BUY TICKETS HERE
Join us at 1 p.m. Sunday, December 8, for a screening of the scrumptious foodie comedy “Tampopo” (1985), the tale of an eccentric band of culinary ronin who guide the widow of a noodle-shop owner on her quest for the perfect recipe.
TAMPOPO | 1985 | WRITER-DIRECTOR: Juzo Itami | WITH: Ken Watabane, Tsutomo Yamazaki, Nobuyo Miyamoto | RUNNING TIME: 1H 54M | IN JAPANESE WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES | UNRATED Contains adult themes | PROJECTED IN 4K DCP
This rapturous “ramen western” by Japanese director Juzo Itami is an entertaining, genre-bending adventure underpinned by a deft satire of the way social conventions distort the most natural of human urges—our appetites.
Interspersing the efforts of Tampopo and friends to make her café a success with the erotic exploits of a gastronome gangster and glimpses of food culture both high and low, the sweet, sexy, and surreal “Tampopo” is a lavishly inclusive paean to the sensual joys of nourishment, and one of the most mouthwatering examples of food on film ever made.
“Humor, it is said, is universal. Most times it is not. The humor that travels best, I sometimes think, is not “universal” humor at all, but humor that grows so specifically out of one culture that it reaches other cultures almost by seeming to ignore them. The best British comedies were the very specifically British films, such as “The Lavender Hill Mob” and “School for Scoundrels.” The best Italian comedies were such local products as “Seduced and Abandoned.” The funniest French films were by Tati, who seemed totally absorbed in himself.
“And this very, very Japanese movie, which seems to make no effort to communicate to other cultures, is universally funny almost for that reason. Who cannot identify with the search for the perfect noodle? Certainly any American can, in the land of sweet corn festivals, bakeoffs and contests for the world’s best chili. This is a very funny movie.” — Roger Ebert
Tickets are $5 and available at link above. Students use code UMSTUDENT at checkout for free admission (Cane card must be shows at the door).
