I didn't even know this movie existed a month ago. I went to the library to look for Kurosawa movies when I returned some books for my son. I found a couple, struck up a conversation with a librarian checking out, and she recommended this and immediately reserved it for me with me barely saying a word. Now I'm thankful. The movie finally came in and I decided to watch it last night.

As it turns out, I randomly happened into the best food movie I've ever seen. Defined, with tongue in cheek, as a "noodle Western," Tampopo is the protagonist, a woman running a small ramen shop. One night by chance the male lead Goro enters her restaurant and from there the journey begins to become the best restaurant in Japan.

The movie is mostly different flavors of comedy and a love of food, with unrelated, small, food related sequences randomly interspersed to break up the main timeline, including a grocery store manager trying to catch a food squeezer in the act, a white suited gangster who happens to be a serious lover of food and women as he provides the food filled sex scenes, among others.

This movie is hard to describe. But it's truly great. It has genuine humor, it's genuinely interesting, and the main character and story are endlessly charming.

Roger Ebert gave this movie a perfect rating, and who am I to disagree.