2025 Tarkovsky Prize Honorable Mention: Jasper Brioza

Tampopo: Through the Back Door of the Kitchen

by Jasper Brioza

If you were to boil down life into one word it would be food. You eat food to live; it is with you while you're in the womb, and it will be with you as you sit on your deathbed, it is with you when you wake up, it is with you when you go to bed, it will always be with you, it is the one thing you cannot break away from, food is life.

One hot summer night in Kyoto, my family and I stumbled into a ramen place for dinner. The shop’s amazing interior was complemented by beautiful dark wood and moody dim lights. Unfortunately, the ramen they served was terrible; the broth was too thick and the noodles gummy. After tasting the ramen, we immediately decided to pay our bill, got on our bikes, and went back on the search for delicious ramen. Luckily enough, our friend, a local, had recommended a different place. The building was located in a dark alley, and as we entered, I noticed the peeling paint and bare lightbulbs, all completed with the chain smoking chef. The restaurant was bustling with customers and the ramen was exquisitely crafted.

Growing up amongst a family of chefs, my father often said, “The best way to know a culture is through the back door of the kitchen”. Tampopo, written and directed by Juzo Itami, brings you through the back door and shows you the idea that food transcends and infuses all parts of society. In this way, Tampopo is a film not just about food, but a reflection upon the traditions and changes in Japanese culture. Juzo conveys this through his stunningly curated set design, wardrobe, and of course the food.

From every small town up to all the prefectures of Japan, there is ramen. It is traditionally a working class meal; filling, fast to make, fast to eat, and cheap. What intrigues me is that there is still an incredible amount of ceremony around eating this simple dish. We see this in a story about a young man learning the art of eating ramen from his master. The old man studies the bowl, savoring the aromas, noticing each important ingredient, caressing the pork then moving it to the right side of the bowl and apologizing he says “See you soon.” In the background stately violin music gives a level of seriousness to what could be seen as a satirical scene. The extremely focused shots provide no distractions from the lesson. In a similar way it is common for a restaurant in Japan to only specialize in one type of dish, be it ramen, soba, tonkatsu, or udon.

While in Japan, I remember an old Chef saying, “the Japanese are the masters of singularity”. There are thousands of ramen shops, and every single one strives for the best quality food. In the opening scenes of Tampopo, Goro and Gun are truckers on their way to finish a job, they stop for ramen on a dark and stormy night. However, the only other customers seem to be local thugs who are harassing the owner, and after eating his ramen, Goro gets into a cinematic fight with them.

Bruised and bloodied Goro spends the night at the owner's house. At breakfast which consists of natto, rice, homemade pickles, and seaweed he learns that her name is Tampopo, and that she is not a trained chef, but was just copying her deceased husband's techniques. Goro and Gun then have to reluctantly break it to her that her ramen sucked. Before leaving they give her a short lesson on how to read the customers along with some tips for making ramen. As they pull away in their truck she runs after them begging for Goro to make her his disciple. This scene sets the stage for the entire movie; it acts as the catalyst for Tampopo’s pursuit of perfection.

Throughout the movie we see people come together from all walks of life, from a trucker, to a chauffeur, and even a retired doctor. Each one of these characters is on deck and plays an important role in the development of the restaurant. The broth is just as important as the noodle texture, each character brings something different to the table, in ramen and in restaurant ownership there can be no weak links, if one part does not hold the whole thing collapses.

In this essay I described the indescribable and tried to make you understand something that I do not understand myself. I feel a deep connection to this movie, something about its physical comedy, its accurate and emotional depictions of life and restaurants. I don't know if this is something that everybody feels or if it’s something personal to me. This movie has some sort of tangibility about it, like I could walk right into it and I would recognize it as home.