movies

Mayo, shiso and tiny little fish sandwich

maki — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 21:13:48 +0200

Browsing around YouTube instead of working, as you do, today I found this little gem. It’s a commercial for Ajinomoto Mayonnaise, by Juzo Itami, the late, great director of the best food movie ever, Tampopo:

The actor (not sure if it’s Itami himself) is talking on the phone to a friend, when he gets hungry. Still remaining on the phone (and inexplicably on his back), he scoots over to the kitchen to get white bread, mayo and chirimenjako, little semi-dried fish. He tops it off with a fresh shiso leaf, and is in heaven. The dialogue is just like the dense, obsessive dialogue in Tampopo. I’ll have to give that sandwich a try one day…it is odd enough that it has to appeal only to a really curious food person.

(The second commercial is cute yet odd, like many of the best Japanese commercials.)

A belated review of Ratatouille

maki — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 12:05:34 +0200

Yesterday, we finally got to see Ratatouille (the movie that is, not the dish), when it opened in western or French-speaking Switzerland. The movie theater in Lausanne was only sparsely filled, though since the weather was so glorious, and it was Swiss National Day (sort of like Independence Day in the U.S. in terms of the way in which people celebrate it, with barbeques and fireworks) I guess that was sort of understandable. Anyway, my review, with many spoilers, follows after the jump.

I’ve been a big Pixar fan ever since I saw the Luxor Jr. short many years ago. I have all of their movies on DVD. Despite the fact that Ratatouille combines three of my favorite things - Pixar, France, and the love of food - I don’t think it’s a perfect movie by any means - and, dare I say, not quite Pixar’s best either. (I happen to think that Toy Story 2 is their best.) That’s not to say I didn’t love it - I did, absolutely.

Like most other food lovers who’ve reviewed this movie, I adored the details - the burn marks on the chef’s arms, the logical and realistic layout of the kitchen at Gusteau’s, the explanation of mis en place by Colette. I loved the passion of Remy, who is, despite his ratness, a true artist. The animation and the artistry is, as with all Pixar movies, unsurpassed - it could be their best in that respect ever. (Whenever there was a scene with a swarm of rats, I couldn’t help cringing.)

I think what keeps the movie from being a real masterpiece is the weakness of some of the characters, especially Linguini. He rather reminds me of a typical Disney prince, in that he’s a non-character. Sure, he can’t cook, but it’s not really explained to my satisfaction anyway why he would endure having a rat pulling on his hair for so long - sure he wants to keep the job, but… I just found him to be quite unsatisfactory somehow.

I also wanted just a bit more about Skinner. What made him such a bitter, mean and small (not just in stature, but in thought and deed) man. Did being a sous chef to a chef with so many accolates ruin him? Was he destined never to be great himself, which is why he’s so bitter and out to destroy his former boss’s reputation? Is he Salieri to Gusteau’s Mozart? I know there’s a length limit to any movie, but I just wanted a little bit more there.

Speaking of sous-chefs…I thought that Colette, who by the end of the movie is effectively Remy’s sous chef in their new restaurants, was somewhat underwritten too. It did seem that she was destined to be a sous chef rather than the chief, the artist - she can recreate recipes flawlessly, but she can’t seem to create her own. This is rather interesting in light of what happened to Skinner. I suppose this was done to enhance the stature of Remy as the one, great artist in the piece.

Another bit of nitpicking I have, which I know is really esoteric, is the way in which the actual cooking/creative process of Remy is demonstrated, especially with the infamous soup. It plays up the cliché image of French cooking: add this, that and the other ingredient, more and more of them, until you end up with something delicious. I rather think that this just goes against all that is modern about cooking, and is certainly not the way the best chefs in French cook now. But I know, we are talking about an animated movie here…

There is one moment that really does raise Ratatouille to great heights: when Ego tastes Remy’s ratatouille, and is instantly transported back to a happy moment in his childhood. That moment of pure joy, of transcendence, is what great food can bring - and those few seconds captured that rapturous feeling so perfectly.

Ranking Ratatouille in the pantheon of great food movies

Despite my nitpicks, Ratatouille definitely belongs on the list of great food movies. Here’s my very biased ranking of the top 10:

Tampopo - still the greatest food movie ever. This has everything: food as art, food as sex, food as love…
Babette’s Feast - the best depiction of the chef as an artist who can bring transcendent moments.
Like Water For Chocolate - food as a metaphor for passionate love.
Eat Drink Man Woman - food, passion and family.
Big Night - food, artistry, and brotherly love.
Kamome Diner - onigiri as soul food.
Ratatouille - the rat as a great artist/chef.
Supermarket Woman - the supermarket! (See my reviews of Kamome Diner and Supermarket Woman.)
Mostly Martha - food and sexual repression.
Dumplings (Gaau ji) - food, greed, and the pursuit of perpetual youth (warning: this one is a horror movie!)

(A note for anyone in Switzerland: I’d thought that Ratatouille opening was delayed in the German speaking part until October because of subtitling problems. Well that doesn’t seem to be the case since the movie did have German and French subs! I’ll never understand the distribution system of movies in Switzerland where a part of the country gets a movie months before another…it’s so illogical. More thoughts about this on my personal blog.

We also thought about going to see it in France because we thought it would be fun to see it with a French audience, but we couldn’t find any theater within reasonable daytripping distance showing it in non-dubbed form. Boo to dubbed movies. At least here in Switzerland there are many theaters showing movies in the original language, as opposed to Germany and France where they tend to dub everything.)

Onigiri in the movies: Kamome Diner and Supermarket Woman

maki — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 14:37:22 +0100

Whenever I am feeling blue, one of the foods that I crave is onigiri. You could just chalk that up to the fact that it’s mostly rice = carbs and I’m just craving a carb fix. But it really goes beyond that. It’s tied to memories of my aunts making row upon row of perfectly shaped onigiri for a family gathering, and the salty tinge on my lips from the giant onigiri my mother made for me for a school outing.

Two of the most popular articles here on Just Hungry are the ones about onigiri. It’s great to see so many people from around the world enjoying this quintessential Japanese comfort food.

There are two very interesting Japanese movies where onigiri play a starring role, in quite different ways; Kamome Diner (Kamome Shokudoh) and Supermarket Woman (Suupaa no Onna). Although neither seems to be available on DVD in English speaking countries yet, I thought I’d talk about them a bit.

Suupaa no Onna: Anatomy of a Japanese grocery store

The first is a comedy from 1996, Suupaa no Onna (Supermarket Woman). It’s directed by Juzo Itami, better known as the director of the ‘noodle Western’ classic Tampopo, and as with most of his movies stars his wife, Nobuko Miyamoto. Miyamoto plays Hanako, a 40- or widowed woman who wanders into a run down small suupaa, a local supermarket, which happens to be run by her childhood friend Goro, a widower played by Masahiko Tsugawa. The suupaa is called Sho-jiki Ya, (“Honest Goro” in the English subtitles). Sho-jiki ya is teetering in the edge of failure because a brash competitor called Yasuuri Daimaoh (“Bargains Galore” in the subtitles). Hanako, who keeps insisting she’s “just a housewife with a housewife’s wisdom”, is a supermarket expert with a sharp eye and strong opinions about how a supermarket should be run. In short order she’s hired by Goro, first as the head cashier, then as the assistant manager of Sho-jiki Ya. Together with Goro, she must fight the corrupt figures behind Yasuuri Daimaoh to prevent Sho-jikiya from going under.

One of the store sections that Hanako attempts to improve is the osouzai deparment. Osouzai means ready-made meal items, and busy people in Japan rely on these to round out or even make up a whole meal. A popular osouzai product is of course, onigiri. Hanako discovers that the onigir sold at Shoujiki-ya are under-par, using inferior fillings, and convinces everyone involved that that is just not right. At first the onigiri supplier is reluctant to spend more to improve the onigiri, but once he sees how happy the better tasting onigiri makes the housewife-taste testers, he is overcome by the joy of making his customers happy.

Suupaa no Onna is part of the “Fighting Women” series of movies that Juzo Itami made in the ’80s and ’90s, such as Marusa no Onna (A Taxing Woman) and Minbo no Onna (known among other titles as The Anti-Extortion Woman). Like those movies, the general theme is that of the fiesty, honest heroine who has the courage to stand up against a corrupt establishment. While the other titles in the series have been released on DVD in the U.S. and elsewhere, Suupaa no… never really made it outside of Japan. It’s a shame, since it’s a lot of fun even if it didn’t feature food as a main character. For food lovers, it’s a fascinating if broad (and now somewhat outdated) view of Japanese grocery shopping, from the store’s point of view and the buyer’s point of view - the buyers in this case being the all-mighty, no-nonsense Japanese housewife. It may not be as profound as Tampopo or have as much universal appeal, but for anyone interested in Japanese culture or food or even supermarkets, I highly recommend it. (See notes at the end for some more.)

Kamome Shokudoh: Japanese soul food in Helsinki

Made 10 years after Suupaa no Onna in 2006, Kamome Shokudo (Kamome Diner) a very different movie. It’s the story of a woman called Sachie, played by Hairi Katagiri, who opens a small Japanese restaurant/cafe in Helsinki, Finland. At first people just look curiously in the windows, but don’t go in. Then one day a young Japan otaku teenager wanders in…

For Sachie, onigiri are “Japanese soul food”. She is convinced that she can make Finnish people love her Japanese soul food, because she reasons that “a country with such a sense of humor and a relaxed view of life must appreciate good food”. At one point, worried about the lack of customers, she and another Japanese woman who somehow wanders into the restaurant and ends up staying on as a waitress test out some alternative fillings that they think may appeal more to Finnish people, like reindeer meat, crayfish and pickled herring. The taste tests fail though, and Sachie reaffirms her conviction that the “traditional fillings” of ume, shake, okaka (umeboshi, salted salmon, bonito flakes moistened with soy sauce), are the best. While the subject of alternative fillings for onigiri does crop up from time to time, I have to say I tend to agree with Sachie here! Sachie’s goal is to for her Finnish customers to appreciate real Japanese soul food.

Kamome Shokudoh is a gentle, rather fairytale-like movie, with touches of magical realism. Nothing much really happens, but the main characters still go through some profound changes. I don’t want to give away too many plot details since there are so few really. A lot of people won’t enjoy it for that reason. I loved it however. It’s not as obvious a look at Japanese culture as Suupaa no Onna is, but it does show a certain very Japanese view of life. It also has lots of great shots of typical Japanese homestyle dishes, and the Scandinavian interiors are gorgeous.

Notes about Suupaa no Onna

Goro and Hanako are used as generic names for girls and boys, sort of like Jack and Jill or Dick and Jane in English.
Tampopo fans may remember Masahiko Tsugawa, who plays Goro, as the convenience store manager who has a frantic cat-and-mouse chase around his store with the old lady who likes to squeeze the produce.)
The direct translation of Sho-jiki Ya is Honest Store. Yasuuri Daimaoh is Bargain Devil (a Daimaoh is a sort of spirit, that can be but isn’t always evil).
As far as I know Suupaa no Onna is only available as a Japanese release. It does have pretty good English subtitles. Amazon Japan link.

Notes about Kamome Shokudoh

Why does Sachie, not to mention the other Japanese women in the movie, end up in Finland? Why does the story even take place in Finland? The answer in a nutshell is Moomin. Moomin is tremendously popular in Japan; Moomin books are perpetual bestsellers, and many a young girl daydreams about ‘going to Moomin land’. By extension, Finland, the land of Moomin, is seen in quite a romantic light. Now since I haven’t read Moomin since…ah, I’m actually not sure if I ever read Moomin…I can’t say I understand the appeal but there it is. (Moomin fandom in Japan is oddly similar to Anne of Green Gables fandom.)
This movie was released in Finland under the title Ruokala Lokki. (It could be available in Finland on DVD, but since I don’t read any Finnish I can’t find out.)
This one is also only available as a Japanese release. It does have English subs. (I’ve seen cheap versions on eBay but I’m skeptical about the legality of those.) Amazon Japan link.