Tampopo

This is a so-called "ramen western," a takeoff of the "spagetti westerns" made by Italian directors. It is a fun film about a trucker helping a widow create the perfect ramen restaraunt with other satiric elements involving food and Japanese society mixed in.

The movie is named after the widow, whose name literally means "dandelion." The actress is the wife of the director and she (with the hero) pops up in famous Taxing Woman film too. Various other people in the film are well known Japanese actors too; the guy years later also was in Brittany Murphy's The Ramen Girl, though her character is much more whiny than the woman here. The latest DVD has a whole disc of extras.