Tampopo (タンポポ or 蒲公英, literally "dandelion") is a 1985 Japanese comedy film by director Juzo Itami, starring Tsutomu Yamazaki, Nobuko Miyamoto and Ken Watanabe. The publicity for the film calls it "the first Noodle Western," a play on the term Spaghetti Western (Western films made by Italian production studios).
In this humorous paean to the joys of food, the main story is about trucker Goro who rides into town like a modern Shane to help Tampopo set up the perfect fast-food noodle restaurant. Woven into this main story are a number of smaller stories about the importance of food, ranging from a gangster who mixes hot sex with food to an old lady terrorizing a shopkeeper by compulsive squeezing of his wares. Written by Reid Gagle
Tampopo, a widowed noodle chef, is helped to become a first class chef by truck driver Goro and friends. Food is the theme throughout this movie and it includes novel uses of food as erotic toy. Written by Andrew Mossberg
