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THE RAMEN GIRL

With Brittany Murphy, Gabriel Mann, Sohi Paku, Akiko Monou, Toshiyuki Nishida, Kosei Asami, Haruki Kobayashi

Written by Becca Topol
Directed by Robert Allan Ackerman

Sadly this is one of Brittany Murphy's last roles preceding her premature death. She portrays a young woman at a cross-roads in her life - dumped by her boyfriend - in Tokyo of all places! She becomes enamoured with a small restaurant down the road from her apartment (which seems to beckon to her). The owner of the establishment is a grumpy, mean old man. Searching for some kind of direction, she fixates on wanting to become his apprentice making ramen noodle soup - but this comes with a heavy price of daily toil, cleaning and a constant barrage of insults and a near impossible language barrier. So, why would she stick it out? She wants to complete something for once in her life, and naturally along the way make new friends and find a new side to herself. While she's fighting for her identity and persisting under the hostile reign of the ramen chef, he has demons of his own – a son having left and a rival chef vowing he could never teach the Western girl and have the ramen godfather give her his blessing as fully fledged apprentice.
The method is a very specific one, and it gets the over-played treatment as with so many food movies, in this case the emotion of the chef translated into the food and passed on to the eater. This gives it a bit more of a cosmic theme, which may divide viewers willing to surrender to it, and others wanting more realism.
Sometimes sweet, sometimes annoying - while reserved for women, it doesn't mean all women will fall for it.

2 / C
- Paul Blom


0 1 2 3 4 5 6
- A - B - C

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6 - Volcanic
5 - Blistering
4 - Hot
3 - Smolder
2 - Room Temp.
1 - Fizzled
0 - Extinguished

A: Multiple Viewing Potential
B: Deserves Another Look
C: Once Should Suffice

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