Tampopo (1985)

Director:

Juzo Itami

Writer:

Juzo Itami (writer)

Release Date:

September 1987 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

The first Japanese noodle western!

Plot:

In this humorous paean to the joys of food, the main story is about trucker Goro who rides into town...

Plot Keywords:

Noodle | Cuisine | Death | Sexuality | Non Sequitur

Awards:

4 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Tsutomu Yamazaki	...	Goro
Nobuko Miyamoto	...	Tampopo
Ken Watanabe	...	Gun
Kôji Yakusho	...	Man in White Suit
Rikiya Yasuoka	...	Pisuken
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Mario Abe	...	Resutoran no shachô
Sen Hara	...	Old woman, pressing Camembert cheese
Isao Hashizume	...	Waiter
Hisashi Igawa	...	Running man
Kensô Katô	...	Hira
Toshimune Kato	...	Young Employee
Yoshihiro Katô
Yoshi Kato	...	Noodle-making master
Fukumi Kuroda	...	Man in White Suit's Mistress
Nobuo Nakamura	...	Old gentleman
Mariko Okada	...	Supageti sensei
Hideji Otaki	...	Rich Old Man
Ryutaro Otomo	...	Râmen no sensei
Yoshihei Saga	...	Sararîman
Kinzoh Sakura	...	Shohei
Setsuko Shinoi	...	Old Man's Mistress
Hitoshi Takagi	...	Restaurant Owner
Choei Takahashi	...	Sararîman
Ei Takami	...	Homeless
Akio Tanaka	...	Sararîman
Masahiko Tsugawa	...	Sûpâ no shachô

Also Known As:

Dandelion (International: English title)

Runtime:

114 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Australia:M | Canada:14A | Singapore:R(A) | UK:18

Company:

Itami Productions

Quotes:

Man in White Suit: I'll kill you if you make that noise once the movie starts! Understand? And... I also don't like watch alarms going off.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Frasier: The Return of Martin Crane (#9.4)" (2001)

Beautiful Film, A Classic

I first saw this film on TV around 1990 and loved it. Its one of those films that you put on your mental list of films to see again. My girlfriend managed to buy an Japanese import subtitled version for Xmas and we sat down to watch. Tampopo is a film that starts interesting and slowly draws you in until you realise you sat for an hour and a half mesmerised. Its one of those films that when the lights go up you're not sure what you just watched but somehow it all made sense and you know it was very special. This is a film for life. I won't watch it every week but everyone I loaned it to came back with the same comments as myself. There are moments of sheer beauty that make your eyes fill up with joy. Several times I had to hold back a sniff, Damn I wanna cook noodles now. If Tampopo doesn't capture your heart then maybe you miss the point of film making as an art.