HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATSUKI! (Live Show) | *FILM FRIDAY* "Tampopo" (1985)

Natsuki's Birthday Live Show is now all set and ready to go!
We've got the candles. We've got the sake. And we've got the biscuits.

All we need is you.
Live Show: https://youtu.be/T-lZTHOyXM0

And while you wait, it's time for FILM FRIDAY.

To be honest, it's a miracle we've made it so many weeks in to Film Friday without mentioning my favourite Japanese Film...

Tampopo (1985), Comedy
Director: Juzo Itami 

Tampopo is one of a handful of films I make an effort to watch every year, along with 'Natsuki: The Movie and 'ET'.

The film has been described as a “Ramen Western”, poking obvious fun at Sergio Leone’s Spaghetti Western Trilogy. The film revolves around a widow (Tampopo) who runs a ramen shop serving below average ramen. One day two truck drivers (including a young Ken Watanabe) ride into town for lunch and are left disappointed by Tampopo’s abysmally bland ramen.

Over the next few weeks, they vow to turn around the fortunes of the the ramen shop, going to extraordinary lengths in search of the perfect recipe. Meanwhile while they lie, cheat and steal in pursuit of mouthwatering ramen, the narrative is frequently interrupted with bizarre, seemingly random vignettes of people around the city enjoying food - often in a questionable manner.

Whether it's a dead mother resurrected to produce one last family meal, or a man with a fetish for eating food off of his lover in increasingly erratic ways, these hilarious scenes take the film to another level without disrupting the story.

If you like ramen, food, western movies, a young Ken Watanabe or the 1980’s, you’ll probably love this film as much as I do. 

Unfortunately, the film can be quite difficult to track down; tragically the brilliant director, Juzo Itami, found himself the subject of the Yakuza’s wrath, after producing several films mocking the criminal organisation (FYI: probably don’t do this). 

In 1995 he fell to his death from a rooftop, and though it was recorded as suicide, it's widely accept that the Yakuza had a role in his death. In subsequent years, his films have become difficult to find which is an absolute tragedy. (Again some attribute this to the Yakuza and their role in the entertainment sector),

But I urge you to watch and enjoy Tampopo to help keep Juzo Itami's legacy alive.
The film is a work of art.

For heaven's sake, writing about ramen has made me feel hungry now.
I wonder if Ippudo is still open...