Tampopo (1985)

Nonsensical food-related film

It's a Japanese film which is about food, centring on a story about a woman called Tampopo, who is trying to improve her noodle cooking, with a selection of random vignettes inserted.

It's quite entertaining.

The lead actress who plays Tampopo was the director's wife and she really isn't the world's best actress, she endlessly simpers, and she is filmed in soft focus, which looks a little ridiculous.

The food-related vignettes are sort of interesting but the whole thing doesn't really make any sense in the end.

The most interesting scene of this film, and the main reason I wrote this review, is scene of the old woman who squeezes the cheeses. Oddly enough, elderly people in Japan do actually do this kind of thing. I once watched an elderly Japanese woman squash a bunch of avocados to destruction, and regularly see elderly people inspecting food items then throwing them back on the shelf in supermarkets. Don't ask me why.

Back to main page