specifilics 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.

dst-thomas 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!

Chismchick1 It wasn't at all as bad as some have made it out to be. I'm glad I saw it. I've never even heard of it before this morning, as it started I gave it ten minutes to catch me or I was gonna turn on mr. poppers penguins..but I fell right into it n set the DVr to record poppers penguins. It was good n heartwarming. Through the language barrier she gave off that "u can push me,but will never break me""girl with a heart of gold" feeling. She always had that in her acting. She'll be missed :( Oh! N the Japanese love interest- smokin hot! Hot damn! I guess I have to add two extra lines :/ hmm, the movie made me a little hungry for soup! :D I've said all I wanted to say,n by saying that there's my last line! Lol

edward-brough If you said "The Karate Kid" but with soup and noodles, you'd probably pull the same face I did after watching this movie. That said, it not because the idea is flawed or the movie was badly done. Far from it.The story was okay, well paced and the Acting was okay. The cinematography was beautiful and the concept, whilst odd at first left me quite pleased. The Major Let Down for this film was Brittany Murphy who seemed to have been out acted by the noodles themselves.Dry and uninspired, the film promised so much, and without Brittany Murphy could potentially have delivered but your left with that cold empty feeling inside. Murphy seems to act as if she'd only learnt the concept of emotion 3 minutes before she had to act the scene and I whilst I love the rest of the cast, she herself just made me want to switch the movie off every time she appeared. I just wish they'd cast it better.