Tampopo
JUZO ITAMI’S FEAST FOR YOUR EYES
WORDS JOHN NUGENT
DO YOU KNOW how to eat ramen? You might think you have a good idea. But an early scene in the delightful 1985 Japanese classic Tampopo might have you questioning everything. In the film’s opening ten minutes, bored truck driver Gun (a young, pre-fame Ken Watanabe) is reading a food guide book aloud to his fellow trucker Gorō (Tsutomu Yamazaki). Gun imagines an in-person lesson from the book’s author, an elderly food ‘sensei’ (Ryūtarō Ōtomo), on the correct rules of ramen engagement. Where do you even begin with the beloved broth? Do you start with the meat, with the soup, with the noodles?
“First, contemplate the ramen,” advises the sensei. “Carefully observe the entire bowl while savouring the aroma.” Then, he counsels, you must “caress” the ramen with your chopsticks, to “express affection”. Finally, you must “nudge the pork lovingly”, and “quietly apologise to it: ‘Until we meet again.’” Then, and only then, can you begin eating, starting with the noodles — but you must never take your eyes off the pork. “Gaze at it with affection,” the sensei commands.