Review of The Ramen Girl (2008) by Sabra E — 19 Apr 2010

I watched the Ramen Girl because I like ramen. I thought it would cover the process of making ramen, more than the process of Brittany Murphy flaunting around in party dresses feeling sorry for herself. The movie's synopsis mentions a tyrannical ramen chef, but honestly, it would have to be something to put up with Brittany Murphy's pathetic/sloppy/psycho/ditz character without having to commit to some violent act; within a year she hadn't learned anything about Japanese language or culture, and corn? Give me a break Pocahontas. She could've turned a fairy godmother into an ax murderer...that would be a cool story in itself.

First off, Murphy's character "Abby" crashes her undependable boyfriend's Tokyo situation without giving him much choice in the matter, and when he decides to split, she's left crying in the street half naked and calling for him to come back. After that she calls him incessantly, with no calls returned (and if that's ever happened to anyone, it's actually not a fun situation--having an obsessed stalker who won't leave you alone; it sucks actually, and that's essentially who the ramen tyrant employed: a cheesehead idiot in heels.).

To be nice, I can see, in theory, how this might've been a decent and whimsical screenplay, but the film reeks of having gone through too many hands, leading to a less than logical final product; for instance: the love interest felt superimposed and desperate, especially in the end when he came around after who knows how long, after leaving his Corporate job, and Abby was there happy as a clam, as if she'd been waiting; knowing her type would've shacked up with the first guy to say he liked her eyes or some dumb crap like that. A pimp on the street telling her she was a good dancer with nice teeth. Okay, I'm being extreme for the sake of entertaining myself with the pimp bit, but yeah, what a terrible film, though its intentions were probably good.