One of the strangest and most enjoyable Japanese films I have seen in "Tampopo"--a wonderful film about a woman who is struggling to make her ramen noodle shop the greatest on the planet. It's quirky and lovable. Now, with "The Ramen Girl", similar material is being explored and the results are quite pleasant if not in the same league as "Tampopo".

Brittany Murphy stars as Abby--a rather spoiled and stupid young woman who foolishly has come to Tokyo to follow a man. She knows none of the language and is totally in over her head--especially since her only focus is this guy. When he breaks up with her, she has nothing.

One night, she goes to a nearby ramen shop. There, the owner and his wife speak no English and Abby speaks no Japanese yet somehow she muddles through. After eating the ramen, she is captivated--so much so that she comes back the next night. Soon this dippy lady has a plan--to learn to make ramen like the masters. But, as she knows no Japanese and the owner/chef knows no English, getting this point across to him is practically impossible. So, instead of his taking her on as an apprentice, she becomes like an annoying squatter who won't go home! Reluctantly, he teaches her.

This is a film I would rate higher in enjoyment than I would overall. This is because too often the film simply makes no sense nor does Abby. How she learns all this without really understanding the language and culture as well as how and why the man teaches her are all a mystery! It's enjoyable but mindless as well. Worth seeing, but see "Tampopo" first.

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.

The story is basically a American slacker coming to Tokyo to meet her American boyfriend, but her boyfriend dumps her after sleeping with her and just leaves her. In despair the girl tries to find joy by putting smile on other peoples faces by making ramen, and soon becomes a apprentice to a ramen chef. I think critics are being too harsh on this movie. It is a pleasant and touching movie and I was grinning at some parts through it. This film can sort of be compared to "The Karate Kid" and it's sort of similar in the way how Daniel Larusso(Ralph Macchio) learns and sort of becomes a apprentice in the beginning to Mr. Miyag(Pat Morita). But in this film Brittany Murphy character Abby becomes a apprentice Maezumi(Toshiyuki Nishida) who put on a good performance, as a matter of fact the chemistry between Abby and Maezumi seem authentic in a apprentice and master kind of way. It also had a bit of "Simply Irresistible"(1999) elements to it. Now I agree with some of the critics that the language barrier between these two characters got a bit annoying after a while and you start to wonder why couldn't they have gotten Abby's new boyfriend to translate for both. And I thought the story was far fetched as well with the spirit in the ramen and all, although how it showed the perfection behind the ramen to be cool. Also some may say the ramen chef is a tyrant in this film but he was just being the typical leader in running a restaurant. And there are a lot of chefs like him in many Asian restaurant and other countries as well, although he goes a bit over board on some scenes. When I first saw the cover of this film I was going to pass on it since it seemed to have weeaboo all over. But decided to give it a try for the heck of it and it turned out to be a pleasant film although it did have some weeaboo aspects to it. And weeaboos will probably enjoy this film than others and get some fantasies in there heads which was the thing I disliked the most about this film. And the undeveloped back story hurt the film as well, there is also a lot of deleted scenes that was taken out for good reasons but some scenes would have been a nice touch if it made it into the whole film. Despite some flaws or aspects I disliked, I found it quite fun.

7/10