The Ramen Girl is a film
with a lot of potential that unfortunately falls flat due to its weak female
lead. Brittany Murphy (Abby) plays an American woman who ends up in Tokyo,
Japan just before her boyfriend (whom she goes to Japan to be with) leaves her.
Left in a foreign location, she struggles with the language as she goes about
slowly but surely learning about the culture and traditions of the people
around her.
The story feels a bit forced at times, almost taking everything for granted. So, when Abby suddenly decides that she wants to learn how to be a ramen chef, things around her seem to always fall in place except for the equally stubborn and tyrannical chef of the little diner who is to teach her the art of making the perfect ramen. The film is less about food and more about lessons in life. It's also about the viewpoints Japanese people have about the Americans and vice versa. While Abby faces language problems, her Ramen sansei, Maezumi, played wonderfully by Toshiyuki Nishida, makes her realize that life is not always about "me" and about living from the heart and not the head.
Unfortunately, while the
story holds a certain charm to it, it lacks any direction. There are supporting
characters, like the two expatriates Abby meets in a club, who are redundant to
the story. Birttany Murphy doesn't always come across as the right person for
the role. I feel the movie could have achieved a lot more had it had a much
stronger character actor in the lead. In fact, I could imagine Scarlett
Johansson at times in the role and thinking that she might have played the
character much better considering her Japanese outings in Lost in
Translation.
The film also fails to make the most of its location. Focusing mostly on the interactions between the characters and more so on the emotional breakdown of Abby as she tries to rediscover herself leaves very little space to experience the city and it seems like a missed opportunity considering that Tokyo has a lot to offer visually.
The Ramen Girl proves to
be an average affair with relatively poor performances by most of the American
actors and some brilliant performances by their Japanese counterparts. Take
away the excessive almost superficial breakdown of Abby and add on a bit more
of non-clichéd humor and this could have been a wonderful little film.
Rating 2.5/5
