Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;”>Tampopo
Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;”>[Dandelion] (1985) directed by Itami Juzō

Roman","serif";”>Opening Discussion
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Roman","serif";”> – How can we describe this film in a sentence? Discuss with your small group and come up with a consensus.

Roman","serif";”>Narrative Structure
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Roman","serif";”>1)         The narrative within the narrative (metanarrative); the film within the film; another peculiar aspect of the film is that the viewer of the film is announced to be viewed by a character (the man in white suits) – what is the role of this man? What overall effect is created by the presence of this man?

Roman","serif";”>The episode of Tampopo’s success story develops in a linear structure. Numerous vignettes (small pictorial episodes) of food intervene without directly contributing to the main plot and yet enriching the vision of Japanese food culture.

Roman","serif";”>According to Charles S. Inouye, Tampopo marks a reassertion of pictocentrism that emerges by way of the grapheme’s eventual dominance over the phoneme within the evolution of the motion picture (137-8).

Roman","serif";”>The film exhaustively lists foods to explore Japan’s 1980s late capitalist scenes. Both production and consumption of foods display the characteristics of the epoch – Japan was seeing the heyday of so-called bubble economy, and people were becoming savvy consumers of a wide-range of international cuisines.

Roman","serif";”>2)         Tampopo’s noodle shop story takes a form of a pseudo spaghetti-western movie. The characters’ roles mold into a traditional pattern: a hero, a heroine, villain, side characters who support the hero and heroine.

Roman","serif";”>The overall plot — the hero stops at an unnamed town by chance, and decides to help the heroin to solve a locally pervading problem. But as soon as the problem is solved happily, the hero does not prolong his stay and moves on to the next road trip. Because of his manly manner, the hero and the heroine do not develop a decisively intimate relationship but remain in the stage of platonic love. They are bound to separate in the end of the story (for instance, compare the plot with some spaghetti-western films such as Sergio Leone’s Once Upon A Time in The West).

Roman","serif";”>The pervading problem
Roman","serif";”>: Tampopo’s original ramen noodle shop used to be far below the standard in the area, and its business was moribund. Her soup was lukewarm and old-fashioned outlook of the shop was depressing, and the menu was also outdated.

Roman","serif";”>Characters
Roman","serif";”>: Tampopo (a widow with a young son, by meeting Gorō, she finds a ladder of life ); Gorō (a divorced man who failed in his past marriage, and now he is a long-distance truck driver; he acts almost like a vagabond, and used to be a boxer); Gun (Gorō’s partner on the truck; he supports the noodle shop project); Ken (Tampopo’s longtime acquaintance, he seems in love with her).
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Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-language: JA;”>3)         The main pillar of the plot concerns how to build a good noodle shop.
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Roman","serif";”>* Tampopo cooks well Japanese breakfast in a very traditional style. However, as a professional cook, her noodle was bad in the beginning. That is to say, professional culinary art and domestic work are different types of labor, and therefore she needs to undergo a whole new educational process and professional training in noodle cooking.

Roman","serif";”>* Her professional training includes: paying attentions to customers, learning how to serve hot ramen noodle while being hot, and physical training like an athlete, too!

Roman","serif";”>* Gorō teaches Tampopo that good shops are the ones where each worker does not waste any motion while preparing noodles and pays close attention to customers’ reaction to the served food.

Roman","serif";”>* Tampopo has at least good memory of recalling customers’ orders in detail – so at least she proves her good customer service skill.

Roman","serif";”>* She goes to spy a popular noodle shop’s recipe.

Roman","serif";”>* Finally, she and Gorō visit a rival noodle shop to challenge their noodle.

Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-language: JA;”>So, Tampopo outgrows into an audacious noodle maker and business woman, as the story progresses. In this sense, the film can be considered Bildungsroman, a literary paradigm in which the protagonist learns the mode of social operation and spiritually grows.

Roman","serif";”>3)         Notable episodes

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Roman","serif";”>The couple in white clothes plays an important side narrative frame. They appear in the opening scene with champagne and
Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;”>hors-d’Å“uvre
Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;”>. For them, (female)
Roman","serif";”>body can be an edible object to be savored. Foods stimulate their sexual fantasy and playfulness (egg, oyster). Furthermore, even blood is meant for tasting and consumption.

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Roman","serif";”>The same man in white appears alone on the beach, where a girl catches a series of sea delicacies. He asks her to sell an oyster, and the girl opens it for him. The oyster with her blood is likened to a vagina, which stimulates his imagination.

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Roman","serif";”>Ramen noodle requires a particular style of eating (the episode appears as a story in the book Gun reads).

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Roman","serif";”>At a city hotel’s posh French restaurant, a young employee of a company shows off his knowledge of cuisine and wine after scrutinizing the menu in French. The older generations lack such a set of refined knowledge, and act as conformists in front of their older bosses.

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Roman","serif";”>An Italian table manner class is going on in the other room. The teacher gives a lecture on how to eat spaghetti without making noise. On the other hand, a Western guest sitting nearby slurps up his pasta with big noise. Consequently, the students mimic his manner ignoring the teacher’s instruction.

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Roman","serif";”>A homeless crowd feasts French cuisine, sake, deep fried pork, and wine. For Tampopo’s son, one of the group members cooks a plate of omelet and rice (omuraisu, in Japanese).

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Roman","serif";”>A man enjoys Chinese dim sum in the express train.

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Roman","serif";”>After visiting the dentist, a man enjoys soft ice cream, and shares it with a little boy who carries a signboard saying only natural foods are fed so no sweets for him please.

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Roman","serif";”>An old man with diabetes or cholesterol problem devours soba noodles (kamonanban, oily noodle soup dish with slices of duck) and sweet soup (shiruko, made of sweet red beans). A piece of rice cake (mochi) gets stuck in his throat.

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Roman","serif";”>After being rescued by Tampopo and Gorō, the same old man invites them to enjoy suppon (an animal similar to turtle, considered an aphrodisiac delicatessen).

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Roman","serif";”>Tampopo and Gorō date at a Korean BBQ restaurant.

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Roman","serif";”>An old woman takes pleasure in kneading a peach, cheeses, breads, and enjoy the soft texture of these food products.

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Roman","serif";”>A criminal old man enjoys Chinese wrap, and cannot give it up even when the detective catches him. 

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Roman","serif";”>A woman cooks fried rice, and her family eats it crying as she lies dying.

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Roman","serif";”>As he lies dying, the man in white clothes longs for a sausage made of intestine of boar, which is stuffed with yams.

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Roman","serif";”>The ending title with a baby suckling the mother’s breast – the baby’s first food in this world.

Cinematography:

Roman","serif";”>* Why there are so many scenes with rain? What are visual effects and significance of the weather?

Roman","serif";”>* The use of as-if modes of narrative contents: the film is as if a spaghetti western movie, Tampopo and Gorō are as if a married couple, etc.

Roman","serif";”>* Exaggerations and hyperboles are often employed throughout the film. For instance, when Tampopo’s final cooking receives a triumphant response from the people, a gaudy, pseudo-classic music amplifies their delight and excitement.

Roman","serif";”>* Another over-dramatization occurs when the man in white clothes gets shot and dies saying, My last movie is starting. More than other main characters, he is the most self-conscious connoisseur who is passionate of savoring foods. Tampopo’s success story is actually presented through his experience of the film, by virtue of this yakuza’s vision.

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Implied Ideas in the Film Text:

Roman","serif";”>* Foods are a symbolic category that epitomizes Japan’s consumer culture in the 1980s. Since then on (especially up until the collapse of bubble economy, but still today), Japanese have enjoyed a wide range of domestic and international cuisines, thanks to the global market economy and Japan’s active importing business from overseas.

Roman","serif";”>* The movie is a satire in multiple ways: Japanese people tend to begin things with a form and then move onto understand contents. Western cultures have galvanized Japanese people’s passion for international cuisines and desire to gain knowledge of them. For example, they are profoundly interested in wine and rare delicatessens.

Roman","serif";”>* The act of eating is universal. All ranges of Japanese people including dignitaries, corporate executives, criminals, young and old, male and female, innocent and snobs, poor and rich, healthy and sick/dying people, make appearance in the film. In short, Tampopo showcases them to portray the universal human act of cooking and eating, while giving an emphasis on peculiar, individual attitudes toward foods.

Roman","serif";”>* Why Tampopo’s son is bullied in the beginning of the story but befriends with the other kids in the end?

Roman","serif";”>* In the outlook of comedy and satire, the film depicts the world of agonistic food business prevalent in consumer culture. Metaphorically speaking, the story is set in modern battle fields, as many fight scenes and confrontations suggest.

Roman","serif";”>* The narrative frame of pseudo spaghetti western film is an important reference. As soon as the mission of creating a successful noodle shop is accomplished, all the characters except Tampopo leave the town. The movie conjures up the old heroism that shows not material interests but unconditional generosity and asceticism, as symbolized by Gorō’s generosity. He promotes Tampopo’s success in the capitalist competition, though he represents a sort of antithesis to capitalist greed.

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