A Life Filled with Love Tastes Much Better

I am so grateful for my flexible schedule that allows me to take a 1h30 break from work when I need to divert my attention to some exquisite emotional stories.

I am becoming a trustworthy follower of MUBI movie recommendations lately and I couldn´t be happier. I am able to use this service as part of my scribd.com subscription and I couldn´t be happier about it. Both services helped me tremendously this year to expand my sources of inspiration far away in the world, in a year where international travel was out of sight. 

I may be familiar with some Singaporean literary voices and delighted about it, but I had no idea what to expect from Eric Khoo, considered the main engine behgind the revival of Singapore film industry. Ramen Shop (Ramen Teh) is my first movie by Khoo and also my first on a Singapore topic.

The film was presented to the Berlinale and is a Japanese/Singapore co-production. 

Masato, a young man living in Japan whose father suddenly died, returns to Singapore where he lived until 10 to trace his family story. The story has a conflictual potential from the beginning, as her father was killed during the Japanese occupation - a topic still elegantly dismissed - therefore her mother will decide to cut any contact with her after they getting married. 

But a life filled with love tastes much better and Masato decided to get his Singaporean family back. From his uncle, he learns to prepare Bak Kuk Teh and will finally, after such a terrible emotional struggle, wins her back.

Ramen Shop is such an emotional movie, with crescendos built up through the long exposure of the images. When it comes to food, the impressions are exquisite and I felt more than once being transposed into the foodie story, feeling the smells and tasting the broth. In this movie, memories do have a taste and a smell, similarly but more intense than Proust´s Madeleines. There is such an elegant game of emotions in this movie, when love is shared and tasted but never explicitly showed. 

The actors do have such a genuine direct play, especially the grandmother that may bring to tear even the most insensitive hearts. 

Overall, is such a good movie and I can wait to read and discover more about Singapore through - at least for now - my next home-based cultural adventures.

Rating: 4.5 stars