Unlimitedia Sick Product of a Sick System

Dorathen Better Late Then Never

Abbigail Bush what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Zandra The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

SnoopyStyle Abby (Brittany Murphy) follows her boyfriend Ethan to Tokyo but he leaves her for a job in Osaka. He also doesn't promise to come back for her because he's the nomadic kind. She has a dull job and speaks little Japanese. She becomes fascinated with the corner ramen shop and begs angry drunk chef Maezumi to teach her the art of cooking ramen. He yells at her a lot and gives her all the dirty jobs.This could have been better. Brittany Murphy is delightful and full of life. Maezumi is very angry. It's a little too off-putting. He needs to dial it down a little. The Japanese boyfriend is too light-weight. He has little chemistry with Murphy. I rather she ends up with the chubby guy. The production is a little lacking and the movie does need more fun magic.

ochichornye I'm very interested in Japanese culture and I love films that show the contrast between life in Japan and in the West, usually through the eyes of a visiting westerner. This is sometimes pulled of very successfully (for example in 'Tokyo Pop'), but sometimes less so. For me 'Ramen Girl' falls in the latter category.Other reviewers commented that Brittany Murphy shines in her role as the naive American visitor, but for me the Japanese supporting cast are the stars of the film. Murphy is not a bad actress, but I found the way she portrayed the emotions and reactions of Abby theatrical and overblown in an almost anime-like way. That may be a valid take in a different context, but here it falls flat because the Japanese characters around her are portrayed in a much more subtle and sensitive way. The ramen shop owner (Toshiyuki Nishida) is gruff and irritable, but real emotions shimmer through at key moments in the film. His wife (Kimiko Yo) is the classical obedient Japanese spouse but there are moments when she gives guarded criticism or shows small but secret acts of rebellion. The restaurant regulars and the ramen master add comical notes, but without slipping into the grotesque.There were aspects of the plot that were too implausible for me to pass over. Most irritating for me was the fact that Abby still only understood a handful of Japanese words after working in the restaurant for more than a year. It also seems strange she managed to hold on to a fairly large (for Tokyo) apartment on the pittance she must have received as an apprentice. Overall though, this is a gentle, entertaining little film with an unexpected ending and well worth watching at least once.

dst-thomas My first awareness of Brittany Murphy was at her untimely passing. I had seen "Clueless", but really didn't remember it too well. I recently became curious about her and wanted to see something in which she had played the lead. This film was the most positively-rated of her films available on NF streaming at that time. I was somewhat leery - everything about it looked slightly unwatchable, somehow. I had previous positive experience with ramen-centric cinema. As I added "The Ramen Girl" to my NF queue, I fondly recalled one of my all-time very favorites: "Tampopo" (1985). The casting, screenplay, and production values in "The Ramen Girl" are all really very good. What really surprised me is that the film contains an actual connection to Tampopo!Tampopo has at its core a story that also chronicles ramen apprenticeship. The lead in Tampopo is played by Tsutomu Yamazaki, a trucker who happens upon a widow trying to run her late husband's ramen shop. He is tasked to bring her along to mastery in the art of ramen. Grand adventure ensues. (That is the major thread in the film, there are also a few other stories woven into it about food and the way food sits at the center of our lives...)In "The Ramen Girl", the Grand Master (of ramen) eventually comes to town. That part is played by none other than Tsutomu Yamazaki!!! This was a wonderful touchstone for me and made "The Ramen Girl" even more enjoyable. Whether or not you enjoyed "The Ramen Girl", if you have not see "Tampopo" please consider it. (Japanese with English subtitles.) It's absolutely glorious in every way!

edward-brough If you said "The Karate Kid" but with soup and noodles, you'd probably pull the same face I did after watching this movie. That said, it not because the idea is flawed or the movie was badly done. Far from it.The story was okay, well paced and the Acting was okay. The cinematography was beautiful and the concept, whilst odd at first left me quite pleased. The Major Let Down for this film was Brittany Murphy who seemed to have been out acted by the noodles themselves.Dry and uninspired, the film promised so much, and without Brittany Murphy could potentially have delivered but your left with that cold empty feeling inside. Murphy seems to act as if she'd only learnt the concept of emotion 3 minutes before she had to act the scene and I whilst I love the rest of the cast, she herself just made me want to switch the movie off every time she appeared. I just wish they'd cast it better.