Tampopo

"The first Japanese Noodle Western."

Sep 1 1987 Not Rated 1h 54m
Comedy

In this humorous paean to the joys of food, a pair of truck drivers happen onto a decrepit roadside shop selling ramen noodles. The widowed owner, Tampopo, begs them to help her turn her establishment into a paragon of the "art of noodle-soup making". Interspersed are satirical vignettes about the importance of food to different aspects of human life.

Plot

In this humorous paean to the joys of food, the main story is about trucker Goro, who rides into town like a modern Shane to help Tampopo set up the perfect noodle soup restaurant. Woven into this main story are a number of smaller stories about the importance of food, ranging from a gangster who mixes hot sex with food, to an old woman who terrorizes a shopkeeper by compulsively squeezing his wares.

Written by

Jûzô Itami

Directed by

Jûzô Itami

Cast

Ken Watanabe, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Nobuko Miyamoto

Crew

View crew

Production Countries

Japan

Production Companies

Itami Productions, New Century Producers

Languages

Awards

6 wins & 4 nominations

Trailers
TAMPOPO | 4K Restoration 2016
Featurettes
Ana Lily Amirpour on TAMPOPO
Scores
# of Votes
24,216
Average Rating
7.9 out of 10
Metascore
87
Popularity
NA