Tampopo

Interspersed with vignettes about food culture, the love of food and food's connection to love, this food-centric film largely tells the story of one woman's quest to become a ramen master. Widowed restaurateur Tampopo's quest is to make her bullied adolescent son Tabo proud, and stems from two of her one-time "passing through" customers, truckers Goro and Gun, complaining that her ramen is inedible. As such, she implores specifically cowboy hat wearing Goro to guide her through what it takes to make more than good ramen. Conversely, Goro, who does ultimately accept her request, wants her to be known as having the best ramen in town with line-ups around the block, he telling her of the holistic experience of ramen both as the chef and the ramen eating customer. While Goro can only provide so much guidance directly, he amasses a collection of other "masters" who also buy into the vision. But it can only be achieved if Tampopo is not only up to the task but if she too buys into the entirety of what Goro is trying to achieve for her.