Fleeing heartbreak in the big city, Ichiko returns to Komori, her rural hometown. She battles summer's rain and humidity, bakes her own bread, grows hothouse tomatoes and tills the fields. During autumn, the time for pickling and preserving fish and sweet potatoes, Ichiko begins reaping rice and recalls her departure five years before.
Um bei ihrem Freund Ethan in Tokio zu leben, bricht die verwöhnte Abby alle Zelte in den USA ab. Als sie jedoch in Japan ankommt, zieht Ethan nach Osaka und lässt sie allein zurück. Auf der Suche nach einem neuen Ziel im Leben entdeckt Abby, dass die typische japanische Ramen-Suppe mehr ist, als nur ein schmackhaftes Gericht. Im Restaurant des tyrannischen Ramen-Meisters Maezumi muss sie ganz unten anfangen, um in die japanischen Kochkünste eingeführt zu werden und neues Glück zu finden.
Als der japanische Frühling in seiner schönsten Blüte steht, erlebt der Besitzer einer kleinen, zerschlissenen Imbissbude etwas Ungewöhnliches. Eine alte Frau, Tokue, hatte Sentaro schon viele Male angeboten, ihm in seiner kleinen Wirtschaft auszuhelfen. Denn die rote Bohnenpaste AN, die traditionell in die kleinen Dorayaki-Pfannkuchen gefüllt wird, gelingt Sentaro einfach nicht wie es die alte Kunst verlangt. Als Tokue ihm von ihrer selbst gemachten Bohnenpaste eine Kostprobe gibt, willigt Sentaro schließlich ein. Bald stehen Tokue und Sentaro in den frühesten Morgenstunden beisammen und bereiten die traditionelle Paste aus roten Bohnen zu, die einer kunstvollen Zeremonie des Kochens und Würzens unterzogen werden müssen.
Der 85-jährige Sushi-Meister Jiro Ono arbeitet unermüdlich in seinem weltbekannten Restaurant - Sukiyabashi Jiro. Er hat sein ganzes Leben der Sushi-Herstellung verschrieben und sucht immer noch nach der perfekten Zubereitung. Die Sushi-Bar, die in einer U-Bahn-Station in Tokio gelegen ist und nur zehn Sitzplätze hat, wurde im Jahr 2009 mit drei Michelin-Sternen ausgezeichnet und gilt als bestes Sushi-Restaurant der Welt. In Japan ist das Sukiyabashi Jiro schon jetzt eine Legende. Auf Jiro Onos Sohn Yoshikazu, der bald in die Fußstapfen seines verehrten Vaters treten und das Restaurant übernehmen soll, wächst der Druck, seinem Erbe gerecht zu werden. In der Dokumentation begleitet Filmemacher David Gelb den Altmeister bei seiner Arbeit und dessen unermüdlicher Suche nach Perfektion.
Ichiko bakes a cake for an end-of-year party with her friends. In the depths of winter, making mochi and curry keeps the people of Komori warm. Later, spring brings thoughts of her absent mother as well as rice planting and sakura, and she begins to think of leaving Komori behind again.
When eight men are assigned to live 14,000 kilometers from home in inhumanly cold conditions, food becomes their new existence.
On a quiet street in Helsinki, Sachie has opened a diner featuring rice balls. For a month she has no customers. Then, in short order, she has her first customer, meets Midori, a gangly Japanese tourist, and invites her to stay with her, and meets Masako, a formal and ethereal middle-aged woman whose luggage has gone missing. The three women work in the diner, interact, and serve customers. A somewhat brusque man teaches Sachie to make delicious coffee, then he returns under other circumstances. Three neighborhood women inspect the empty diner every day; will anything bring them inside? We learn why Sachie serves rice balls; but why Finland?
A restaurant opens at midnight. Both the menu offerings and personality of the owner draw a series of flawed patrons including Tamako, whose boyfriend has passed away, live-in worker Michiru, and ruckus-raising Kenzo.
A couple decide to relocate from Tokyo to the northern island of Hokkaido where they settle and establish a bakery and café called Mani. One cooks. The other bakes. Everyone walks out happy.
The Master’s late-night diner welcomes a woman troubled by funeral fans, an elderly scam victim, and a noodle delivery man struggling with love.
Yasutake Shingo is a newspaper reporter whose only redeeming feature is his earnestness. He meets Matsunaga Chie, who attends a music college, and they start dating. Each day becomes all the more bright and enjoyable for Shingo because of the lively Chie. She loves to laugh, sing and eat. After one and a half years, Chie is employed as a music teacher. One day, Shingo is informed that Chie has breast cancer. After thinking about it, he decides to share a lifetime with her and proposes. His proposal gives her the courage to undergo surgery which she had been mulling over. One day, Chie starts to teach 5-year-old Hana the “important things in life” such as laundry, cleaning and cooking. She thinks that even if she is no longer around, her daughter and husband will be able to live.
Leo, a young Japanese college student, travels to Hawaii and eventually falls in love with Maray, an older Japanese-Caucasion woman.
An overworked career woman leaves her life in the city for an island vacation only to encounter eccentric local inhabitants.
After a bad breakup, a young woman returns to her hometown and opens a menuless restaurant. A young woman in her mid 20's becomes so heart broken she loses her voice. To recover, the woman decides to go back to her hometown and stay with her free-spirited mother whom she has not been very close to in the past. The young woman then decides to open a restaurant which accepts only one customer a day, allowing for thoughtful preparation for that customer.
In Ramen Heads, Osamu Tomita, Japan's reigning king of ramen, takes us deep into his world, revealing every single step of his obsessive approach to creating the perfect soup and noodles, and his relentless search for the highest-quality ingredients.
Wataru, his woman Kotoe and daughter Shiori are ranchers and dairy farmers in Hokkaido in northern Japan. He is following in his father's footsteps. A visiting chef cooks an unforgettable meal with his ingredients, which prompts the family to open their own restaurant and reproduce the magic.
Kosuke is 31, and tired of his hometown where nothing happens. On a whim, he departs for New York with dreams of making it big. 6 months later, he straggles home... defeated, and saddled with debt. Awaiting him are his old friends, a caring sister, a disgruntled father ...and a bowl of noodles. Namely, "udon" noodles. The town is built around udon, sustained by udon, nationally famous for udon.
Every day, people would queue for over two hours for a bowl of ramen. What’s the celebrated chef’s secret ingredient? There is no secret ingredient. In fact, as most fans of Taishoken believe, it’s the charisma of owner Kazuo Yamagishi that attracted people from all around Japan to his modest shop. His personality and love for his craft, combined with a precise mélange of flavours, combined to create perfection in each ramen bowl. This heart-warming documentary is not just for noodle fans, but for anyone who loves to be inspired by passionate people.
Baian Fujieda, an assassin for hire, got an unusual job from his usual fixer to end up with an unexpected twist of destiny from the past.
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