Tampopo

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Grande cuisine

Not only was Tampopo a huge success in Japan in the eighties but it deserves its status as a classic of Japanese comedy too. Fukasaku's Fall Guy, another japanese classic of comedy in the eighties, was moving and funny but apart from not being worth his seventies classics it lacked of any visual ambition. Just like too many French comedies, it forgot that fun and actors' performances aren't enough to make a good comedy: the directing is essential in producing jokes. Billy Wilder knew it, the Farrelly brother know it and Itami seemed to know it at the time. He chose to treat this culinary comedy like a western : heroes dressed like cow boys, cold blooded hero reminding of spaghetti westerns... But mostly he chose to film it like a western : close ups, arrival of characters in a Magnificent Seven way, moments of wait treated like a western duel... But Itami is adding to all of this the idea of eating as an erotic pleasure, pretext to some memorable scenes. Tampopo's noodles are Grande Cuisine of Asian comedy.