Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Stellead Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Maidexpl Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

Adeel Hail Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Jackson Booth-Millard I found this Japanese film in the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, I jokingly thought the title (translated "dandelion") was something to do with a feminine hygiene product, it was rated very well by critics, so I hoped it would be worthwhile. Basically a pair of truck drivers, the experienced Goro (Tsutomu Yamazaki) and his younger sidekick named Gun (Ken Watanabe), stop at a decrepit roadside ramen noodle shop named "Lai Lai", owned by widowed Tampopo (Nobuko Miyamoto). The two truckers return, Tampopo asks their opinion of the noodles, Goro and Gun tell her they are "sincere, but lack character". Goro gives her advice, and she asks him to become her teacher, they turn the establishment into a place that will have the "art of noodle soup making". Goro takes her around and points out the strengths and weaknesses of her competitors, but Tampopo cannot get the broth just right, so a Noodle-Making Master is brought in for his superlative expertise. After saving the life of a wealthy old man (Hideji Otaki), from choking on his food, he lends her his chauffeur Shohei (Kinzo Sakura), who has a masterful way with noodles. Through trickery, they are also able to pry ramen secrets from their competitors, the group also change the name of the restaurant to "Tampopo". Goro previously had a fight with a customer called Pisuken (Rikiya Yasuoka), they have a rematch, ending in a draw, Pisuken reveals he is a contractor, he offers to makeover the shop's interior. Tampopo's latest effort still comes up short, so Pisuken teaches her his own secret recipe, this proves to be successful, soon customers are filling the newly redecorated shop. There are other subplots going on at the same time, including culinary knowledge in a French gourmet restaurant; a women's etiquette class on how to eat spaghetti properly; and a man in a white suit (Koji Yakusho), an elegant gangster, and his lover (Fukumi Kuroda), exploring erotic ways to use food, in the end he is shot dead, his last words to his lover are about a secret recipe for sausages. You could argue that this movie is much more about the food, the performances are all fine and it is nice simple story about transforming a failing noodle business into a successful venture, along with little spoofs of westerns and stereotypical American movie themes, characters and other stuff, but the most memorable sequences involve the preparation or eating of noodles and various other Asian and continental dishes, almost food porn, so feast your eyes on this enjoyable comedy. Very good!

JLRVancouver Fun Japanese comedy about that most sensual of activities: eating. A heroic stranger intervenes to save a widow's ramen shop, so there are no shortage of comparisons between this 'noodle eastern' and 'spaghetti westerns'. Interludes about food and culture are interwoven between segments of the main story, including scenes of some highly erotic fork-play. The film is in Japanese of course but the dubbed version that I watched while on an airplane was well enough done. The film will make you hungry, so be prepared (although I was not sufficiently inspired to order pot-noodle from the in-flight catering) – this would be a great movie to watch with friends while slurping noodles and drinking sake.

njmollo Tampopo is a great movie. Pure and Simple. It is also very funny. The humour could be said to have been influenced by Jacques Tati. Without a doubt the director has an affinity with the French, as becomes clear with the line "You look like a film star! (pause) ....a French one."The vignettes within the main narrative are very funny. I particularly like the man rushing home to find his wife on her death bed yet orders her to cook for him and the children. Also the dramatic death scene of the Americanized gangster as his distraught girl-friend holds him in her arms.The main narrative is a humorous noodles love story that is beautifully played by all the cast.This is really wonderful film that shows how great writing, direction and acting are all that is needed to produced a classic movie.

Michael Neumann It was sold as the world's first 'noodle western', but this deadpan, mock-hysterical Japanese import is more than just another genre parody. Director Juzo Itami blends equal parts Sergio Leone and Luis Buñuel (circa 'The Phantom of Liberty') to cook up a near plot less satire on a common theme: food, in all its various shapes, forms, and obsessions. Episodic gags and aimless digressions overlap each other with little logic and often no clear punchline: a bereaved father orders his children to finish their mother's last meal after she collapses dead in the kitchen; an etiquette class learns modern table manners from an eavesdropper noisily slurping up his dinner; a dapper gangster and his girlfriend practice (with the aid of a raw egg yolk) the art of epicurean sex. Eventually each loose end leads back to the central story, about an eager but inept proprietress of a mediocre noodle shop guided by a benevolent truck driver towards culinary enlightenment in pursuit of the ultimate bowl of ramen: a process involving rigorous exercise, total mental discipline, Zen philosophy, industrial espionage, and smart interior decorating.