Tampopo
Directed by	Juzo Itami
Produced by	Seigo Hosogoe Juzo Itami Yasushi Tamaoki
Written by	Juzo Itami
Starring	Tsutomu Yamazaki Nobuko Miyamoto Ken Watanabe
Music by
Cinematography by
Editing by
Distributed by
Released	November 23, 1985
Running time	114 min.
Language	Japanese
Budget
Preceded by	{{{preceded_by}}}
Followed by	{{{followed_by}}}
IMDb profile

Tampopo (タンポポ or 蒲公英 which translate to "dandelion") is a 1985 Japanese comedy film by director Juzo Itami, starring Tsutomu Yamazaki, Nobuko Miyamoto and Ken Watanabe. The publicity for the film calls it "the first 'noodle western,'" a play on the "Spaghetti Westerns"--Western films made by Italian Production Studios. Image File history File links Tampopo_Poster. ... Juzo Itami (伊丹十三 Itami Jūzō) (15 May 1933 - 20 December 1997) was an actor and a popular modern Japanese film director. ... Juzo Itami (伊丹十三 Itami Jūzō) (15 May 1933 - 20 December 1997) was an actor and a popular modern Japanese film director. ... Juzo Itami (伊丹十三 Itami Jūzō) (15 May 1933 - 20 December 1997) was an actor and a popular modern Japanese film director. ... Tsutomu Yamazaki (山崎 努 Yamazaki Tsutomu) (born December 2, 1936 in Matsudo, Chiba Prefecture, Japan) is a Japanese actor. ... Nobuko Mitamoto (宮本信子 Miyamoto Nobuko) (born 27 March 1945) is a Japanese actress. ... Ken Watanabe (渡辺謙 Watanabe Ken) is a Japanese theatre, TV, and film actor. ... November 23 is the 327th day of the year (328th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 38 days remaining. ... This article is about the year. ... This article is about the year. ... Airplane! is considered by some critics to be one of the funniest movies of all time. ... The film director, on the right, gives last minute direction to the cast and crew, whilst filming a costume drama on location in London. ... Juzo Itami (伊丹十三 Itami Jūzō) (15 May 1933 - 20 December 1997) was an actor and a popular modern Japanese film director. ... Tsutomu Yamazaki (山崎 努 Yamazaki Tsutomu) (born December 2, 1936 in Matsudo, Chiba Prefecture, Japan) is a Japanese actor. ... Nobuko Mitamoto (宮本信子 Miyamoto Nobuko) (born 27 March 1945) is a Japanese actress. ... Ken Watanabe (渡辺謙 Watanabe Ken) is a Japanese theatre, TV, and film actor. ... Spaghetti Westerns is a nickname for a broad sub-genre of Western film that emerged in the mid-1960s, so named because most of them were produced by Italian studios. ...

Plot summary

Tampopo begins when two truck drivers, one young and one experienced, happen onto a decrepit roadside fast food stop selling ramen. The business is not doing too well, and after getting involved in a fight, the heroes decide to help the young lady owner Tampopo to turn her establishment into a paragon of the "art of noodle soup making". A typical packet of ramen Contents of the packet The same ramen, prepared This article discusses Japanese food. ...

The main narrative is interspersed with stories involving consumables ("food porn") on several levels. The primary B story involves a white-suited yakuza (Koji Yakusho) and his mistress (Fukumi Kuroda) who, among other things, check into a hotel and do PG-13 things with prawns that one would just have to see. Other sideplots include an office intern who shows up his senior colleagues by ordering well at a French restaurant, a housewife who rises from her deathbed to cook one last meal for her family, and a women's etiquette class teaching how to eat spaghetti the gaijin way. Food Porn is a term for a spectacular visual presentation of cooking or eating in adverts, infomercials, cooking shows or other visual media. ... This article may be confusing for some readers, and should be edited to be clearer. ... Koji Yakusho (役所 広司 Yakusho Kōji) is a Japanese actor. ... The MPAA film rating system is a system used in the United States and instituted by the Motion Picture Association of America to rate a movie based on its content. ... The characters for Gaikokujin, lit. ...

The camerawork and cinematic techniques were sophisticated for the time. Some of the story strands transition on the fly, and some of the characters address the audience directly or ham it up deliberately.

The main storyline has been compared by some to that of the Western movie Shane, and also to the movie Seven Samurai and the Western based on it, The Magnificent Seven. Broncho Billy Anderson, from The Great Train Robbery The Western movie is one of the classic American film genres. ... ... The Seven Samurai (七人の侍 Shichinin no samurai, 1954) is a movie by Akira Kurosawa starring Takashi Shimura and Toshiro Mifune. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

While many ramen restaurants in Japan state in their description they are the one that motivated the shop in the story, few have been able to figure out which, if any, is correct.

As a tutorial towards the preparation and appreciation of ramen in general it is a recommended movie.

As a tutorial towards the use and appreciation of food in any kind of erotic activity, it is also a recommended movie.

See also: Iron Chef, noodles With these words begins each edition of Iron Chef, a Japanese television program made by FujiTV. The original Japanese title is Ryōri no tetsujin (料理の鉄人, Ironmen of Cooking). It began airing in 1993 as a half-hour show, and after 23 episodes was expanded to a one-hour format. ... A chef making hand-pulled noodles. ...

External link

• Tampopo at the IMDB
• Tampopo at the JMDb (in Japanese)