The Ramen Girl

source: The Ramen Girl

Not every movie needs to be a tome on the human condition. Watching this movie was a pleasant way for me to spend a drizzling Sunday afternoon. Brittany Murphy is cute and fun to watch. I give her points for being the producer, and doing what she wants to do with her career. It's easy to take potshots at this movie; the fact that it apparently went straight to DVD pretty much shows that. And gee, Sherlock, thanks for pointing out the similarities with Tampopo, you think the cameo by Tsutomo Yamazaki gave it away? I actually had more fun finding allusions from other movies, like "The Goodbye Girl." The deep questions for me were how much would her apartment have really cost, how can you portend to be a PhiBet and not be fluent within a year, and was this movie shot in video?

It is pronounced "rah - mun" not "ray-men". I must say I am rather surprised to see the low IMDb rating for this movie. It is much better and more entertaining than many recent rom-com releases rated higher. While it is a rom-com, it is a subtle one with a good message. Brittany Murphy is Abby, in Tokyo with her working boyfriend. She has a menial job she hates, but being there with him makes it worthwhile. Until one day he tells her he is going to Osaka on business, and doesn't know if he will ever return. We quickly figure out he isn't coming back, but it takes Abby a few hundred unreturned messages left to his answering machine to come to that conclusion. One fateful night, in the rain and hungry, she wanders into the local Ramen shop, they are closed, but since they don't understand English and Abby doesn't understand Japanese, she ends up being comforted with a bowl of Ramen and decides that she wants to learn to be a Ramen chef, apparently something unheard of there. But since she doesn't know that, and no one can tell her, she insinuates herself. The old chef is veteran Japanese actor Toshiyuki Nishida as Maezumi. Immediately we see he is a very difficult man, but Abby is persistent. We learn that Maezumi has a son who didn't want to follow his father as a Ramen chef, and instead went off to Paris to study classical cooking. Maezumi was not happy about this, especially as other veteran Ramen chefs, preparing their own sons to succeed them, taunt him. There are many small side stories, and the movie is fun, but the main theme is Abby trying to make her mark as a Ramen chef. SPOILERS: Eventually Abby gets the old chef to teach her properly, but she likes to innovate. When the "master" comes to their neighborhood to taste her Ramen he likes it, but does not approve. However Abby has found herself, the movie ends one year later, in New York, with her running her own Ramen shop with innovative dishes. And we see a photo of the old chef and his wife with their son in France.

Never heard of this movie before my sister started playing it. I guess it wasn't marketed very well. All in all, the movie was enjoyable, especially if you're a fan of Brittany Murphy. She did a pretty great job and it's always pleasant to her smile. Her interactions with her teacher were the best parts of the movie. There was no real need for the other non-Japanese characters as their subplots didn't add much to the movie. Nor was there any real end to their story. The ending was quick and not well thought out, but still okay. Other than that, a very watchable and at times pretty funny movie. Made me crave Ramen!!!

I agree with silentcheesedude about how the movie inappropriately makes the language barrier a major theme of the movie. It makes me wonder if the writer and producers ever lived in a foreign country, or if they are just guessing what it is like. Unless you are a complete moron, you don't just talk in your native language to foreigners and expect them to understand, as Abby and the ramen shop owner did day after day. I wanted them to use hand signals which in some cases could have easily communicated the message, or for Abby to try to learn a little Japanese, which she only began to do near the end of the movie. The movie was not true to life because people do not just talk at each other like that - except in the same language where people talk to each other all the time without listening, but that of course is different. Another problem I had with this movie is that it seems to assume that any bossy Japanese guy working in a trade is like some kind of zen master. I mean seriously, the ramen shop owner was an overweight drunk, yet we are expected to believe he was some kind of master sensei (teacher) like Pat Morita ("Miyagi") in The Karate Kid movies. Seriously, what kind of "tamashi" (spirit) does a drunk chef supposedly put into his ramen? Finally, as others have pointed out, the British guy and the southern girl added nothing to the movie. So, what was good in the movie? I guess it would be the moral lesson that people likes Abby can't just drift through life expecting great things to happen, but must commit to something, which will in most cases bear fruit (or, in this case, tasty bowls of ramen) in the end.

I'm surprised so many reviews here have given this film such high remarks. There are things in this movie that really work and things that don't. The idea isn't a bad one; a girl moves to Tokyo and finds her life upside down and creates a new life for herself in a seemingly unglamorous job. We've seen this formula before (this plot actually seems like a veiled ripoff of a Dharma and Greg episode where Greg becomes a hamburger flipper temporarily) but Brittany Murphy pulls it off better than anyone else can. Sadly, it isn't enough. The director has taken a bold step, and he deserves to be commended for it. There are a number of scenes where Murphy and the Ramen master exchange dialog and they can't understand each other. Instead of relying on the same old gags they actually created tension where neither character understands each other well. But that's as far as it goes. The scenes with the Ramen master and Murphy fall kind of flat. Are they supposed to be funny? Tense? Dramatic? They get a little of these but they don't go far enough into them. I didn't bust out laughing and I didn't tense up. It was just sort of blah. Toshiyuki Nishida is also a great actor and he's well known in Japan. But most of his roles have a certain charm and charisma. He doesn't pull off the "tyrannical" thing well, despite his acting ability. He isn't charming enough to be liked and he isn't mean enough to be hated. Instead, he's a cardboard cut out of a stereotypical Japanese chef. At least with a different actor I'd be less disappointed. The acting ability of Murphy and Nishida carry this film, but the script is weak. Again, not a total failure, but it's like eating a bowl of ramen that's gone cold.

I don't usually watch these kind of movies.. too much drama and predicted plot.. But since this one was really focusing on japan I told myself I have to go see it. The movie itself is great.. it really shows Japan of today! really explains how foreigners do in japan. how they work , live , have fun.. and even meet people and fall in love! The movie consist on an old man who owns a ramen shop, and Abby (Brittany Murphy)which is fascinated by the effects of ramen on people. Abby struggle with the old man and she wants him to teach her the secret of ramen. The old man is very stubborn and strict. He treats Abby has a little spoiled American kid , and give her no discounts. The movie shows how ramen is being made very nicely and that it has to be made with soul (Tamashii,魂). This is a story about Abby's journey of finding her purpose in life and soul to pour into the ramen soup. Abby's journey is tough , and through the hole movie she's struggling to understand the definition of Tamashii. I think this movie is wonderful feed for those who like Japan. especially if you like ramen.

Brittany Murphy's untimely death casts a pall over this strictly by-the-numbers 2008 direct-to-DVD comedy. She exudes a certain charm in the title role, an aimless American named Abby, who attempts to master the art of ramen while stuck in Tokyo after her boyfriend unceremoniously dumps her, but there is also something vaguely disorienting about her comic performance here. She isn't helped much by the pedestrian direction by Robert Allan Ackerman, best known for his TV-movie work ("Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows") or the derivative script by first-time screenwriter Becca Topol. Neither is able to capture the particular idiosyncrasies of the Japanese culture in a way that would make this fish-out-of-water tale work effectively (like Sofia Coppola did so well in "Lost in Translation"). In fact, the clichés and contrivances come fast and furious, so much so that the Tokyo setting becomes rather moot. The poorly paced storyline has Abby's sudden break-up leading her to a neighborhood ramen shop within view of her unusually large city apartment. She is treated to a bowl of ramen by the shop's curmudgeonly owner/chef Maezumi and his ever-patient wife Reiko. For reasons unexplained, Abby becomes obsessed with learning how to make the ramen even if it means an apprenticeship that amounts to slavery under Maezumi's dictatorial guidance. Predictably, it becomes a contest of wills as to whether Abby will last. The brief scenes showing the ramen preparation may remind some of Juzo Itami's beloved 1985 comedy, "Tampopo", and similarities are intentional. However, this film fails to make the time-staking process uniquely appetizing. A romantic subplot is introduced as a disposable diversion, but it's hamstrung by the lack of chemistry between Murphy and Sohee Park, who tepidly plays a young Japanese executive who conveniently needs to move to Shanghai for a three-year assignment. Moreover, there is one laughably bad scene with Maezumi's wizened mother in which Abby becomes mysteriously fluent in Japanese. All these episodes lead implausibly to a visit from the Master Chef, who will make the final judgment as to whether Abby is ready to succeed Maezumi as a true ramen chef. Veteran Japanese actor Toshiyuki Nishida plays Maezumi as a cross between Danny De Vito at his most anxious and a barking bulldog. Two actors from Yojiro Takita's award-winning "Departures" appear here - Kimiko Yo plays a far more traditional role this time as Reiko, and Tsutomu Yamazaki in familiarly taciturn form as the revered Grand Master. His appearance is obviously quite deliberate since he played the Shane-like figure in "Tampopo" a quarter century earlier. Impressive as the younger Judy Garland in Ackerman's earlier TV-movie, Tammy Blanchard appears inexplicably as a world-weary American-born bar hostess. But this is Murphy's movie all the way, and her sincere if overly angst-ridden approach seems wasted on such a vacuous story about finding one's place in life, a theme handled with far greater emotional dexterity in "Departures". An extended ending, seventeen deleted scenes, and the original theatrical trailer provide the extras on the 2009 DVD.

I wanted so much to like this movie, not just because I watched it after Brittany Murphy's death, but also because I had seen the trailer sometime back and I thought it looked like a lovely West-meets-East fairy tale. But it was not to be. My patience in holding out for a happy ending was demolished before too long. The Japanese ramen chef is simply too abrasive, with all his yelling and smacking. There was zero chance in developing any affection for him as a lovable old curmudgeon. Even the Japanese katana-maker in Kill Bill: Vol. 1 was more lovable than this guy. Murphy's character is not so trying at least, though one has to wonder if she's not a bit masochistic to put up with all the abuse. And jezuz, half the yelling in the movie could be eliminated if either character would just get an interpreter in since neither understands the other. When Murphy starts dating a Jap guy who speaks English, I thought "Finally!" but no, she doesn't even introduce the two men to each other and well, more yelling ensued. The movie didn't end on a satisfying note either. The grandmaster ramen chef didn't approve of her cooking? Wtf? This is a fluffy fantasy, not a based-on-a-true-story trials and tribulations movie. After all that abuse she put up with, she's still not up to scratch? Well the grumpy chef declared her his successor anyway, upon which she immediate runs back to the US to open her own restaurant. Doesn't seem very grateful to me. Maybe the grandmaster foresaw that. Whatever.

Not a Brittany Murphy fan, but as one who appreciates good food from around the world, gave this one a shot. Mistake. As others have alluded to, the whole premise of the movie is that the Japanese Ramen chef and Abby cannot understand each other! Get the bilingual love interest involved already! The ending was really a downer, and somewhat inexplicable. He names her his successor, they hug, and next scene, Bam! off to New York. That's gratitude for you. She should have stayed in Tokyo, renamed his Ramen shop "Goddess Ramen", and made the rumen the way she 'felt' it should be made. Still do not know what the peripheral characters were doing in the movie. Poor, though could have been much better! Also, watch as Brittany's lips enlarge over the course of the movie.