Amazon.com Essentials:
Like seeds of a dandelion blowing in the wind, the plot of
Tampopo wanders in several directions, following the lives of a
quirky collection of characters. At the heart of this film is a young
widow named Tampopo (Nobuko Miyamoto), who is struggling to make ends
meet by running a noodle restaurant. Goro (Tsutomu Yamazaki), a truck
driver, saves Tampopo's young son from being beaten by a group of
school girls and is rewarded with a bowl of very bad ramen
(noodles). Goro tells Tampopo the awful truth about her cooking and
she asks for his help. Together they search for the perfect ramen
recipe.
Intersecting this part of the plot are several smaller and less
well-realized stories. Koji Yakusho, who stars in Shall We
Dance, appears as a sensuous gangster who would rather play with
his food than eat it. Then there's the mysterious Noodle Master who
lives with a group of street vagabonds and a young executive who knows
how to order food from a French menu, but not how to preserve the
dignity of his superiors.
While the film as a whole feels somewhat disjointed, writer-director
Juzo Itami manages to infuse Tampopo (which means "dandelion")
with a sense of Japanese joie de vivre that is worth
experiencing. Take notes during the "soup scenes" and see what you can
cook up for yourself. --Luanne Brown
