The Ramen Girl Review

"There's something about the japanese and making the perfect bowl of soup ... it's like with each bowl, you try to get closer to perfection ... it's kind of beautiful" - Abby

In spite of having a cringe-inducing corny premise and an unconvincing lead actress, The Ramen Girl surprisingly succeeds as an affecting mediation on the conflict between following well-established tradition and pursuing a personal path. While stories about A Westerner getting lost in an unfamiliar Japan and a westerner learning a new culture (in this film's case, Ramen, a popular Japanese noodle soup dish whose strength lie in the broth) from a Japanese Master have been done many times before, The Ramen Girl still manages to freshly stand out and avoids the stereotypical Hollywood treatment of asian-related material thanks to an unexpectedly intelligent and deep screenplay by Becca Topol.

The Ramen Girl tells the story of Abby (Brittany Murphy), an American woman who goes to Japan to join her boyfriend, only to have him quickly dump and leave her alone. Late one night, while lost in an unfamiliar place and nursing a heartbreak with no one to turn to, she randomly drops by a neighbourhood Ramen Shop that's closing for the day to vent her frustration. Thinking that the petulant guest was seeking food, The Ramen chef, Maezumi (Toshiyuki Nishida) cooked her a bowl of Ramen to make her go away. However, the bowl of ramen was apparently so good that Abby instead went on to beg the chef to teach her how to cook the "perfect bowl of Ramen". Thus begin a journey between 2 mismatched individuals: the old-fashioned, traditional, uptight Japanese chef and the young, spoilt, volatile American girl. Both have to change and overcome their differences, both verbal and mental, in order to get what each want. The stakes are raised when Maezumi made a bet with his rival that Abby's ramen will win the approval of The Grand Master of Ramen, otherwise he will give up his ramen shop entirely.

On the surface, the film seems like an odd mix of Lost In Translation and The Karate Kid. While Robert Allan Ackerman's pedestrian direction (he's a veteran of TV Movies) does not attain the intellectual, esoteric height of the former film, Becca Topol's screenplay is much smarter and insightful than the latter's in its portrayal of The Japanese. Maezumi's training method is so borderline abusive - there's almost no attempt to speak English or hire a translator, Abby has to learn everything without knowing what she was supposed to do - that it makes Mr Miyagi looks like Mr Rogers. But by not softening the character, the film succeeds in portraying the stubborn, perfectionist, samurai psyche of the Japanese accurately.

The film's use of Ramen as a life metaphor sounds corny but the execution is far from that. Through the passing of the knowledge on how to cook Ramen, both student and teacher are each given his/her own meaningful character arc that resonates strongly with each other. Maezumi's approach to cooking a bowl of ramen involve years of experience and endless preparation to achieve perfection. While this samurai approach is tried-and-true and admirable, it makes him lose touch with the modern world, resulting in a sad loss of an apprentice in the past. The sudden appearance of Abby gave him an unlikely second chance of a successor even if she's the last person she wants to teach. For Abby, who's a lost soul in the beginning, what initially starts as a blind pursuit eventually guides her closer to her true self. No matter how hard she try to replicate Maezumi's perfect ramen, she can't and won't be able to unless she finds out who she truly is. While there is a low key showdown at the end between Abby and a rival apprentice, the ending is smart enough not to cheat and conclude both Abby and Maezumi's journey on a gratifying note.

One weakness of the movie is lead actress Brittany Murphy (8 Mile, Sin City). At the beginning, she acts like a typical hollywood rom-com damsel in distress, channeling the worst of Meg Ryan. This nearly derail the movie but fortunately she does catch up as the movie gets better. However, one wonders how much better this film can be with a better actress. As for the Japanese cast and characters, they are filled with familiar faces that populate Japanese TV dramas and movies. There's the stoic samurai like Maezumi and his loyal, unsuffering wife Reiko and even the ramen shop patrons are similar to stock characters from Japanese TV and Dramas. These are not necessarily a bad thing since it shows how familiar director Ackerman and writer Topol with Japan and considering Hollywood tend to butcher them much worse. Toshiyuki Nishida's portrayal, in a way that fits his character, is workmanlike and professional, good enough to make the character work but he won't be the next Ken Watanabe.

The movie has gone Direct-to-dvd in USA and has gotten undeserved negative reviews all over the place. Give this movie a chance and you will discover, like Abby does, an unlikely encounter with a perfect bowl of Ramen in the middle of nowhere.

Rating: 4 out of 5

The Ramen Girl

Starring: Brittany Murphy, Toshiyuki Nishida, Tammy Blanchard, Park Sohee, Kimiko Yo and Tsutomu Yamazaki

Directed By: Robert Allan Ackerman

Written By: Becca Topol