Sûpâ no onna (1996)

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Siskoid
Make no mistake, Itami's Supermarket Woman is a story of Good vs. Evil. Honest Mart and Discount Demon wear their ethics on their sleeve. Nobuko Miyamoto stars as a "simple housewife" with shopping acumen hired to help save the struggling business for its hapless owner - and oohboy, is this thing mismanaged top to bottom - and it may well be Itami's closest to Tampopo in terms of content. There might even be a samurai trucker in it. In Itami fashion, it's slice of life, but with the stakes raised way up; everything becomes a moral issue as Honest Mart tries to outplay the evil "Big Grocer". There's a supermarket consultant in the credits, and indeed, we learn a lot about grocery stores that I'm pretty sure we didn't want to know (and if you think we're doing better in the West than Japan, I'm sure you're wrong). But this is about the utopian grocer. I smiled a lot, but also teared up. There's just something about Miyamoto's performance that makes my heart swell, what can I say. Another fresh, charming surprise from what is fast becoming my favorite film-making duo. 1 year 9 months ago