Cultural superglue

Reflecting upon the things that we've touched upon in class so far, I've come to realize that only one theme has really stuck in my mind throughout. The power of food in bringing people together, oftentimes in bringing total strangers together.

All through the movie Tampopo, I was not drawn to it by the fact that a culture should be so obssessed with food, the production/preparation of food, or the ingestion of it. I was drawn to the different scenes where such different people that were total strangers before could be assembled together in such a speedy and efficient manner, as if food was a sort of cultural superglue that also has magnetic properties, first bringing peoples together and then bonding them with one another.

The prime example of this sort of cultural bonding in Tampopo, for me, was in one of the first scenes. The two truck drivers are hungry, and they stop at a roadside noodle joint for a quick fix of ramen. Quite a normal occassion, however, this is already exhibiting the magic of food, for in their quest to obtain a noodle supper, the two truckmen have already been drawn to a previously unknown place inhabited by people that they had never met before.

The noodles had brought the men to the joint, the woman had made the noodles for the men, and in order for the men to procure their noodles, they had to interact with the woman, telling her what they want. Here, food has acted as an attracting force between people. The drunkard, high and confused by his drink (which is also part of 'food' as a whole), then beats one truckman down to the point that the truckmen have to lodge at the noodle joint for the night. So, in summary, because of their hunger for noodles on a late night, the two truck driving men ended up meeting three other people in rather personal terms - the lady who made their noodles and ended up tending to the beat-up truckman, the lady's young son, and the man who beat up the truckman. This is a powerful - if somewhat exaggerated (but relevant nonetheless) - example of the drawing power of food in gathering different people together.

This is especially intriguing to me because, on this foundation, an entire movie reflecting and commenting upon a culture circling food thus unfolds. From their meeting the past night to their intended departure the next morning, the two truckmen and the noodle lady are brought together, and finally, kept together by the power of food - in this case, noodles. The lady, hearing of their impending departure and realizing that they are rather knowledgeable about noodles, then begs them to stay and help her perfect her noodle recipe. And thus is the second role of the cultural superglue, that to keep people together after it has drawn them together.

For the remainder of the movie, these three main protagonists are led on all sorts of different adventures through and around the world of ramen production, ultimately meeting many different people and finally becoming friends with an assortment of individuals that probably would have never met otherwise. This, for me, is the allure of food as a cultural superglue - people of different status and levels within a wider culture can all come together and enjoy or participate.