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The Ramen Girl

The Ramen Girl

Romance · Comedy · Drama · 2008

An American woman is stranded in Tokyo after breaking up with her boyfriend. Searching for direction in life, she trains to be a ramen chef under a tyrannical Japanese master.

Movie details

The Ramen Girl

“Her romance is on pins and noodles.”

2008 Romance · Comedy · Drama 1h 42m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

6.5 / 10

Community rating

An American woman is stranded in Tokyo after breaking up with her boyfriend. Searching for direction in life, she trains to be a ramen chef under a tyrannical Japanese master.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over The Ramen Girl?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Robert Allan Ackerman

Written by

Becca Topol

Brittany Murphy

Brittany Murphy

Abby

Tammy Blanchard

Tammy Blanchard

Gretchen

Gabriel Mann

Gabriel Mann

Ethan

Toshiyuki Nishida

Toshiyuki Nishida

Maezumi

Soji Arai

Soji Arai

Toshi Iwamoto

Kimiko Yo

Kimiko Yo

Reiko

Renji Ishibashi

Renji Ishibashi

Udagawa

Court is in session

Put The Ramen Girl on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Sentimental Softie

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Cool Ironist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.