Lives of great flavor
Tampopo (1987) by Japanese director Juzo Itami - is considered one of the best films about food . The film successfully depicts the magical and complex interweaving of food with every aspect of life.
For Juzo Itami, food is everything. Food in Tampopo represents birth, death, love, dreams, perseverance, sex, family, redemption, and cinema.
Like a dish full of flavors, Tampopo does not confine itself to one or two specific genres. It contains many different main/sub-stories, inspired by old Hollywood movies of the Western genre...
Tampopo ends with a scene of a mother breastfeeding her child that continues until the end credits roll, creating a cycle. The film ends, but it also opens a new link between life and food, nourished by the first food of life: breast milk.
Whether short or long, each story has its own meaning, combined into a complete Tampopo - just like how this life simultaneously contains countless different stories on the dining table of life.
Healing food
Food doesn't have to be a big deal. It can simply be the glue that holds families together. Ang Lee's Eat Drink Man Woman (1994) is a perfect example.
The film revolves around the daily life of Mr. Tao Chu – a retired master chef and his three daughters. Every Sunday, Mr. Chu shows off his cooking skills with extremely elaborate dishes for the whole family to enjoy together.
Having experienced loss and generational gap, Mr. Chu and his children could not find common ground on many issues. The only way he knew how to express his love to his children was through food.
A love for cuisine, originating from his mother's small kitchen, perhaps shaped the aesthetic love for food of the French director of Vietnamese origin - Tran Anh Hung.
In his debut film, The Scent of Green Papaya (1993), the director poeticized and romanticized the preparation of a very rustic yet elegant papaya salad. Each gentle touch, the emotions evoked from the senses to the nostalgia in the memories of each viewer.
It has been 31 years since the release of “The Scent of Green Papaya”, but no Vietnamese film has been able to portray the beauty of our country’s cuisine as deeply and memorably as this film did with papaya salad.
Culinary Bridge on Film
Vietnam’s culinary culture is full of wonders with complex dishes that harmoniously balance ingredients and spices, while being extremely close to everyday life. Unfortunately, such a rich culinary culture is rarely represented in Vietnamese cinema.
Food still exists in movies only as a supporting element to the main story of the film. Meanwhile, Vietnamese cuisine has captured the hearts of famous chefs, vloggers, and food critics around the world , including Anthony Bourdain.
Vietnam is a cultural, tourist and culinary destination that is very close to the heart of this American travel documentary filmmaker and chef.
If the core of the film Tempopo above is the Japanese ramen noodle bowl, the highlight of episode 4 season 4 of Anthony Bourdain's documentary Parts Unknown is the typical Vietnamese dish of Bun Bo Hue.
“The broth is a sophisticated blend of bone broth, lemongrass, and shrimp paste. The noodles are served with tender pork leg, crab meatballs, and blood pudding. Then, it is garnished with lime wedges, coriander, green onions, chili sauce, shredded banana blossom, and bean sprouts. It is a masterpiece of taste and senses. This is the best broth in the world!”, Bourdain exclaimed.
In 2009, during his second visit to Vietnam, Anthony Bourdain went straight to Hoi An to “try” Banh Mi Phuong. In just under 2 minutes of appearing in the TV series No Reservations, the image of Bourdain standing in the middle of Hoi An street, passionately eating a Banh Mi Phuong, with the comment “This is truly a harmony in a sandwich” made Banh Mi Quang known all over the world.
Anthony Bourdain’s death is a great loss to the Vietnamese people and global food lovers. There are still so many Vietnamese noodle, rice, and rice dishes that he has not enjoyed. For people like him, cuisine is a bridge that leads us to approach the culture, history, and unique lifestyle of each country.
The history of the whole world is transformed into food served on a plate. Each dish is the embodiment of all the hardships, love, and quintessence of the length of human development.
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