Food in Movies: Tampopo

While reading this week's article, Hsu's "A Taste of Modernity" I was reminded of the Japanese 1985 film, Tampopo by Juzo Itami. Hsu's article focused on a particular time of development in China in which western thoughts, technology, and quite frankly the Western way of life made its way into the people of Harbin. It seemed the young people had conceived of the two halves of the world as a complete dichotomy assigning all signs of hope and advancement to the West and the complete opposite to the East - their current state. What it meant to embody Western ideals for the young people of Harbin was obvious in their behavior, as seen in their job aspirations.

The film Tampopo similarly presents another case of how a once isolated and homogenous country viewed the Western way of life. On the surface, Tampopo is a comedy, featuring a Japanese widow, Tampopo, striving to create the best ramen, but the film also reflects on the "Western" food culture, in which we can conclude what kind of perceptions the Japanese people felt about the West. It is also important to note the historical context of Japan at the time of the movie's making. In 1985, Japan was at its peak in the economic world, despite the outcome of the Second World War. This movie played an important role in symbolizing an era in which Japan made great effort in modeling Western culture - an effort for a once defeated nation to again regain power by perhaps trying to beat the West in its own capitalist game.

One scene that I was particularly reminded of is a Western dining etiquette scene. It starts off with a obviously wealthy, well-dressed, middle-aged Japanese woman instructing a course on proper Western dining etiquette to a group of equally wealthy Japanese young ladies. The course happens to be on spaghetti and they are situated in an Italian restaurant. The instructor emphasizes that the forks and spoons used are not to clink on the plate, that the spaghetti has to be carefully rolled in the cavity of the spoon, little by little as to not take too big of a bite, and most importantly, that the noodles are not to be slurped and absolutely not sound is to made when eating. However, a loud slurping sound breaks the concentration of the class and the ladies follow the sound to a white man shoveling his spaghetti into his mouth, with his face merely centimeters from his plate, not even pausing to chew. There is a moment of tension as the young woman do not know what to do - does their Japanese instructor teaching proper spaghetti eating have the authority, or does the white man's sloppy slurping have the last word? Which way is right?

This really is a comedic scene as the young ladies in the end decide to discard their Japanese teacher's instruction and follow the white man's behavior, leaving the restaurant in a slurping symphony. However, there is a deeper meaning. The Japanese instructor, emphasizes so greatly the careful and almost methodological way of eating spaghetti - there is a proper sequence to how one rolls the delicate noodles around the fork and precisely aims it into the mouth. This represents the Japanese image of the West. Hsu notes that the people of Harbin see the West as scientific and rational, and I can even see this in the way the Japanese instructor tries to teach proper spaghetti eating to her students. These wealthy Japanese women, holding their class at a high-end Western restaurant, believe they must behave a certain way, and embody a different character, especially when consuming the food of another culture. Not to mention that these ladies are going out of their way to take classes in eating - eating like what they think Western people do, signifying a strong pull to be like "them". This is how they believe that "civilized" people behave and eat.

On the other hand, it is also interesting to see the white man slurping. By just switching the setting to a ramen shop, sitting at a wooden high bar stand, and replacing the spaghetti resting in the typical disc-shaped white plate to a steaming hot bowl of ramen, the slurping wouldn't look too out of place - in fact, it would be deemed correct. It is correct to slurp ramen, or Japanese noodles of any sort. Perhaps the white man's rowdy slurping was caused by his exaggerated belief that the correct way to eat noodles in Japan was to slurp - and so he does, the louder, the more appreciation for the food, right? The Japanese ladies then believe that slurping is the correct Western dining etiquette and follow suit and in the end both groups are left at a stalemate.

This movie is filled with these kinds of cultural nuances of how perceptions of the West (or East, for that matter) shape a person's behavior. And all this is done through food. If you find yourself bored over the weekend, I highly suggest checking it out - available at Case (with subtitles)!