Post by klep on Aug 27, 2018 6:50:29 GMT -6
MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 8/27: Tampopo
ASIAN FILM WEEK!
Note: Today's essay was graciously provided by Anthony Pizzo on short notice, after I came down with a migraine.
Tampopo: A Ramen Essay
"It's really a western, if you think about it." Reframing a movie through the lens of a different genre, especially one which might share a few ineffable qualities if not actual signifiers, is one of those staples of film criticism that has run the gamut from genuinely fresh insight to ironic punchline. But in the case of Tampopo, it really is a western. And samurai film. And gangster film. And slobs-vs-snobs comedy. And romance. And porn. It's sketch comedy, culinary manifesto, and instructional video on how to run a small business. Just about the only thing Tampopo isn't is horror, and even that depends on whether or not you look at certain sequences from the point of view of the animals.
Of certainty: Tampopo is a love letter to both food and cinema, encapsulated in the very first scene, set outside of the movie, where a flashy yakuza and his girlfriend stride into a cinema, flanked by bodyguards, carrying a moveable feast. The yakuza (Koji Yakusho) directly addresses the audience ("You're at the movies too, huh?"), and reminds/threatens everyone (in the audience and those seated around him) to turn off their digital alarms and not make too much noise with their snacks, and to give proper attention and respect to the movie or else. This then moves into what we believe to the be the start of the movie proper, featuring a lengthy monologue about the proper way to prepare and eat ramen, with gorgeous accompanying imagery, which in turn is revealed to be a sequence from a book a character is reading. In these first minutes the film establishes its excited, anarchic sensibilities, resting comfortably between the French New Wave and the Muppets.
But to jump back to that gorgeous ramen footage... "gorgeous" is the only proper word, and yet it feels so lacking. Food is the only thing the film treats with any kind of reverence, and the photography of food preparation and finished dishes is absolutely transcendent. And the film doesn't discriminate when it comes to that lush photography. Fried eggs made after some homeless cooks break into a kitchen is shot with the same lush, loving cinematography as the meticulously arranged bowls or ramen. Each copy of the film should come with a Zagat guide to ramen shops in your area, because it will give you an appetite.
It is a result of that reverence for food that the movie holds together as well as it does. The movie branches off into a series of hilariously absurd vignettes (I could describe them, but I'd never do them justice), but it always returns to its clothesline plot, which is about two truck drivers (Goro and Gun, Tsutomu Yamazaki and an impossibly young Ken Watanabe) helping a widowed shop restaurant owner, Tampopo (Nobuko Miyamoto, wife of writer/director Juzo Itami), improve her ramen and turn her run-down roadside ramen shop into a respectable restaurant. No matter how silly the vignettes get, or Tampopo's journey for that matter, the fact that it's about love and respect for food means that the movie always remains grounded in something real. It even manages to convey the idea of the power inherent in communal work people can take pride in. I invoked the Muppets earlier not just for the film's occasional fourth-wall silliness, but because the way Pisken, an early villain of the film, turns into an ally when he reveals he's a contractor and volunteers to help redesign the interior of the ramen shop. Pisken is redeemed because he contributes to a greater good, and what greater good is there than food?
Now who wants to get some noodles?
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 9/3: In The Loop
SATIRE WEEK!
Years before Veep, Armando Iannucci was sending up British politics with this foul-mouthed delight. Join us next week as we dive into In The Loop. In The Loop is available for rent on Amazon Video, though it is not free for Prime members.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 8/28: The Meg
This edition of the Next Picture Show Podcast concludes with a look at the latest shark movie, the long-gestating The Meg. Join us Wednesday for a discussion of this new film, which is still in theaters.
ASIAN FILM WEEK!
Note: Today's essay was graciously provided by Anthony Pizzo on short notice, after I came down with a migraine.
Tampopo: A Ramen Essay
"It's really a western, if you think about it." Reframing a movie through the lens of a different genre, especially one which might share a few ineffable qualities if not actual signifiers, is one of those staples of film criticism that has run the gamut from genuinely fresh insight to ironic punchline. But in the case of Tampopo, it really is a western. And samurai film. And gangster film. And slobs-vs-snobs comedy. And romance. And porn. It's sketch comedy, culinary manifesto, and instructional video on how to run a small business. Just about the only thing Tampopo isn't is horror, and even that depends on whether or not you look at certain sequences from the point of view of the animals.
Of certainty: Tampopo is a love letter to both food and cinema, encapsulated in the very first scene, set outside of the movie, where a flashy yakuza and his girlfriend stride into a cinema, flanked by bodyguards, carrying a moveable feast. The yakuza (Koji Yakusho) directly addresses the audience ("You're at the movies too, huh?"), and reminds/threatens everyone (in the audience and those seated around him) to turn off their digital alarms and not make too much noise with their snacks, and to give proper attention and respect to the movie or else. This then moves into what we believe to the be the start of the movie proper, featuring a lengthy monologue about the proper way to prepare and eat ramen, with gorgeous accompanying imagery, which in turn is revealed to be a sequence from a book a character is reading. In these first minutes the film establishes its excited, anarchic sensibilities, resting comfortably between the French New Wave and the Muppets.
But to jump back to that gorgeous ramen footage... "gorgeous" is the only proper word, and yet it feels so lacking. Food is the only thing the film treats with any kind of reverence, and the photography of food preparation and finished dishes is absolutely transcendent. And the film doesn't discriminate when it comes to that lush photography. Fried eggs made after some homeless cooks break into a kitchen is shot with the same lush, loving cinematography as the meticulously arranged bowls or ramen. Each copy of the film should come with a Zagat guide to ramen shops in your area, because it will give you an appetite.
It is a result of that reverence for food that the movie holds together as well as it does. The movie branches off into a series of hilariously absurd vignettes (I could describe them, but I'd never do them justice), but it always returns to its clothesline plot, which is about two truck drivers (Goro and Gun, Tsutomu Yamazaki and an impossibly young Ken Watanabe) helping a widowed shop restaurant owner, Tampopo (Nobuko Miyamoto, wife of writer/director Juzo Itami), improve her ramen and turn her run-down roadside ramen shop into a respectable restaurant. No matter how silly the vignettes get, or Tampopo's journey for that matter, the fact that it's about love and respect for food means that the movie always remains grounded in something real. It even manages to convey the idea of the power inherent in communal work people can take pride in. I invoked the Muppets earlier not just for the film's occasional fourth-wall silliness, but because the way Pisken, an early villain of the film, turns into an ally when he reveals he's a contractor and volunteers to help redesign the interior of the ramen shop. Pisken is redeemed because he contributes to a greater good, and what greater good is there than food?
Now who wants to get some noodles?
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 9/3: In The Loop
SATIRE WEEK!
Years before Veep, Armando Iannucci was sending up British politics with this foul-mouthed delight. Join us next week as we dive into In The Loop. In The Loop is available for rent on Amazon Video, though it is not free for Prime members.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 8/28: The Meg
This edition of the Next Picture Show Podcast concludes with a look at the latest shark movie, the long-gestating The Meg. Join us Wednesday for a discussion of this new film, which is still in theaters.