O Sabor de uma Paixão

A young woman Abby (Brittany Murphy) travels to Tokyo to see her boyfriend and he promptly breaks up with her and she gets a job works in a Tokyo noodle restaurant, where she finds out it is an art form to create one of Japan's favorite dishes. She trains under Japanese master Maezumi (Toshiyuki Nishida) who tests her and teaches her lessons in life and cooking. This is a fun little film and I wasn't expecting to like it so much. There is a lot about Japanese culture and traditions that most Americans like me don't understand , when I think of noodles I think of cheap dried noodles as a food of last resort. There are to this film credit sub titles for the Japanese; I think that if they had of put actor speaking in English it would have been very unauthentic. So there is some very interesting scenes of Tokyo that you don't see in most films, a kind of realistic view of Japanese life. It's nice to watch an Asian film with no martial arts, or weird horror plot, this is more of a romantic comedy and some drama. It's a feel good movie and was suggested to me by a friend as a movie to watch and review, she was right . Brickthrewglass.com

Strange thing about this movie is that it has a lot of things wrong with it, but it is still a good movie, because it has a lot of "charm". Not the kind of charm in a movie that is overly contrived, but an actual sincere charm - which is hard to find. Most credit goes to Brittany Murphy for the charm, because she is such a naturally, sweet girl that she just delivers that quality to the whole film. The first problem I would love to address is the Cover of the DVD/Poster/Ad, because it is really awful. It has a "reverse stereotype" of Brittany Murphy in a Kimono with hands clasped. This would be okay for a film that one would think is about a soft-porn, submissive female on Cinemax, but it is not - it's more in the line of Karate Kid, and Shall we Dance. The People who watch expecting to see some White girl in Japan in hot, sexy escapades will be disappointed, and the People who usually watch more cultural, art films would avoid it thinking it's just soft-porn, so this "Cover" just disappoints everyone. The Marketing Dept. should learn from the people who market Fast & the Furious, because those movies sucks big, but always pulls in the audience because people know what to expect.

I think a large part of the negative reaction comes from expectations about what the film is or should be.

First of all, this is not a remake of Tampopo, nor is it about food. It actually borrows more from "Like Water for Chocolate" than Tampopo, but the food subplot is an afterthought and a bit of a distraction.

It isn't really a rom-com though there is a romantic interest in there. Nor is it really a East meets West type of thing either though that certainly is an element.

It is a story about a young girl, who like many young people have wandered aimlessly expecting that life will just happen for them. The Japanese expectation that a big company will take care of them for life is not that much different from the American expectations. Our ramen girl discovers that such a lack of passion and spirit, even when the ingredients are there and all the right steps are followed will lead to a bland soup. A simple metaphor but done fairly well.

Brittany Murphy is surprisingly good as the ramen girl and her interactions with the gruff ramen-nazi (wonderfully played by Toshiyuki Nishida) are hilarious. The development of the relationship between the two of them was very well done.

I quite enjoyed this film and recommend it as a light pleasant diversion that brings a smile to your face - like a good bowl of ramen should...

I gave this movie a fair 7/10. I would ignore the nonsensical 1/10 and 10/10 ratings and give it a fair shake if you're into Japanese food and culture. I was pretty surprised at how they portrayed Japanese culture...not totally accurate, but not a travesty either. I also wouldn't consider this to be a remake of Tampopo -- totally different characters and story lines. But it was fun seeing the main cowboy hat-wearing guy from Tampopo doing a small role as the ramen grand master. His expressions and eating reactions were hilarious! The filmmakers obviously have a love of japan and its culture, and I can feel their sincerity in sharing this joy through this movie. This movie isn't perfect by a longshot (the whole subplot with the British guy and the southern girl was useless and irritating), but there were some genuinely fun and funny moments. Keep your expectations in check and just enjoy the movie for what it is.

This film is about an American girl who uses a Ramen shop as her haven after being dumped by her boyfriend. There, she experiences and learns more than she unexpected to.

"The Ramen Girl" is actually enjoyable to watch. I particularly like the way that it treats Japanese culture with respect. This can be seen by not Americanising the Japanese characters, using plenty of Japanese language in the film and also using actors who actually speaks fluent Japanese. Hearing a Japanese ramen chef explaining the spirit of ramen is quite inspirational, as one could see so much dedication and respect for something seemingly insignificant. "The Ramen Girl" is more than just a romantic comedy or a "Lost in Translation" rip off. It is a good way to introduce Japanese culture, values and traditions to other cultures. I enjoyed "The Ramen Girl" a lot, and I hope it reaches a wider audience.