the ramen blog & other goodies!

I’ve been meaning to review this movie for months now, and noticing the Ramen Girl sign on a “dvd play” box at a local supermarket reminded me how behind I am on my posts. I’ve had mixed feelings about watching the Ramen Girl since first day I heard about it. When I finally had a chance to watch it, though, I was actually excited.

The movie started out poorly, with the introduction of a pretty damn annoying American boyfriend character. In a way, though, that, and my previous low expectations, probably helped me enjoy the movie that much more. The script was both random and predictable: even though you know how the story will pan out, “WTF just happened” moments abound, and you really have to wonder why they even bothered to introduce certain characters. Speaking of characters, don’t even get me started on every American character in the movie. Besides Brittany Murphy, all the American characters are barely even two-dimensional, which wouldn’t be so bad if they weren’t just downright annoying.

But you know what? I liked the movie overall. The cinematography ranged from good to gorgeous, and most of the Japanese characters were more fully formed. Tampopo fans already know that Yamazaki Tsutomu (“Goro” from Tampopo) has a minor part (minor, yes, but he steals the show). Nishida Toshiyuki gives a solid performance as the “ramen chef with a secret.” But my favorite characters were the “two obaasan (old ladies) who never go home.” And Brittany Murphy? She wasn’t nearly as annoying as I thought she’d be. In fact, she even had a few good moments.

The Ramen Girl is worth watching if you’re looking for a fluffy way to spend two hours. If you’re looking for insight into the art of ramen-making a la Tampopo, forget it. If you’re looking for something light-hearted and maybe a fun, cheesy date-night movie, you could do worse. I realize that’s not exactly a strong endorsement…but hey, it’s got ramen!

Also available on netflix.

It’s about freaking time! After waiting for a long long time, and after literally months of fruitless enquiries to media 8 entertainment (a hearty “I hope your ramen is limp” to media 8!), I’m happy to report that the Ramen Girl will be out in Japan on Jan 17. The Ramen Girl (trailer here) is a movie about an American girl (Brittany Murphy) who is abandoned by her boyfriend in Japan. She ends up hanging out at a local ramen shop and eventually decides that she needs to become a ramen chef. The movie promises to show us “that each ramen bowl must contain a universe of feeling and truly be a gift from the heart.” Yeah…… To be fair though, I’ve rewatched the trailer a few times, and watched the Japanese trailer (it’s exactly the same as the English one), and I have to say that I’m at least a little more excited than ever to watch this movie.

Of course, that’s assuming it doesn’t dissolve into pure east meets west schmaltzyness. Then again, the casting of Toshiyuki Nishida as the “tyrannical, temperamental Japanese master chef” and Tsutomu Yamazaki as the “grandmaster” makes me less ambivalent (tip: click on the imdb link for Yamazaki-san and scroll down until you see a ramen movie you recognize. Yep, that’s him!).

One thing I have to take exception to is some of people (you know who you are!) calling this a “remake” of Tampopo. Of course, since I haven’t seen the Ramen Girl yet, I’m not really in a position to judge, but neither have the people comparing this to Tampopo. How in the world does this trailer make you think it’s similar to Tampopo besides having ramen as a main theme? I mean, is the Transformers a remake of say Herbie the Love Bug simply because both movies feature talking cars? Tampopo is so much more than just some movie about someone learning to make ramen, and this sort of “lump them all together” thinking just bothers me. End rant.

No word on when or if the movie will be coming stateside, though I have a feeling that a straight-to-DVD release is as much as we can hope for. For those of you who aren’t looking forward to seeing if Brittany Murphy can give this kind of movie the acting chops it deserves, I leave you with another, possibly more entertaining Japanese movie to look forward to:

Thanks and tips of the ramen bowl go to:
Keizo and Cutie for the heads up about the movie release date.
Brittany Murphy Media for the picture.
And Coilhouse for the High Kick Girl lowdown.

It’s been over two years since we reported on the Ramen Girl, a movie about an American woman (Brittany Murphy) stranded in Japan, who ends up learning how to make ramen. Even though it’s starting to look like the movie might go straight to dvd, this new trailer doesn’t look half bad, thanks to Toshiyuki Nishida. What do you think?

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Brittany Murphy will be starring in a movie called the Ramen Girl. The movie will be a romantic comedy about a girl who ends up training to be a ramen chef after being dumped and stranded in Tokyo. Filming is scheduled to start in September. More info here and here.