Line #40 Film/Tampopo


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8	[[quoteright:305:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tampopo_5196.jpg]]
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10	''Tampopo'' is a 1985 Japanese film directed by Juzo Itami, starring Tsutomu Yamazaki and Creator/KenWatanabe.
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12	A sketch comedy revolving around food, its main narrative involves a pair of truck drivers, one dressed like a cowboy, who take it upon themselves to revitalize the eponymous character's failing ramen shop. Another bit involves a white-suited Yakuza and his mistress engaging in food play. Beyond that, there's a man who teaches the proper method of eating ramen, managers getting upstaged by a subordinate at a French restaurant, spaghetti slurping, homeless foodies, trips to the dentist, an old woman who wrecks a grocer's produce, a pickpocket who loves peking duck, and a dying housewife who prepares one last meal for her family.
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14	The film was popular overseas in the late-'80s art house circuit, and many ramen shops claim to have been inspired by it.
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16	----
17	!!This work contains the following tropes:
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19	* AllJustADream: The other shop breaking in and attacking Tampopo.
20	* BarBrawl: [[TakeOurWordForIt Takes place offscreen.]]
21	* BestialityIsDepraved: What the ''hell'' are they doing with that poor crayfish?
22	* BlackComedy: The scene with the man and his sick wife certainly qualifies.
23	* BreakingTheFourthWall: The yakuza at the beginning, setting up a dining table in the front row of a movie theater.
24	* CultureClash: [[ParodiedTrope Parodied]]. The high-end European restaurant is offering Western etiquette lessons to Japanese women, where care is taken to demonstrate the "proper" way to eat spaghetti, which is portrayed as a dainty, slow process. The demonstrator is quickly interrupted by a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm_ubnnZusc Western man slurping at his own spaghetti]], which is ironically the correct etiquette for eating Japanese noodle dishes like ramen.
25	* DefeatMeansFriendship:
26	** After Pisken and Goro fight one last time, they end up as friends.
27	** Tabo beats up the three kids who've been picking on him, and they end the movie going off together as friends.
28	* EroticEating: The crawfish scene.
29	* FoodPorn: A literal example as well as a figurative one. Let's just say this movie will make you hungry. Specifically, for ramen.
30	* FourLinesAllWaiting: Besides the main plotline (and the one about the yakuza and his mistress), there are a few other miniature plots that revolve around food, such as the RamenSlurp sketch.
31	* GoodOldFisticuffs: How Goro and Pisken fight.
32	* {{Homage}}: Various {{western}}s, notably ''Shane''.
33	* [[ItAlwaysRainsAtFunerals It Always Rains At Shootouts]]: [[spoiler:When the white-suited yakuza is killed.]]
34	* KingOfTheHomeless: The Old Master, a former doctor and expert on ramen who now leads a band of homeless gourmands who dig through the dustbins behind four-star restaurants.
35	* LightheartedRematch: After the {{Bar Brawl}}, Pisken asks for a rematch. He felt sorry for not fighting Goro one on one, and they spar again leading to {{Defeat Means Friendship}}.
36	* NeverBareheaded: Goro's cowboy hat. He even wears it in the bath!
37	* OldMaster: The Ramen Master, who gives extensive advice on the making, eating, and general philosophy of noodles.
38	* OvercomplicatedMenuOrder: In a commentary on traditional Japanese business etiquette, a bunch of businessmen visit a French restaurant and each orders the same meal (Sole Meuniere with consomme and a Heineken) so as not to upstage anyone more senior[[note]]the most senior members at the table make hints that they don't know what to order but aren't in the mood for anything complicated, so a middle manager orders something safe that everyone else can copy without losing face[[/note]] -- except the most junior executive. He turns out to be an expert on French food, and makes a complex order and wine selection that thrills the waiter, but embarrasses the heck out of everyone else.
39	* {{Postmodernism}}: A [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] example. It only breaks the fourth wall once, but the movie has a handful of playful transitions (wipes, irises, fades, etc.); occasional abandoning of the A-plot to introduce or return to a sketch; goes back-and-forth between “high-art” comedy of manners and “low-art” wacky slapstick; using classical music pieces for its A-plot scenes; thematically blurs the line between “high-class” sophisticated cuisine and “low-class” comfort cuisine; and sometimes jarringly switches tones and genres depending on the sketch or plot point.
40	* PublicDomainSoundtrack: The movie uses Mahler in several places. Also Liszt.
41	* RamenSlurp: A sketch revolves around it.
42	* RecycledInSpace: ''Film/{{Shane}}'' '''WITH RAMEN!'''
43	* SeriousBusiness: The preparation and consumption of food, as most of the characters see it. Often PlayedForLaughs, but also to tantalize the viewers.
44	* SheCleansUpNicely: Tampopo in the chef's outfit.
45	* [[StealthBasedMission Stealth Based Omelette Making]]: A group of homeless people break into a restaurant at night in order to use the kitchen.
46	* TheToothHurts: In one of the sketches, a man suffers from this that prevents him from eating. It turns out to be pulp gangrene.
47	* TrainingMontage: Parodied with ramen making.
48	* WhiteShirtOfDeath: [[spoiler:When the yakuza is shot.]]
49	* {{Yakuza}}: One of the major characters.

Context Film / Tampopo