Post by Brad Nelson on May 9, 2021 10:11:06 GMT -8
I find myself traveling less and less to The Criterion Channel. And it’s not old movies that I’m getting tired of. But they implemented quite a “woke” menuing system. Black films. Women films. LBGQRSVP films. There are upteen categories for films by this victim group and that victim group. It’s actually hard to search their content. It never was a very good cataloguing system but now it’s much worse.
But if you’re persistent, you might find something that justifies your subscription. Tampopo, a Japanese film from 1985, is one of those movies you’ll not likely run into anywhere else.
This is a quirky film: probably a bit too quirky for it’s own good sometimes. This synopsis at IMDB more or less gets to the heart of it: “A truck driver stops at a small family-run noodle shop and decides to help its fledgling business. The story is intertwined with various vignettes about the relationship of love and food.”
The main story is the group of people who come together to help a lady with here Ramen restaurant. Her fare is so-so and the search goes on for the best recipe and techniques to cook it.
Interspersed around this main plot are various vignettes. We see how eating can be an art, even a discipline. We see an erotic side to food. And see some of the funny sides of our obsession with food. One of the best vignettes is about a lady who is lying on the floor at home at death’s door. Her husband is pleading with her to get up and get well. “How can I raise the kids all alone?” Finally he gets an inspiration. He commands her on the spot to fix dinner. And you get the impression that this womanly duty is so ingrained that, indeed, a Japanese woman in particular might rise from the dead to complete it.
And she does indeed manage to pull herself up off the floor. She’s weary and a bit unstable, but she manages to make her family a helping of fried rice. She serves it on the table and then promptly drops dead for good. The children are crying. They were all sitting around the dinner table when she died. But the father implores them to eat the food while it is still hot. After all, it was your mother’s last meal for them.
This type of film could easily get annoying, if only by being too indulgently artsy-fartsy pretentious. But the film keeps a light touch and a good sense of humor. It’s not too serious. Looking for something different? This is it.
But if you’re persistent, you might find something that justifies your subscription. Tampopo, a Japanese film from 1985, is one of those movies you’ll not likely run into anywhere else.
This is a quirky film: probably a bit too quirky for it’s own good sometimes. This synopsis at IMDB more or less gets to the heart of it: “A truck driver stops at a small family-run noodle shop and decides to help its fledgling business. The story is intertwined with various vignettes about the relationship of love and food.”
The main story is the group of people who come together to help a lady with here Ramen restaurant. Her fare is so-so and the search goes on for the best recipe and techniques to cook it.
Interspersed around this main plot are various vignettes. We see how eating can be an art, even a discipline. We see an erotic side to food. And see some of the funny sides of our obsession with food. One of the best vignettes is about a lady who is lying on the floor at home at death’s door. Her husband is pleading with her to get up and get well. “How can I raise the kids all alone?” Finally he gets an inspiration. He commands her on the spot to fix dinner. And you get the impression that this womanly duty is so ingrained that, indeed, a Japanese woman in particular might rise from the dead to complete it.
And she does indeed manage to pull herself up off the floor. She’s weary and a bit unstable, but she manages to make her family a helping of fried rice. She serves it on the table and then promptly drops dead for good. The children are crying. They were all sitting around the dinner table when she died. But the father implores them to eat the food while it is still hot. After all, it was your mother’s last meal for them.
This type of film could easily get annoying, if only by being too indulgently artsy-fartsy pretentious. But the film keeps a light touch and a good sense of humor. It’s not too serious. Looking for something different? This is it.