Tampopo: Challenging the Social Status Quo

The master teaching his pupil the art of ramen consumption.

Itami Juzo’s 1985 Tampopo presents the story of a widowed mother trying to save a failing noodle stand. The film contains a great deal of small narratives that ultimately compose the entire story. Itami uses food as a focal point to illustrate and even satirize social issues within Japan, including class distinctions and the Westernization of Japanese culture.

The opening scene of the film portrays an older, presumably wise man instructing his young pupil on the art of ramen consumption. All of the following scenes build off of the seeds planted by this introduction, making this the single most important scene in the film.  First and foremost, this scene introduces food as the focal point of the film.  Itami centered this film on food because it plays a key role in numerous aspects of many different societies, and can be used as a jumping off point to introduce discussion of different aspects of society at large.

Itami also introduces another major point of this film in the opening scene: challenging the social status quo.  The food being consumed in this opening scene is ramen.  Ramen has traditionally been regarded as common food, with no special or significant value attached to it.  This is what makes the ritual of ramen eating portrayed within the scene so strange; there is no justification for, or history of, such theatrics for consumption of lowly ramen. By rethinking tradition in the opening scene of the movie, Itami sets the stage for this to be repeated throughout the film.  This is evident with the scene in which the young businessman does not follow the example of his superiors and instead orders a high-culture French dish.

The portrayal of the ramen eating ritual also serves two other very important roles. The first is that it elevates the status of ramen within the minds of the audience, which is vital if the audience is to be drawn into the film.  If ramen is viewed as a lowly, common food as it traditionally is outside of the film, then there would be no need for Tampopo’s ramen shop to elevate the quality with ramen.  The audience, along with the other characters in the film, would be satisfied with mediocre ramen because it is a mediocre meal.  By elevating ramen to a form of art, Itami creates a need for the restaurant to elevate the quality of noodle. The second of these is that it gives Goro the expertise to properly critique Tampopo’s ramen, and guide the shop to a heightened level of success.  Goro’s knowledge of the art of ramen allows the audience to believe he is capable of passing on his knowledge of ramen to Tampopo.

Itami continually uses food in many different ways as a tool to disrupt the traditional status quo within Tampopo. He accomplishes this not only by using food to directly illustrate his point, but also as a framework to use other methods and build characters. The introductory scene serves as a building block on which all of Itami’s arguments are built.  Without this scene, the movie would lose all merit, and suffer from both a lack of substance and an inability to portray a believable story to the audience.

 

 

South Park: Taking Satire to Extremes

South Park is an American television that is famously–and sometimes infamously–known for its simple drawing style and animation, crude humor, and above all, its fearlessness to tackle some of the most controversial subjects buzzing around. In episode eleven of the thirteenth season, entitled “Whale Whores”, protagonist Stan Marsh discovers the ruthless and cruel obsession the Japanese have with killing any dolphin or whale in sight, before running away and yelling “F*** YOU DOLPHIN!!!” or ” “F*** YOU WHALE!!!” accordingly.

"F*** YOU DOLPHIN!!!"

Enraged by the Japanese’s heartless and sick behavior, he decides to join the crew of “Whale Wars”, a real American reality show on which animal rights activist Paul Watson and his team fend Japanese whalers off the coast of Antarctica. Yet he receives a surprise when he finds that Watson’s crew, self-proclaimed “bad-asses”, don’t actually do anything to help the cause and instead resort to making the Japanese vessels “stinky” by throwing sticks of old butter at them. After Watson is killed by being harpooned, Stan takes over as the new captain and begins to protect the cetaceans seriously; however, his efforts are unappreciated as Larry King and other members of the media believe he is only interested in creating a popular television show with high ratings.

The crew of "Whale Wars", captained by the incompetent Paul Watson.

The show is short-lived when Japanese kamikaze pilots crash into the ship and the whales around them, leaving only Stan, Cartman, and Kenny (the latter two who only joined because they wanted to be on television) to be taken hostage by the Japanese. They are then shown by Emperor Akihito a doctored photograph, which portrays the plane that bombed Hiroshima as having been piloted by a dolphin and a whale, explaining the Japanese’s hatred for them. Choosing not to reveal the truth for fear that it could incite another war between Japan and the U.S., Stan instead presents them with another doctored photo, in which the Enola Gay is actually being piloted by a chicken and a cow. Thus the episode ends with the Japanese attacking farms and yelling “F*** YOU CHICKEN!!!” and “F*** YOU COW!!!”. The Americans then dub the Japanese finally “normal, like us”.

The Enola Gay, piloted by a dolphin and a whale.

South Park is successful in lampooning various topics, such as Japan’s “mindless” dolphin and whale killing spree, America’s media-based society, and other stereotypes about the two countries as well, such as Japan’s kamikaze attacks and America’s fast food nation. Although it risks offending many people due to the controversial nature of its topics, being a well-established and generally liked show, it manages to get away with much of its humor, as well as because subjects it raises are true and valid issues in the world about which we should be concerned. In fact, in response to the episode, Paul Watson stated that he was glad South Park was bringing attention to Japanese whaling and took no offense to being joked about (and killed) on the show. Others who have been satirized on the show have even claimed that one should be honored to be portrayed on South Park, because of how large it is in the U.S.

The almost lax, careless way the dolphins’ and whales’ murders are portrayed in the episode (random stabbing, as blood seeps through the water) shocked me at first, as previously I had not seen much South Park. I was still able to appreciate the sort of disturbing humor though, as I understood that much of the gruesomeness in this show comes out of truth. The primitive behavior of the Japanese, such as using spears rather than higher technology, broken English, and traditional rather than modern Japanese clothing add to the funniness of the situation because, as well-said in Avenue Q, “Ethnic jokes may be uncouth, but you laugh because they’re based on truth”. Indeed, a large factor in successful satirize lies in viewpoint; by clearly being aware of the inaccuracies of its stereotypes, “Whale Whores” is able to bring attention to important environmental issues without being criticized for its ignorance.

A World of Food We Have Never Known

Tampopo is fairly easy to follow—a man, Goro helps Tampopo, the widowed owner of a noodle shop, understand the true art of making and selling ramen. However,  in the different short vignettes inserted into this main narrative, Itami Juzo presents food in a bold, inhibited manner that illustrates various roles of food. Itami utilizes certain cinematic techniques such as POV shots, extreme close-ups, and fluid transitions to break down the boundaries of film and reality for the audience to truly experience, see, and almost taste food in unimaginable ways.

From the beginning, it is impossible to view the film objectively as the gangster speaks to us directly—hinting at the basic theater courtesies to our own audience—and dissolves the distinction between our two worlds. The extreme close-up of his face and the mobile camera closes the distance between cinematic reality and ours as we find ourselves becoming part of his theater space.

We instantly become an omniscient, omnipotent character in the film when we are placed in Goro’s perspective before even the credits roll. The POV shots are subtle but crucial as Itami inserts them in moments to almost live vicariously through the characters. For example, after a rather odd sequence of the gangster eating an oyster from a young girl, we are placed quickly in a different story of a man with a toothache whose pain is more relatable to us. Itami takes us one step further when we are actually placed in the dentist chair—in the perspective of the man. We move from empathy to ultimate dread as we revoke our own memories in the dentist office.

When Tampopo’s son requests an omelette, we are invited to see the careful process that the cook undergoes to create such a simple dish. Similar to the concept of the male gaze upon the female body as the object of desire, we gaze upon the close-ups of food and the process of ramen creation with a similar yearning and lust. In all sequences of food, no dialogue is necessary as the food speaks for itself with the camera placed in birds-eye view; Itami wants us to only concentrate on the food and our involuntary reactions toward it. However, he then overturns every conventional view on food by placing the same ingredient in the next sequence. Itami rather foreshadows the reverse version of the egg by the subtle transition as the singing in the previous story is still heard in the background. In a long, unedited shot, the gangster and his girlfriend rallies the yolk of an egg in their mouths. By placing us right in the middle—sometimes right in between the two characters—Itami challenges us to really explore different ways to experience food and not restrict it to mere daily consumption.

Tampopo’s heart-warming story may be the main plot, but it is the short sequences that really express Itami’s intention to depict food as a rather adaptable and universal medium. Although the film may seem rather “random” and erratic, the carefully constructed shots edited together suggest otherwise as viewers walk out of Tampopo with a new perspective on food.

Tampopo-Japanese Culture and Cuisine

Juzo Itami’s Tampopo is a film during the 1980s in Japan, centered on the appreciation of food; particularly the fascination with perfecting ramen.  Noodles are a staple of daily Japanese cuisine. This film uniquely depicts the presentation of noodles as both a competitive process and an internally personal and satisfying process for the film’s main character, Tampopo.  Tampopo is willing to go to great lengths, explore every opportunity possible to create the perfect ramen experience for patrons of her restaurant.

Tampopo finally achieved 100% fulfillment of her dream come true, when all of her allies and harshest critics, simultaneously slurped the final broth and set their empty bowls down together on the countertop. The satisfaction that Tampopo experienced at that moment justified her quest for perfection, which is virtually unachievable by most people. Tampopo exhibited an unparalleled level of perseverance toward perfection which was displayed throughout the film. She was relentless in her quest for perfection of the noodle soup prior to launching her new restaurant, Tampopo Ramen. What Tampopo experienced at that moment sincerely justified her quest for perfection.

It is a unanimous decision. Perfect ramen!

As stated by the master, “Noodles are synergetic things. Every step must be perfectly built”. He then proceeded to explain his art form of soup making to Tampopo. Tampopo was following the master’s explanation until he unwrapped the boar’s head; she promptly fainted. The comedic question that inevitably prevails is, does Tampopo have the strength of will and the backbone necessary to continue her quest for perfection of the enviable title of operating the best ramen restaurant in Japan?  The secrecy of recipes resulted due to the competitiveness of soup making. The “noodle” dominated the palate of the most discriminating clientele.

The master calls soup making an art form.

Other unrelated vignettes were inserted throughout the film, contributing to the complex texture by the filmmaker. One such vignette was the teaching of the proper structuring and appreciation of the ramen bowl.  The elder stroked the noodles, submerged the pork, slurped the ramen and drank from the bowl precisely at the most perfect moment for ultimate enjoyment. The youth remained engaged in the process and asked questions of the elder in order to perfect the art of ramen enjoyment. This film exemplified one variation of ramen, which is from the tonkotsu, or pork bone broth soup, with thinly sliced pork loin floating atop.

Savor the flavor!

Within the Japanese culture, families are so respectful and have high expectations regarding their food quality and uninterrupted family food consumption. In this tragic scene, even upon the collapse of the wife and mother, with death imminent, her husband coerced her into preparing what would be the final dinner meal for her family. In spite of the severity of her condition, she gained her final burst of strength. She successfully prepared the nightly meal for her family. The genre of the scene was satirically humorous because of the enormity of her deed, despite her physical malady; but what an exposé that scene exhibited regarding the expectations of the preparation of food for the Japanese family!

The dedicated wife and mother leaves her deathbed to prepare food for her family.

Corporate Greed: A Loss of Identity

Yasuzo Masumura’s, Giants and Toys, is a consumerist film that satirizes the post war growth of 1950’s Japan. The film begins by introducing three rival caramel companies: World, Giant, and Apollo, all of which hope to increase their caramel sales through new promotional campaigns. As World’s executives, Nishi and Goda, discover Kyoko, an ordinary and charming girl, they believe her quirky face could strengthen their campaign and act as the impetus to their success. As Kyoko becomes a star, the competition intensifies and the three businesses invest all their time to their publicity campaigns. Throughout his film, Masumura criticizes the consumerist culture of Japan by demonstrating how corporate greed and the desire to “win” leads to personal destruction, loss of identity and uniqueness, and the abandonment of one’s morals and values.

World Caramel comparing the "masses" to caramels.

In the opening scene, World’s boss compares the “masses” of the crowd to caramels. Here, we see how even early on in the film, one’s identity is often lost in the corporate business world. The caramels themselves are all the same as they are made for the sole purpose of making a profit. This objective along with the caramel’s uniform shape, size, and taste suggest that the masses are grouped together as one rather than classifying each person as a distinct and separate individual. This comparison demonstrates how both the people and the candy lose their uniqueness. Linking the masses to caramels further explains how World believes they have the power to manipulate the crowd to desire their commodity in the same way that they have complete control over their caramel production.

Goda instructing Nishi to seduce Kyoko.

As the film continues, Goda’s unremitting desire to become the number one caramel company instigates his downfall and loss of morality. In the beginning of the film, one of World’s prominent and very involved executives suffers from a horrible cough. This scene seems to foreshadow Goda’s self-deterioration and weakening health. As Goda is promoted to the PR position, his corporate greed escalates and thus causes him to collapse. Investing all of his time to the campaign, Goda endures the same cough previously seen by the other World executive. While Goda’s health weakens and the stress of the campaign increases, he resorts to immoral and unethical acts. For instance, asking Nishi to seduce Kyoko demonstrates his corrupt judgment and his willingness to do anything that will improve World’s sales. Goda’s obsession over the campaign and hunger to achieve success drives him to insanity and causes him to lose his identity and ultimately destruct.

Goda suffering from a malignant cough.

The introduction Kyoko in the opening scene.

Similarly, as Kyoko becomes a star her identity transforms. Like Goda, she becomes too invested in the corporate and mass media world and makes stardom a priority. The opening montage symbolizes Kyoko’s complete transformation throughout the film. In this first screenshot, Kyoko’s original identity is present through her crooked teeth, uniqueness, and “the girl-next-door image.” However, as Masumura utilizes Pop Art to multiply the image, Kyoko’s picture becomes clouded in black and white, as we are unable to see her quirky qualities. Unlike the first colored screenshot that clearly represents her identity, these multiplied pictures imply a transformation. As all of the images are blown away, it symbolizes Kyoko’s loss of original identity and her transformation into an unrecognizable star.

Masumura uses Pop Art to multiply Kyoko's image.

Clearly then, the caramel production leads to the loss of identity and dehumanization of individuals. The insatiable desire to dominate the corporate market and rise up to the top produces detrimental effects that alter one’s individuality and values.

Satire and Criticism on the Conventions of Food in Japan

Japan’s culture sometimes dictates strict customs and conventions that seem rather ridiculous to accept. In Tampopo, Juzo Itami heavily uses satire in food to point out the inconsistencies in Japanese culture. Tampopo’s main story follows Tampopo’s quest to make her ramen shop first-rate. The story branches into many different subplots involving food, each of which uses satire to attack traditional Japanese conventions.

One of the restaurant sequences of Tampopo follows the subplot of several businessmen. At a first-class French restaurant, the confused businessmen attempt to interpret the cryptic menu. All the businessmen fallback on the same

Businessmen awed by the culinary knowledge of the lackey

simple dish, but their heads turn when their lackey tells the waiter to wait a moment for his order.  Ignoring the warnings of his superior, the lackey demonstrates highly cultured culinary knowledge and effectively upstages his bosses. Itami satirizes the inconsistency in the business culture through food. In Japanese culture, the social standing of superiors is something to be both respected and revered. Those following orders must act according to their place and respect the wishes of their superiors at all times. Not only does the lackey disobeys the unreasonable wishes of his superiors to simply order the same thing, the lackey shows that he is more cultured and better than his superiors. Itami reverses the social standing of the business corporate ladder; the lackey is the superior to the businessmen.

The second restaurant scene immediately follows. The scene depicts an instructional classes for “ojou-sans” (well-mannered, young ladies). While the instructor informs the ladies that spaghetti should be eaten completely silently like a mouse, a foreigner at the restaurants loudly and obnoxiously slurps the spaghetti in protest of her teachings. The scene immediately breaks down to everyone, including the instructor loudly slurping the spaghetti. Itami satirizes both the uptight “ojou-san” culture of Japan and the Japanese conceptions of western culture. The “ojou-san” culture dictates the lady must act with refinement at all times, no matter what the situation. By degenerating everyone to loudly eating spaghetti, Itami openly mocks the culture as worthless and simply unreasonable. The westerner helps fix the preconceived conventions of the Japanese thought to be part of western culture. Western culture is not as refined as the Japanese think.

Itami even goes as far as satirizing the everyday Japanese family table. A family surrounds an almost lifeless mother on her deathbed. Desperately pleading for his wife to do something, the husband orders the mother to make a meal. Surprisingly, the almost lifeless mother complies and makes fried rice while her family does nothing to help her. She dies shortly after she makes the rice, and the father orders the family to finish their mother’s last meal. In Japanese culture, the

Mother dies cooking meal for family

wife is almost always forced to take care of the meals for the family and her husband coming back from work. The half-dead mother making a meal almost unconsciously despite her condition shows how ingrained the concept is in Japanese culture and how the wife is forced to follow orders no matter what the situation. It doesn’t matter if she is tired or on her deathbed; she will make dinner for her family.

In summary, Tampopo is Itami’s stage to criticize the traditions, conventions, and preconceptions of the Japanese tradition using food.