J-Film Blog

No I suppose this isn’t a “Japanese Movie” per se.  It does take place in Tokyo, and a great deal of it is in Japanese, so humor me.

Abby (the late Brittany Murphy) gets dumped by her boyfriend in Tokyo, and in a fit of desparation, gets taken in by a local Ramen cook and his wife.  They train her up to be his successor, and while they ultimately fail “the test”, everyone feels good and there’s a happy ending and everything.  Yeah, I just summed it up for you.

But, beyond that is a typically formula story.  Think Karate Kid with noodles and you’re not far off the mark.  Actually it’s not a bad little picture. It’s funny, its supposedly heartwarming (at least the trailer-voice told me so) and there’s lots of Japanese spoken which is always nice.

Don’t let the cutesy cover and descriptions fool you though.  There’s plenty of coarse dialog, adult situations, drinking and (gasp!) smoking to go around.  No I don’t really care, but its probably not for the younger set.

Yes, the story is technically implausible.  Work visas and entry permits and whatnot aside, not to mention cultural issues, huge (really huge) apartments, and the ramen shop having “soba” written on the front (yes there’s a difference!)….  But that’s beside the point.  The intended audience really doesn’t care.

I hate to admit that I actually liked it, sort of, despite all of its flaws, technical and otherwise.  At least I didn’t hate it.  Which is something.  Don’t try and take it too seriously or you’ll be disappointed.