The Ramen Girl | |
---|---|
Directed by | Robert Allan Ackerman |
Screenplay by | Becca Topol |
Produced by | Robert Allan Ackerman Stewart Hall Kimio Kataoka Brittany Murphy Yoko Narahashi |
Starring | Brittany Murphy Sohee Park Toshiyuki Nishida Tammy Blanchard Kimiko Yo Renji Ishibashi |
Cinematography | Yoshitaka Sakamoto |
Edited by | Rick Shaine |
Music by | Carlo Siliotto |
Production companies | Media 8 Entertainment Digital Site Corporation |
Distributed by | Image Entertainment (United States) Warner Bros. (Japan) |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 102 minutes |
Countries | United States Japan |
Languages | English Japanese |
Budget | $32 million |
The Ramen Girl is a 2008 romantic comedy-drama film starring Brittany Murphy about a girl who goes to Japan and decides to learn how to cook ramen. [1] Murphy also co-produced. [2]
Abby is an American girl who goes to Tokyo to be with her boyfriend, Ethan. Ethan tells her that he has to go to Osaka on a business trip and may not be back for a while. Abby asks to go with him but Ethan refuses and breaks up with her. Abby goes to a ramen shop afterward, and the chef Maezumi and his wife Reiko tell her that they are closed. Abby does not understand them as she does not speak Japanese. She starts to cry, so the chef conveys to her to sit down. He brings her a bowl of ramen, and she loves the meal. A small distance away, she hallucinates that the lucky cat, known as the Maneki Neko, or Beckoning Cat, gestures to her to come over. When she tries to pay for her meal, the chef and his wife refuse.
The next day she comes back and sits down at the counter. He gives her another bowl of ramen and she eats. As she eats, she breaks into uncontrollable giggles, as does another patron. The following day she returns, but is told they are out of ramen. Seeing the wife's swollen ankles, she insists on helping instead. After the night is through, she is passed out asleep in the back. [3] They shoo her out, but as she is walking away she realizes she wants to cook ramen. Rushing back into the store, she begs him to teach her how to cook ramen. He argues, but finally gives in and tells her to come the next day at 5 am. She shows up late, in high heels and a dress, and is put to work scrubbing the toilet and cleaning pots and pans. In the following weeks Maezumi only gives her cleaning work in the hopes that she quits, but she comes back. After she is given work as a waitress, she wins the hearts of all who come in, including two older women who are regular customers, and a male laborer regular in his 30s who develops a crush on her.
On a rare night off, she heads to a night club with a British man named Charlie and an American woman named Gretchen whom she met earlier. The three meet Toshi Iwamoto (Sohee Park) and his friends. Abby and Toshi fall in love.
Abby sees Maezumi crying over a collection of letters and photos from Paris. When she asks him about it, he becomes angry and storms off. His wife tells Abby that the photos are of their son, Shintaro, and that Maezumi and Shintaro have not spoken in 5 years since he left for France.
Toshi has to go to Shanghai for three years for business. He asks Abby to come with him, but she declines, saying she can't. They share their last kiss.
Abby soon learns how to make ramen, but Maezumi insists that it has no soul. Maezumi's mother tastes her ramen and tells her, in Japanese, that she is cooking with her head; when Abby confesses that there is only pain in her heart, Maezumi's mother advises that she should put tears in her ramen. Later, she is shown cooking ramen, crying. She serves it to the two ladies and two young male customers. Eventually, all four of them begin to cry, each for different personal reasons. Maezumi tastes it, and starts to cry, but goes upstairs.
One day, Maezumi talks with a rival, who brags about his son having a master chef come to taste his ramen while ridiculing Maezumi for trying to train Abby. Maezumi, drunk, says that her ramen will receive the Master Chef's blessing, or he'll stop making ramen. The Master arrives, and tastes the young man's ramen, sampling small bits of it, very sparingly. He gives him his blessing.
However, Abby has strayed from the safety of conventional ramen, and made hers with peppers, corn and tomato, a concoction she calls "Goddess Ramen". The Master says Abby's noodles are good, but he cannot give her his blessing, saying that she needs more time and restraint. Maezumi is sad to have to stop his business, but talks to Abby. He tells her about his son wanting to learn French cooking, but she does not understand. He tells her that the ramen shop needs a successor, and that she is the successor of his ramen shop. She leaves for America soon, but before that, is invited to a celebration. Maezumi gives her the lantern that had hung outside his ramen shop for 45 years, and she takes it to America with her, where it is shown a year later outside her shop in New York City, appropriately named The Ramen Girl. The shop hangs a photo of Maezumi and his wife with their son happily in Paris. An employee of hers tells her there is a man who wants to see her. It is Toshi.
He says he hated his job and that he decided to do what she would do: quit his job and go back to what he loved – writing music. She welcomes him to her ramen shop and they kiss.
Film critic Don Willmott describes The Ramen Girl as "a vacuous but atmospheric analysis of the redemptive power of a good bowl of noodles" in which " The Karate Kid meets Tampopo meets Babette's Feast ." [4]
Tampopo is a 1985 Japanese comedy film written and directed by Juzo Itami, and starring Tsutomu Yamazaki, Nobuko Miyamoto, Kōji Yakusho, and Ken Watanabe. The publicity for the film calls it the first "ramen Western", a play on the term spaghetti Western.
The Gâteau Affairs (情迷黑森林) is a 20 episode TVB series in late 2004 and early 2005. It stars Joe Ma (馬德鐘), Myolie Wu (胡杏兒), Bobo Chan (陳文媛), Jack Wu (胡諾言) and Annie Man (文頌嫻). Bobo Chan provides the voice for the theme song. Gâteaux is misspelt as "Gâteux" for all scenes and captions within the series.
Kathy Cotton is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Gillian Taylforth. Portrayed as "an attractive, bright, caring and highly moral woman", Kathy is one of the serial's original characters, appearing in the first episode of EastEnders on 19 February 1985. She is created as the second wife of Pete Beale and mother of their son Ian Beale. Taylforth was originally dismissed for the role of Kathy due to her young age, but was reconsidered when she impressed show bosses. The actress opted to leave the serial in 1997 and Kathy departed on 10 April 1998 after deciding to move to South Africa with her second son Ben. Kathy returned for two separate guest stints in 1999, making her departure on 6 January 2000. Despite reports that Taylforth would be returning to the serial, Kathy was supposedly killed off-screen in a road collision in 2006 to facilitate Ben's reintroduction to the serial. Taylforth reprised the role for a charity special in 2014. In the episode broadcast on 19 February 2015 to celebrate the show's 30th anniversary, Kathy made a surprise return to the serial - despite being presumed dead. It was confirmed that Kathy would be making a permanent return, and - after a guest appearance on 19 May 2015 - Kathy returned permanently on 17 August 2015. Taylforth was initially hesitant about her reintroduction storyline, which was inspired by the John Darwin disappearance case. Taylforth appeared in her 2,000th episode on 22 May 2023
Addicted to Curry is a Japanese cooking manga series written and illustrated by Kazuki Funatsu. It was serialized in Shueisha's seinen manga magazine Weekly Young Jump from January 2001 to December 2012, with its chapters collected in 49 tankōbon volumes.
A Taste of Honey is a 1961 British New Wave drama film directed by Tony Richardson and starring Rita Tushingham, Dora Bryan, Robert Stephens and Murray Melvin. It is an adaptation of the 1958 play of the same name by Shelagh Delaney. Delaney wrote the screenplay with Richardson, who had directed the original Broadway production of the play in 1960. As with the play, the film is an exemplar of a social realist genre of British media known as kitchen sink realism.
Mortified is an Australian children's television series, co-produced by the Australian Children's Television Foundation and Enjoy Entertainment for the Nine Network Australia. The series premiered on 30 June 2006 and ended on 11 April 2007 with two seasons and a total of 26 episodes. Currently, re-runs air on both ABC and the Disney Channel, in the U.S. on Starz Kids and Family.
Girl with Green Eyes is a 1964 British romantic drama film directed by Desmond Davis and starring Peter Finch, Rita Tushingham, Lynn Redgrave and Julian Glover. Adapted by Edna O'Brien from her novel The Lonely Girl, the film tells the story of a young, naive country girl's romance with a sophisticated older man. As the film is in black and white the green eyes are never seen.
Neko Rahmen, also known as Neko Ramen, is a Japanese four-panel comic strip manga created by Kenji Sonishi. The comedy centers around a cat (Taishō) and his encounters while running a ramen shop.
Mean Girls 2 is a 2011 American teen comedy directed by Melanie Mayron and written by Cliff Ruby, Elana Lesser, and Allison Schroeder. It is a standalone sequel to the 2004 film Mean Girls.
Ethan Lovett is a fictional character from General Hospital, an American soap opera on the ABC network. The role was originated by Nathan Parsons, who appeared from January 30, 2009, to March 7, 2012. Parsons returned for guest appearances in April 2013, July 2015 and September 2020, respectively. In April 2023, the role was portrayed by James Ryan.
The Secrets of Love is an adaptation of Jane Austen's 1811 novel Sense and Sensibility. It was written by Rosie Rushton and published by Piccadilly Press Ltd. in 2005. The book had a total of 176 pages and was published as a young adult book. The book is a 21st century adaption of Jane Austen's famous work, Sense and Sensibility.
Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania is a 2014 Indian Hindi-language romantic comedy film written and directed by newcomer Shashank Khaitan and produced by Dharma Productions. It stars Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhatt and debutante Sidharth Shukla.
Amour et Pâtisserie, also known as The Patisserie with No Name, is a 2013 Taiwanese romantic television series produced by channel PTS, starring Sandrine Pinna, Jasper Liu and Shiou Jieh Kai. The story is taken from Taiwanese actress and playwright Hannah Lin's "Television Program Playwriting Award" winning entry. Filming took place from July 26-November 15, 2012. First original broadcast began May 25, 2013 on PTS channel, airing every Saturday at 9:00-10:30 pm. The last of the 14 episodes was aired on August 24, 2013.
Black Friday is a comedy-horror musical with music and lyrics by Jeff Blim and a book by Matt and Nick Lang. It is the twelfth staged show produced by StarKid Productions and takes place in the same setting as their previous musical The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals, though in an alternate universe where the events of the previous musical never happened. The show ran from October 31, 2019 to December 8, 2019 at the Hudson Mainstage Theatre in Los Angeles, California, directed by Nick Lang. A live recording of the musical was uploaded on YouTube on February 29, 2020 and sold on DVD. A cast recording was released on February 29, 2020 on Apple Music and their website.
Parachute is a 2023 American drama film directed by Brittany Snow in her directorial debut. Snow co-wrote the script with Becca Gleason. Produced by Yale Entertainment, the film stars Courtney Eaton and Thomas Mann. Parachute had its world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival in March 2023, and was released on April 5, 2024, by Vertical.