There is a mom-and-pop Japanese basement eatery in a mall near my place. Dad cooks the food; mom takes orders and serves the food. She never smiles. She speaks to customers to tell them not to poke the onigiri -- or merely points to the sign which tells them not to poke the onigiri. She is brusque -- kinder folks would say she is simply efficient. In any case...
The place is called Tampopo, which is the Japanese word for Dandelion. It is a good name because it is a simple place -- no they don't serve sushi, only home-cooked food. I later realized that there was a 1985 food-themed film of the same name.
It took me a while to find a DVD of Tampopo, billed a "ramen western." It is the story of one widow's quest and discovery for a good ramen recipe. A good ramen will ensure that her eatery gets a steady clientele -- she has to fend for herself and her fatherless son now. The plot is straightforward enough and includes many unrelated beautifully crafted food vignettes. There is even a shot of a new-born suckling at its mother's breast for a good three minutes or so. Mother's milk is most people's first food. There is food and death; there is food and sex, which after all is the prelude to birth. You really have to see that scene, which features a young mobster and his girlfriend, egg yolk and a lobster, to believe it.
The film is riveting, funny, philosophical and hasn't dated one bit. I would recommend it to any foodie who enjoys every type of food. I can imagine vegans, or even omnivores, being grossed out by some bits, but hey what is the fast-forward button for?
The doors of a cinema blow open. In walks the flashy mobster and his glamorous girlfriend, both in all-white outfits, and their entourage who follow them to the front row – and unpack a lavish champagne picnic. Then he hears a man sitting a few seats back, stuffing his face with curry crisps (one of the few times in the film that anyone eats junk food), and steps up to threaten him, a cold-blooded grace before the main meal we're about to receive: "I'll kill you if you make that noise once the movie starts." A scene that's played in my head whenever a phone rings, or someone starts talking in a cinema in the years since I first saw it. I love the way Tampopo demands total respect for the art of film right from the get-go like this – breaking the fourth wall to talk to the audience before the film has properly begun. Watch, enjoy, eat quietly if you're in a cinema.
How can you not enjoy a movie which begins like this? This is from a lovely essay where someone explains why the movie is an all-time favorite of his.
The movie is a parody. There is one sketch of a man who urges his children to keep eating the last meal their mother cooked while she lies on the kitchen floor, dying. Forgive me for thinking that this sketch was no parody. In fact, it seemed liked a real scene from an Indian home where a dutiful mother is expected to cook fresh food for her family, every single day of her life. She will die, ladle in hand -- and chances are she hasn't even eaten yet.
