The light hearted humor and dreamy plot of starting from nothing to achieving something is very appealing to younger kids. It's a shame the rating restricted it from its own audience in theaters, but thankfully it released on DVD very quickly.For a romantic comedy, it does a good job of balancing both while also introducing plenty of different aspects to Japanese culture. The actress herself did a wonderful job at presenting a character who was enticing to watch as she played the role of an apprentice with charm and innocence. I hope this movie reaches the wider audience it deserves.

This movie while watchable did not do justice to the theme of "student becomes master" films. The writers obviously knew but could not allow the lessons being taught to the main protagonist be fully recognized by the student which could have taken this story to a fresh satisfying conclusion. The two western characters added nothing to progress the story and served as a distraction and to show a gaudy western ethos. More time should have been spent on fleshing out the main characters especially the Sensei that on these two.It was great to see Tsutomu Yamazaki, the Sensei in Tampopo. I highly recommend seeing Tampopo which demonstrates a masterful telling of this type of story.

My first awareness of Brittany Murphy was at her untimely passing. I had seen "Clueless", but really didn't remember it too well. I recently became curious about her and wanted to see something in which she had played the lead. This film was the most positively-rated of her films available on NF streaming at that time. I was somewhat leery - everything about it looked slightly unwatchable, somehow. I had previous positive experience with ramen-centric cinema. As I added "The Ramen Girl" to my NF queue, I fondly recalled one of my all-time very favorites: "Tampopo" (1985). The casting, screenplay, and production values in "The Ramen Girl" are all really very good. What really surprised me is that the film contains an actual connection to Tampopo!Tampopo has at its core a story that also chronicles ramen apprenticeship. The lead in Tampopo is played by Tsutomu Yamazaki, a trucker who happens upon a widow trying to run her late husband's ramen shop. He is tasked to bring her along to mastery in the art of ramen. Grand adventure ensues. (That is the major thread in the film, there are also a few other stories woven into it about food and the way food sits at the center of our lives...)In "The Ramen Girl", the Grand Master (of ramen) eventually comes to town. That part is played by none other than Tsutomu Yamazaki!!! This was a wonderful touchstone for me and made "The Ramen Girl" even more enjoyable. Whether or not you enjoyed "The Ramen Girl", if you have not see "Tampopo" please consider it. (Japanese with English subtitles.) It's absolutely glorious in every way!

"I wanna make people laugh like you do!" Ramen doesn't make anyone laugh. ...unless you add some peyote. Kinda like this movie. So why 2 and not 0 stars? Hmm... Maybe out of respect for the deceased Brittany Murphy. Maybe because it straddled the threshold of "so bad it's funny" and "just bad". Or, maybe I ate some Ramen and it gave me the giggles and now I'm all kinds of generous. There really isn't much more to say about this movie, except that if you do watch it know you can not get a refund on the hour and 42 minutes of life you lost.Maybe you can read a book or knit a sweater or paint your living room while this is playing in the background.