriend). Emotional eating.
Eating ramen triggers Abby to see the lucky cat which lures her into the wish of becoming a ramen chef.
Cooking ramen to make people happy (wish from Abby). Ramen is holy grail.
A head of a dead pig which sits in a pan waiting to be cooked, frightens Abby when she lift up the lit when she is having a sneak peak. ---> This is also a scene in Tampopo (Tampopo is afraid by the sight of a head of a dead pig).
To cook ramen, you have to cook by heart (not with head). You have to put soul in your food and there is a set procedure for decorating.
Food (eating ramen, Ramen museum Yokohama) as a mediator for a date with Toshi.
Food to invent (using corn in a bowl of ramen).
Competition between 2 ramen restaurants.
To test a panel of four if your ramen is good enough.
Food to meat (new) people, socialise.
Food to create something for myself, to give myself meaning/purpose.

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 === Annotation: ===
-Abby decides to move to Tokyo to be with her boyfriend. She also found a job at a Japanese company as a copy editor. Unfortunately her boyfriend is asked by his work to go to Osaka. Abby asks him to stay, she came for him and is not happy to see him leaving so soon after she arrived. Her boyfriend refuses and It turns out he was not so happy that she came to Tokyo to live with him.
+Abby decides to move to Tokyo to be with her boyfriend. She also found a job at a Japanese company as a copy editor. Unfortunately her boyfriend is asked by his work to go to Osaka. Abby asks him to stay, she came for him and is not happy to see him leaving so soon after she arrived. Her boyfriend refuses and It turns out he was not so happy that she came to Tokyo to live with him. The (sort of) break up. Abby is emotional (after the break up) and visits the ramen restaurant that is situated in front of her apartment. Because she is so emotional the owners give her a free bowl of ramen.
-Abby becomes very emotional after her boyfriends leaves, she sees from a balcony a ramen restaurant and decides to go there. The owner feels sorry for her and gives her a bowl of ramen for free. After she finished the food she sees a big Maneki Neko (Lucky Cat). The arm of the cat starts to move and it looks like it tries to lure her into something, it is sort of a sign into something. She thanks the owners for the ramen and decides to go back the next to day for another bowl of ramen. The chef recognizes her and decides to make a bowl of ramen. Abby sees him cooking, and looks like he is doing something magical. The bowl is served and while eating Abby's mood from being very sad changes to becoming very laughfull and happy. It seems that eating this bowl of ramen made her happy. ---> eating is/influenced emotion.
+The eating of the ramen triggers Abby to see a big Maneki Neko (lucky cat) that moves his paw as if it is luring her into the business of making ramen. This is a magical scene. She comes back the coming days to the ramen restaurant and she sees the Sensei cooking ramen. This is the second magical scene. After eating there for the third time she burst out into laughing while eating ramen (from sad to happy because of the ramen). Her wish from then on is to become a ramen chef. Sensei is initially not happy to teach her and the movie is all about this struggle and stubbornness in cooking/learning how to cook ramen. Sensei and Abby often collide because of cultural differences (Japanese vs. American) and misunderstandings because of language., she can't do anything good in the eys of Sensei. Sensei dislikes her cleaning, decorating the restaurant with Christmas items, introduction of corn as an ingredient for ramen. Abby's main activity throughout the movie consists of repetitive cleaning (reminds me of the Karate kid). The relation between Abby and Sensei stays mostly of the movie difficult, the wife of the sensei is less harsh for Abby and they seem to like each other.
-She 'falls in love' with ramen and wants to learn how to cook ramen. It helps that the wife of the owner is injured on her foot and for an evening she takes over the service. Customers are impressed and seem happy with her presence. She goes in an impulse back to the restaurant and demands that the chef will learns her to cook ramen, she wants to become a ramen chef. Her goal is to cook ramen to make people happy. After a debate Abby wins and the agree she will come the next day at 5 AM to start her training with cleaning. After she finished the chef checks the result and notices a dirty pan. Abby wants to clean again the pan and the have a little fight about it. She wins and cleans and keeps cleaning for the coming 'days'. She argues with the chef that she is only cleaning and that he is not learning her how to cook ramen. She leaves but comes back. ---> the whole cleaning reminds me of the Karate kid. It is sort of a test, how much she really wants it.
+Abby finds out that Sensei has a lost son in Paris and in one scene she sees Sensei crying while looking at the pictures of his son. Sensei would have liked his son to become his successor. For whatever reason this is not possible and Sensei announced in the final scene that Abby is his successor. Abby accept.
-The chef stays grumpy and hard for her (destroying her phone, being harsh, hitting, yelling). The wife of the chef is less hard and gives her money as a reward for her hard work. She stays cleaning and through an accident a box of old pictures falls open and she find old pictures of the chef in Paris. A happy chef posing in front of the Tower of Eiffel and a restaurant. Later in the movie we see the chef crying while looking at the pictures. Who is the person on the pictures? Is it himself in his younger years? Or is it his (lost) son?
+In between the struggled relationship of Abby with Sensei, she meets Toshi, who becomes in the end her new boyfriend. There is also a cooking competition where Abby is competing with another chef. For this contest Abby introduces corn a new ingredient. She loses the competition, but learns to cook to perfection. She learns how to cook with love. In the end Abby is back in New York is the proud owner of her own ramen restaurant.
-Besides her life in the restaurant Abby meets in her social life Charlie, Gretchen (a Hostess) and a Japanese guy named Toshi with whom she goes on a date to the Ramen Museum in Yokohama. Eventually she falls in love Toshi. During the movie it is revealed that Toshi is also asked by his work to leave Tokyo. Instead of Abby's former boyfriend Toshi asks Abby to join him, but when Abby asks if he really wants her to come with him Toshi remains silent.
-In the meantime Abby keeps trying in the restaurant. To lift up the atmosphere in the restaurant Abby decorates the restaurant in Christmas style. The chef is not happy and doesn't like the American atmosphere it now conveys, yet the customers look happily surprised.
-Abby gets the change to cook ramen and in addition she proposes an extra ingredient that of corn. The chef is not happy, corn doesn't belong in a bowl of ramen. The wife of the chef defends Abby. Yet Abby learns that in order to cook ramen you need to strive for perfection.
-Abby gets a second chance. She makes a soup (the base) and asks/begs the chef to taste. He tries and trows everything away. Abby begs him to learn how to make it and it works. The next day the chef takes Abby to a farm. There is an old lady living there. Abby serves her soup again. The old lady tries the soup. She starts a monologue and bottomline is that Abby needs to cook with her heart (love) and not her mind. Abby says that she can't keep love with her and that everybody she cares for leaves her. She says she always feels pain.
-Abby keeps trying and this time a panel of four regular customers tries the food of Abby. This is a testcase for a contest Abby entered. Initially the four customers like the food Abby made, but one after another starts crying. The chef tries her soup and he also starts to cry. It is the day of the contest. An expert will test Abby's ramen and that of a competitor. He first tries the ramen from the competitor. He tastes, he chokes, yet he approves the ramen. Then it is Abby's turn. He tastes, takes his time to digest, gets a recording device and asks for the name of the dish and records that. Then it is time for the verdict and against all odds Abby looses. It seems that the corn in Abby's dish made her lose (Japanese maybe stick to their tradition, and even though the dish tasted better, she lost).
-The chef and Abby have a drink late in the evening. The both are emotional and the chef asks Abby to be his successor.  Abby is honoured and accepts. In the final scene of the movie Abby is back in New York where she runs her own restaurant called 'Ramen Show'. A person asks for Abby who is in the kitchen. Abby comes to the front and sees that Toshi came for her. Toshi resigned from his job and wants to be with Abby.