Jûzô Itami directs Tsutomu Yamazaki, Nobuko Miyamoto and Ken Watanabe in this Japanese comedy where a truck driver helps a struggling noodle shop owner turn her business around.

Just a wonderful treat. The delicate central romance has echoes of Howard Hawks or John Ford. A group of mismatched men surround a lone woman and protect her. Here from foodie mediocrity. That gentle affair has bundles of charm. But what makes Tampopo a timeless cult classic is its offshoots and comedic vignettes. We often freewheel away from the core plot to lose our selves in other appetite based skits. A gangster seduces his lover with whatever kinky room service he can order. The hierarchies at a business lunch are turned on their head when it comes to ordering from a menu. Just what is the polite society way to slurp spaghetti? The whole banquet is meta and pointless and self aware and quirk. Hard not to love, easy to devour.

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Perfect Double Bill: Mystery Train (1989)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/ and my own Substack https://substack.com/@edinburghlaughterbulletin