Tampopo, or A Fistful of Noodles

In his online Masterclass, Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network, Moneyball) describes plot as a washing line on which to hang your ideas. The ideas are the important thing, but you need the washing line to hang them on. Never has this been more true than in Tampopo: a bad ramen cook finds help from others to make better ramen. As the template for every sports movie, but with food, the plot is as basic as they come, but for Juzo Itami this is an opportunity to present a discussion of all aspects of food and what it means to people as he branches off from the main plot following anyone who might pass by the camera. Across many vignettes food is presented as a sign of love, as a sustainer of life; food is the macguffin in an espionage story; it is something that brings people together, knowledge of food is shown to be a currency; there is shown to be various cultures and etiquettes around food; food is even used a sex toy. Billed as a Noodle Western and mostly playing out as a Sport's movie, the film magically becomes so much more as a loving portrait of Japanese society as each vignette presents brief but rich moments playing in various genres with clear influences from various corners of movie histoy.

A scene featuring a homeless vagabond sneaking a child into a kitchen to cook omurice is too uncanny not to be an homage to Charlie Chaplin in The Kid; two lovers exploring the limits of food and sex is far kinkier and more boundary pushing than anything on display in 50 Shades of Grey; a lady squeezing peaches and molesting various other foodstuffs as a shop clerk chases her around a supermarket is top tier Benny Hill style buffoonery; we dip our toe into the gangster genre, domestic tragedy, slapstick - everything is here.

In a lot of ways this film is like a big bowl of Ramen: there are lots of ingredients that don't really work on their own and it might even sound strange putting them all together, but combined they produce warm feelings inside, great nutrition and of course it's best enjoyed as a communal experience. And not on an empty stomach!

5 bowls of Ramen out of 5