SC - Romantic Foods

[lilinah at grin.net]

Mirhaxa wrote:
>Has anyone seen the Japanese film -Tampopo-?

I have seen it at least twice. I think it's a wonderful film about the
different emotions people have tied up with food. Although the framework is
about the inept noodle shop owner, it is merely a framework to carry the
various sensations associated with food and eating: sex, sorry,
intellecutalization, aethetics. It's quite a sensual movie. Food isn't just
about eating.

Mordonna wrote:
>I've seen it, and found it not worth the reputation it has.  The acting, of
>course, was  of the oriental style: overly dramatic.

It had multiple reasons. First, the framework story is humorous and it has
the solitary man helping out the little lady, a parody in a way, of John
Wayne, yet this is NOT, as the ad campaign of the time had it, "a spaghetti
Eastern". Then, in the parts involving food, senses and emotions, the focus
was on a particular sensation or emotion tied to food, so these vignettes
couldn't be "naturalistic". In each case, the camera followed what had
seemed to be only a background body into a moment of their private lives.
Some of the vignettes are funny, some sad, some thoughtful, some sexy... As
i said, it's about the different ways we "load" our experiences of food in
our lives.

>The dubbing didn't
>help.  It probably wouldn't have been quite so bad if I spoke Japanese.

Yoiks! i"ve never seen a dubbed version. I detest them. I'd rather have
subtitles any day, no matter how little i am familar with the language,
than to hear dubbing, which is usually so wretched.

>The
>plot is that a young widowed mother runs a fast food shop serving Ramen type
>noodles. She is helped to develop the perfect recipe for the noodles by a
>rough and ready type truck driver who also keeps hoodlums from taking over
>the shop and comforts the widow in the time honored way.  (See "The Notebooks
>of Lazarus Long" by R.A, Heinlein)  It's interspersed with scenes of a zen
>teacher instructing a student in the proper way to appreciate Ramen noodles.

This is a description merely of the framework. But it isn't really the core
of the film. As mentioned above, it's interspersed with a wide ranging
variety of scenes, involving people from many different strata of Japanses
society. Of course, one needs to bear in mind that some parts of the film
are a bit surreal.

I suggest you see it again, subtitled not dubbed, with someone who you
think might actually enjoy it and whose company you enjoy. I find that my
mood can strongly effect how i experience a film, and i have both loved and
hated the same movie, depending on my moods at the different times i saw
them.

Babette's Feast:
I frequently enjoy slow European films, but this one somehow just didn't
grab me. Not a bad movie, i wouldn't discourage someone from seeing it, but
it just didn't live up to my expectations.

Like Water for Chocolate:
Yes, Sophonisba, you should see this. It is a very toucing film. Again,
it's surreal (ok, "magical realism") and about emotion, somehow made
manifest through food, and then though other means. No spiffy special
effects, just good directing and acting.

Eat, Drink, Man, Woman:
Although not as high on my list as Tampopo or Like Water For Chocolate (two
rather disparate films), this was quite good - it was not at all what i had
expected and i found it quite moving, quite touching.

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and her Lover:
Well, be forwarned, it's by Peter Greenaway, and he NEVER does anything in
any way naturalistic, nor are his plots particularly linear. He is a master
of visual effect, through use of color and detail within his extremely
carefully composed shots. He is a visual artist, more than a film director,
it's just that his medium is film. Some folks i know complain that his
films are contrived, and that is why they don't like them. I say, indeed
his films are contrived, and that is part of the reason i enjoy them.
Strange and unexpected things happen in them, because they do not take
place in the real world but in a world composed of intellect, imagination,
and intenst visual stimulation.

In the case of the aforementioned film, i would suggest you don't see it
soon after eating. I don't find it nearly unwatchable, Greenaway is my
favorite director, it just isn't a NORMAL movie. There's really nothing
normal about it. So if you like straightforward plotting, naturalistic
acting, realistic settings, DON'T see this. If you are very visually
oriented, and perhaps a bit twisted, it is extremely well done. I don't
think there's much humor in it...

The Big Night;
Sheesh, i've GOT to see this, i keep not renting it. And i KNOW i'll enjoy it.

Anyone seen "La Grande Bouffe"? Now, THERE'S a food movie...

Enough babble,
Anahita Munirah bint-Karim al-hakim al-Fassi


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