"Tampopo"

I went to a Japanese movie at Carleton once called Tampopo that was bizarre, weird, and totally hilarious.

It bills itself as a "Japanese noodle Western" and uses the structure of a spaghetti Western to tell a story about food. Specifically, a John Wayne type who tries to help a woman (Tampopo) create the perfect noodle house. It is so detailed and so exact in its quest for perfect noodles that it becomes universal.

But it wanders along the way, following different stories with unrelated characters, every single one involving food (right down to the last shot of a nursing mother).

Roger Ebert called it "one of those utterly original movies that seems to exist in no known category" and gave it 4 out of 4 stars (by the way, it looks like he's getting back in to reviewing again after a year's hiatus!)

Watching it again last night was still a lot of fun. It truly is weird, so if you try it, don't say I didn't warn you. But thanks to Stadium Video I was happy to find a copy and enjoy it on a quiet Saturday night (literally quiet. I've been keeping my voice down because of a bad cough).