This month’s Bigger Picture choice comes from our film-loving Box Office team, who will present Tampopo, the second feature from the late, great observer of Japanese society, Jûzô Itami. When a nomadic truck driver stops by a hole-in-thewall ramen shop, he makes it his mission to train the chef to be the best ramen chef in the world. Tampopo, starring Ken Watanabe, blossoms into a mouth-watering feast of a film, which explores all of the ways food defines us, connects us, and sustains us. From a play on the American western to sketch comedy, to discussions of grief, and lessons on etiquette, Itami’s film deftly combines a medley of tones. In doing so, it captures the potential of cinema to speak to our universal humanity.

Notes from Robert Gibbons