The Ramen Girl
Short description
Abby, a young American woman, moves to Tokyo to be with her boyfriend Ethan, but he leaves for Osaka and she finds herself alone in a city she barely knows. Rather than return home, she stays and takes a job at a small ramen shop run by Maezumi, a demanding master who offers little encouragement. Determined to learn how the soup is made, she begins at the bottom, doing chores and enduring his harsh manner while hoping he will teach her the craft. Maezumi's wife Reiko is also part of the household and the restaurant.
The film is directed by Robert Allan Ackerman, whose only other feature credit is Mrs. Cage from 1992, and written by Becca Topol. Brittany Murphy, who also produced alongside Stewart Hall and Kimio Kataoka, plays Abby, with Toshiyuki Nishida as Maezumi, Kimiko Yo as Reiko, Gabriel Mann as Ethan, Tammy Blanchard as Gretchen and Soji Arai as Toshi Iwamoto. The production, a United States and Japan co-production made for about 3 million dollars, runs 102 minutes.
On IMDb it holds a rating of 6.3 from roughly 12,000 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 6.5 from around 380 votes, suggesting a modest but consistent response across both audiences. The film was released in 2008.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film became a notable milestone in how American cinema portrays Japanese popular culture. It was filmed in Japan with Japanese actors who spoke Japanese, not broken English (or English with an accent).
- A darker storyline was removed from the DVD version, in which Tammy Blanchard's character attempts to quit her job, then connects with a member of the Yakuza, and ultimately dies from a fall from a balcony.
Similar movies
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
