Tampopo: Food = Sex
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Tampopo
the-stugots — 15 years ago(August 04, 2010 05:53 AM)
First, I would have to put Tampopo in my top 5 films.
Having viewed this film several times, my interpretation, is that Itami uses food as an allegory in relation to sex, and vice versa. Things to consider:- Tampop is unable to perfect her Ramen until she and Goro arrive at the tacit decision to end their sexual tension.
- The film ends with the shot of a baby being breast-fed. Notice when Goro becomes ill, Tampopo cradles him and nuzzles his face against her breast. When 'man in white' is shot, his mistress also cradles him, and nuzzles his face against her breast.
- The business lunch scene suggests impotence. The older men are unable to order anything beyond basic menu items. They balk aghast at the young intern goes wild on the menu
- Woman who squeezes fruit: fetishism
- Pearl diver: virginity
- The etiquette class for young women: frigidity
- The man with the toothache and ice cream: pederast
- Tampopo watching through a wall in secret at the chef assembling his broth: voyeurism
It has been a while since I have seen the film, but the above examples are what stand out in my memory.
Itami's film is an ode to the two most essential elements for life, food & sex.
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my_spam_trap — 14 years ago(April 26, 2011 05:08 AM)
Mr./Ms. Stugots,
Don't take any abuse from a potato! You're exactly right, Tampopo is a movie about the relationship between two of the great human passions, sex and food! You spotted a few things I didn't notice, and that I might question (the old woman fondling the food at the supermarket is still a total head-scratcher for me). But mostly, your observations echo my own exactly.
I'm just a guy who sees some movies sometimes, whatever! -
onepotato2 — 14 years ago(July 19, 2011 07:25 PM)
I quibble with his/her thesis because he/she congratulates him/herself for discovering something that the movie has not hidden. Food as a proxy for sex is of course PART of the film. Food as reward, food as ritual, food as rite, food as family, food as vice etc, are all also covered in the film.
It's the whole point of the fricking vignettes. -
wantapieceapizza — 14 years ago(April 06, 2011 01:22 PM)
Hey, yeah I thought that too. Especially when the two gangster and his lover were transferring the egg between their mouths it was like the egg was a stand-in for sperm
http://filmbooksmusiclife.blogspot.com -
maz89 — 13 years ago(October 14, 2012 01:53 PM)
That's part of what made all of those scenes so good, that dual meaning. The scene in which the mobster and his mistress are mixing both of life's biggest pleasures make the connection obvious enough.
Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose.