“The Ramen Girl” Makes Me Want to Cry

by 56 Comments

タンポポIf you’ve ever seen the absolutely brilliant movie Tampopo (タンポポ), you’ll probably share my disgust at the idea of The Ramen Girl. If you haven’t seen Tampopo, you really should. It’s old, but maybe you could find a copy at your library if you’re lucky.

Tampopo‘s central story is that of a widowed mother (the movie’s namesake) who wants to become a true ramen chef at the restaurant her husband left her. Guided by a cowboy trucker named Goro, her shop eventually becomes the most popular in her neighborhood. Accompanying the main narrative are a handful of quirky little vignettes, all having to do with food and the way people enjoy or interact with it. While it sounds strange, the movie is, honestly, one of my favorites; it’s entertaining, whimsical, and, most of all, extremely sincere.

Now, sadly, Hollywood is $#@!ing it all up D:

The Ramen Girl The Ramen Girl is a remake/rip-off of Tampopo centering around an American girl, Abby (Brittany Murphy), stranded in Tokyo after being dumped by her boyfriend. Looking for a fresh start, she “convinces herself that her true path in life is to become a ramen chef” and begins training under “Ramen Master” Maezumi, played, coincidentally, by the same man who was Goro in the original movie (Toshiyuki Nishida).

As it is now, I’m having a hard time believing that this movie will be worth comparing to the original in the end. What possible improvement could you bring to Tampopo short of packaging a plane ticket to Japan in with the DVD? It’s going to be that Kill Bill scene with Sonny Chiba and Uma Thurman all over again—speaking Japanese phonetically, bonding with the old asian man, etc—except this time it won’t be a bearable 10 minutes, it’ll be a migraine-inducing hour and a half!

I’m freaking out here, but… who knows, maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised? I mean, I have to see this, despite my doubts about the content. Oh, and sorry to those of you for whom this post is meaningless, having not seen Tampopo in the first place. Like I said, I highly recommend it.

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  • Onimusha Nosferatu

    i find it hard to believe she’s stuck in japan. i also have reservations about the usage of the word ramen b/c most ppl i know equate ramen to cup noodles. i liked brittany as the frumpy girl in clueless. tampopo had me believing he’d settle down w/ the lady. if she’s speaking japanese it better be good. uma did a fair job at learning the language in a short amount of time. hopefully the ackward cultural stuff will be kept minimal. i’m being reminded of grugde for some reason.

  • http://www.tofugu.com Erin

    I’ve heard ramen pronounced ray-men, and it makes me sad.

  • Onimusha Nosferatu

    i find it hard to believe she’s stuck in japan. i also have reservations about the usage of the word ramen b/c most ppl i know equate ramen to cup noodles. i liked brittany as the frumpy girl in clueless. tampopo had me believing he’d settle down w/ the lady. if she’s speaking japanese it better be good. uma did a fair job at learning the language in a short amount of time. hopefully the ackward cultural stuff will be kept minimal. i’m being reminded of grugde for some reason.

  • http://www.tofugu.com Erin

    I’ve heard ramen pronounced ray-men, and it makes me sad.

  • stupidfresh

    Another pointless remake.

  • howard

    thats discusting its like remaking kamen rider ryuki (which they did)

  • stupidfresh

    Another pointless remake.

  • Stacia

    Hmm…what is America’s fascination with remaking Japanese films? The Grudge, Dark Water, …even SHALL WE DANCE was originally Japanese. And it was actually really good…cuz it had “Nobu-san” (I don’t know his name, but he played Nobu in Memoirs of a Geisha).

    Sorry America, but I prefer the originals…well, mostly. I don’t know if I’ll see this, but I’ll definitely try to watch Tampopo.

  • http://tofugu.com Erin

    Stacia: The original Shall We Dance was lovely, wasn’t it? I really liked the atmosphere.

  • howard

    thats discusting its like remaking kamen rider ryuki (which they did)

  • Stacia

    Hmm…what is America’s fascination with remaking Japanese films? The Grudge, Dark Water, …even SHALL WE DANCE was originally Japanese. And it was actually really good…cuz it had “Nobu-san” (I don’t know his name, but he played Nobu in Memoirs of a Geisha).

    Sorry America, but I prefer the originals…well, mostly. I don’t know if I’ll see this, but I’ll definitely try to watch Tampopo.

  • http://tofugu.com Erin

    Stacia: The original Shall We Dance was lovely, wasn’t it? I really liked the atmosphere.

  • Leslie

    Let’s not forget “The Ring”. I wonder how long this list goes on… Shall We Dance, really!? I had to go look that one up: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117615/
    Crazy.

  • http://www.vietamins.com Viet

    The Japanese version of Shall We Dance is pretty good. I never got to finish it though :(

  • Leslie

    Let’s not forget “The Ring”. I wonder how long this list goes on… Shall We Dance, really!? I had to go look that one up: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117615/
    Crazy.

  • http://www.vietamins.com Viet

    The Japanese version of Shall We Dance is pretty good. I never got to finish it though :(

  • http://www.tofugu.com Erin

    Leslie: So many American movie plots/concepts/fight choreographies are based off of other Japanese and Asian movies. And, yeah, you should find the original Shall We Dance; it was very funny and charming.

  • http://www.tofugu.com Erin

    Leslie: So many American movie plots/concepts/fight choreographies are based off of other Japanese and Asian movies. And, yeah, you should find the original Shall We Dance; it was very funny and charming.

  • aphorg

    It’s basically a horrible trend in Hollywood right now. New ideas have either dried up or have been shoved out of the spotlight in lieu of remakes of much better movies and sequels to movies that could/should have been left alone. Whether the stories, plots, ides, etc. are borrowed or blatantly copied from Asian cinema or not, there’s very little original content on the silver screen these days. Everything up there is just regurgitated to fatten a few really big wallets. And people still go to see the movies they’ve already seen or heard about, only this time with younger, less talented actors.

    Here’s hoping someone over in La-la-land finally gets the hint that people are catching on. In the meantime, I’ll just watch independent and foreign films on my own and laugh at the price people are still willing to pay to fill their stomachs and distract themselves from the cultural cesspool that is a consumerist economy. Now that IS ironic.

  • aphorg

    It’s basically a horrible trend in Hollywood right now. New ideas have either dried up or have been shoved out of the spotlight in lieu of remakes of much better movies and sequels to movies that could/should have been left alone. Whether the stories, plots, ides, etc. are borrowed or blatantly copied from Asian cinema or not, there’s very little original content on the silver screen these days. Everything up there is just regurgitated to fatten a few really big wallets. And people still go to see the movies they’ve already seen or heard about, only this time with younger, less talented actors.

    Here’s hoping someone over in La-la-land finally gets the hint that people are catching on. In the meantime, I’ll just watch independent and foreign films on my own and laugh at the price people are still willing to pay to fill their stomachs and distract themselves from the cultural cesspool that is a consumerist economy. Now that IS ironic.

  • BJ

    If this move comes here I’ll protest it. I don’t care if it’s the original with BM in a little box in the corner dancing naked. This is shameful.
    On a lighter note, anyone see “Welcome Back, Mr Mcdonald?”

  • Leigh

    This is most depressing…Tampopo was one of the first Japanese movies I ever saw (and loved every minute of it)…Trying to picture Brittney speaking Japanese is making my head hurt!

  • BJ

    If this move comes here I’ll protest it. I don’t care if it’s the original with BM in a little box in the corner dancing naked. This is shameful.
    On a lighter note, anyone see “Welcome Back, Mr Mcdonald?”

  • Leigh

    This is most depressing…Tampopo was one of the first Japanese movies I ever saw (and loved every minute of it)…Trying to picture Brittney speaking Japanese is making my head hurt!

  • Noel

    Tampopo is one of my all time favorite Japanese movies. It’s such a cute and sincere movie that spoofs old westerns while simultaneously musing on people’s relation to food.

    …. I’m left speechless at news of “Ramen Girl” and hope I don’t cringe too much if I go see it.

  • Noel

    Tampopo is one of my all time favorite Japanese movies. It’s such a cute and sincere movie that spoofs old westerns while simultaneously musing on people’s relation to food.

    …. I’m left speechless at news of “Ramen Girl” and hope I don’t cringe too much if I go see it.

  • DrCruel

    One would have thought “The Last Samurai” would have warned you off the American cinema forever. By such standards, this particular crime against art is more of a misdemeanor.

    And before you get your hair in a bun, remember that the poor Brits have much more to complain about than you do. Don’t get me started.

  • DrCruel

    One would have thought “The Last Samurai” would have warned you off the American cinema forever. By such standards, this particular crime against art is more of a misdemeanor.

    And before you get your hair in a bun, remember that the poor Brits have much more to complain about than you do. Don’t get me started.

  • eryu

    i randomly came across this website googling ramen girl. my friend is the screenwriter so you can see where this is going. i love everyone’s disgust at the idea of remaking the truly great tampopo. i just wanted to let people know that this was based very loosely on her own experience living in japan. i have no idea if the movie is any good but i would hope that people might stop and think for a moment that maybe people with passion and creativity might have worked on this. when i used to trash a movie, my father would ask me what was the last movie i made… that shut me up real fast.

  • http://www.tofugu.com Erin

    Eryu:

    I’ll shoot you an email on this one; the comments aren’t meant to be a forum, and I have a feeling that this could turn out to be a long conversation, haha.

  • eryu

    i randomly came across this website googling ramen girl. my friend is the screenwriter so you can see where this is going. i love everyone’s disgust at the idea of remaking the truly great tampopo. i just wanted to let people know that this was based very loosely on her own experience living in japan. i have no idea if the movie is any good but i would hope that people might stop and think for a moment that maybe people with passion and creativity might have worked on this. when i used to trash a movie, my father would ask me what was the last movie i made… that shut me up real fast.

  • http://www.tofugu.com Erin

    Eryu:

    I’ll shoot you an email on this one; the comments aren’t meant to be a forum, and I have a feeling that this could turn out to be a long conversation, haha.

  • http://www.ramenramenramen.net edjusted

    I’ve seen Tampopo about 10 times and love the movie, but I think calling the Ramen Girl a remake of Tampopo is pretty far off the mark (and Toshiyuki Nishida definitely did NOT play Goro. Goro was played by Yamazaki Tsutomu, who starred every Juzo Itami movie I’ve seen). I mean, just because they both have a character who learns to make ramen doesn’t put it in the same category as the Grudge, Shall We Dance, etc. I’m not really expecting much though. I’d be happy if the Ramen Girl was just mildly amusing :P

  • http://www.ramenramenramen.net edjusted

    I’ve seen Tampopo about 10 times and love the movie, but I think calling the Ramen Girl a remake of Tampopo is pretty far off the mark (and Toshiyuki Nishida definitely did NOT play Goro. Goro was played by Yamazaki Tsutomu, who starred every Juzo Itami movie I’ve seen). I mean, just because they both have a character who learns to make ramen doesn’t put it in the same category as the Grudge, Shall We Dance, etc. I’m not really expecting much though. I’d be happy if the Ramen Girl was just mildly amusing :P

  • EyeKokoro

    I agree with everything edjusted says. I've also seen Tampopo about 10 times, and it is one of my favorite movies of all times. From what I've heard of the plot synopsis of “The Ramen Girl” is sounds more like a cross between “Lost in Translation” and “Tampopo” than a straight remake of “Tampopo”. Personally, I think it is better to watch a movie and rate it than to rate it without having seen it. I do agree with Erin, however, that regardless of the individual merits of “The Ramen Girl” one benefit of it will be that it will draw more attention to “Tampopo”. Also, for those who love the film “Tampopo” I would highly recommend the following films by the same director, Itami Juzo: “The Funeral” and “A Taxing Woman”. Both have essentially the same cast (like Woody Allen, Itami Juzo worked with an ensemble cast that was almost the same in all of his films, including the lead actress Miyamoto Nobuko, his wife). Both are fantastic films. Itami was my favorite Japanese director after Kurosawa. Tragically, he took his own life. But his films live on.

  • Lorenzo

    I thought the trailer looked promising. And Tampopo has been the undisputed top of my list for 20 years. Yes, the American version of 'Shall We Dance” truly sucked, but I enjoyed the Western remakes of Kurosawa's movies, and I thought “Tortilla Soup” was superior to the original “Eat, Drink, Man, Woman” in execution.

  • annonymous

    I don't mind the remake they do in Hollywood, so long as the Japanese culture is translated correctly to the American audiences. I googled The Ramen Girl and found out they use Japanese people to do Japanese acts (who could forget Memoirs of Geisha). That's a start. And many of the staffs who produced this were Japanese as well. I'm happy as long as they use correct and modern Japanese words and don't use chopsticks to eat everything, or wear kimonos to work, or have all of their hair pitch black.
    That, and I love Brittany Murphy so I'm really excited about the movie. Better watch Tampopo too. Thanks for the info!

  • http://www.tofugu.com koichi

    Pretty sure this was a straight-to-DVDer, so I think you can find it out
    there now… though I could be wrong. Fell off my radar completely a while
    back.

  • Tim Craig

    Lighten up for god's sake – it's a great movie!

  • Dave

    What I don't understand in this movie is that Murphy's character does make an effort to learn Japanese, which I find very disrespectful. I mean she's in Japan and wants to learn how to cook ramen and doesn't speak the language. I get the mis-communication angle that the writer is trying to pull off and at times it is amusing to see, but overall its irritating.

    PS – I did not know that SHALL WE DANCE was originally Japanese and Tampopo is AWESOME……

  • croatia

    just as any other remake, this probably isn't as good as tampopo (haven't seen it). but in general i think this movie is just to have good time and it should be seen as such. it's not a masterpiece of film art but also it's not a crap either. if anyone is offended by “twisted” show of japanese culture and society, i can only say it's not only japanese thing… people at balkans are also stereotyped and showed in “twisted” way. but life goes on, and basically if i haven't seen this movie, i wouldn't know for ramen. what the hack, i would think it is a “belt” because in croatian it sounds like “remen” :)))

  • Thomas

    These sentece makes me think again whenever I cook:

    “Each bowl of ramen that you prepare is a gift to your customer. The food that you serve your customer becomes a part of them. It contains your spirit, that why your ramen must be an expression of pure love. A gift from your heart”

  • Ilana

    Actually, I thought 'The Ramen Girl' was absolutely adorable. It reminds of of 'Miss Petigrew Lives For a Day', although the break up scene was a little out there……..

  • http://lastboy.blogspot.com Ng Yi-Sheng

    Yeah, I liked “The Ramen Girl” too. It's not the best movie in the world, but it actually shows a Westerner trying to engage in and understand a foreign culture (while not glorifying her as someone who excels utterly in the culture, Last Samurai style). I actually like it better than Lost In Translation because that movie was about people just being lost without trying to assimilate.

    Oh, and it's great that it's about a hot white girl falling in love with a hot Asian guy. Not enough movies like that.

  • Umachu-Americano

    Seriously, lighten up.

    It's just a movie. Ramen girl is a good movie. Not great, not earth shaking.

    As long as one respects the original who cares if there is a remake?

    Shall We Dance was a great Japanese movie.

    The American version was nowhere near as great, but it was enjoyable.

    Haven't you heard imitation is the sincerest form of flattery?

  • Tom

    I agree with umachu. What is wrong with you people? Being a critic is one point, but please do take note that not every japanese movie remake sucks. Shall We Dance is one good example, and im sure The Ramen Girl would be nice too, after watching the preview.

    Come to think of it, since some of you guys are so critical on it, why not try making a movie yourself? If not, just shut the trap up, for the love of God. Sheesh.

  • Bobby

    I believe some of your facts are incorrect.

    This has nothing to do with Tampopo, it has neither subtitles, children, quirky montages, takes on Japanese culture and or about a ramen shop specifically.

    This is an American experience in Japan, as pointed out by the writer's friend.

    The actor who plays Goro, is not the Ramen Master. but the Ramen Master's Master. He is in the movie for 1 scene, although I did cheer when he showed up.

    Now all that aside, this movie WAS uneven. The girl has too many “subconscious thoughts” said as actual dialog. I would loved to have seen her rise in the NYC culinary scene in the 1 year they skipped over, not to mention the reunion with the family in Paris. But obviously their budget didn't include a secondary film shoot in France.

    The whole party scene crowd is unrelate-able as backdrop, she gets dumped and you don't care because she hangs out with barflies… I understand it is used as a build up to the love interest which is the one good hook for the girl's storyline.

    But why didn't she learn the language? Or even show an attempt, she had friends at her old job, new friends who knew it, and even sub characters who knew more English than she did Japanese.

    The scene with the Ramen Master's mother is excellent as is any of the wife's scenes, the supporting clan of 4 in the restaurant are funny, but then they aren't meant to be anything but funny.

    I did like the attempt at some heart in this movie, I literally just saw it hours ago for the first time. It is NOT Tampopo, but it would make a nice addition to any foodie film buff, Murphy is forgiveable, and her chemistry with the Ramen Master is very good. I wish his character could have learned more English to bend that barrier…

    Overall I give it 2 and 1/2 bowls out of 5.

    Now ask me about “No Reservations”, that is a foodie movie of incomparable suckiness.

  • Paul C

    I just watched 'The Ramen Girl' on DVD.
    It was interesting to see the Tokyo scenery I love so much, but it was the (intentional?) cultural ignorance on the part of Brittany Murphy throughout the film that irked me.
    Her constant shouting at the Ramen shop owner in English when he didn't understand her made her look the total ignoramus & cultural buffoon – she hardly tried to understand Japanese & just expected everyone to understand her – & that was almost throughout the whole 100 minutes!.
    Her rudeness to total strangers was astonishing – & when they helped her, she didn't even say thankyou!!! – how hard is it to learn a couple of phrases? Even her husband is seen early on in the film wearing shoes on the tatami flooring!
    By far the best acting went to the Japanese cast – especially the Ramen shop owner ( who I recognised as the actor who played 'Pigsy' in the cult Japanese series “Saiyuki” – known as “Monkey” in Australia, NZ & the UK where it was shown). I also like the fact that the Japanese cast spoke Japanese throughout & didn't start miraculously speaking English just so western audiences didn't have the 'bother' of reading subtitles!
    All in all, Brittany's character was so typical as how Hollywood sees Japan – just keep yelling in English & they'll eventually understand, because Hollywood's not going to learn Japanese!
    Also , the choice of using Chinese-style music in a film made in Japan! – just like what they did in the film of multi-cultural errors “Memoirs of a Geisha”.
    Chinese ? Japanese? – who's going to notice? it's all the same for Hollywood.

  • leo123

    This movie was the largest piece of crap I have watched. Light and funny.

  • foodie_san

    Tsutomu Yamazaki, who played Goro in Tampopo, does play the Grand Master in Ramen Girl, though. So I'm glad they played a little homage to the original and far superior film.

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