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30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Quality or Quantity, June 30, 2008
This review is from: Supermarket Woman (DVD)
"Supermarket Woman" ("Supa no onna") is the fourth in director Itami Juzo's "woman" series, that started with his 1987 film A Taxing Woman. All of them follow similar themes, featuring his plucky wife Miyamoto Nobuku who tackles the big boys with nothing more than spirit, common sense and a great big smile.
This one tells the story of a local grocery store, Goro's, that has to face a new challenger in the undercutting Bargain's Galore. The owner of Goro's is despondent, until a chance encounter with former classmate Hanako (Miyamoto) gives him a ray of hope. Hanako convinces Goro to set up his store around the needs of the housewives who do all of the shopping, and the idea of pushing quality rather than shoddy quantity.
The plot is simple, but carried out with Itami's usual comedic style. The humor is more smiles than guffaws, although there are plenty of laughs to be had. The theme is still relevant, pitting local small businesses against giant chain stores, and provides a roadmap to success for those willing to fight.
Like the rest of his "woman" series, Itami does not shy away from sexuality and "Supermarket Woman" is no different. At the time of this filming, Miyamoto was 51, but neither she nor her director husband were ashamed at showing the sex life of the middle aged, and there is one really charming scene in particular. It is the kind of natural, human way of looking at things that it so often missing from American flicks, where sex must be played for comedy or arousal, and not just a part of human nature.
Itami's flicks are just pure feel-good fun, promoting a better world where the nice guys finish first and a spunky young woman can change the world. He is the Japanese version of Frank Capra, and while his films can be just as corny they are also just as much fun to watch. I want to live in Itami's world.
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great movie - Tampopo was still better, May 5, 2008
This review is from: Supermarket Woman (DVD)
I was surprised to find zero reviews for this movie thus far, while Tampopo has nearly 90 reviews across its dual Amazon entries.
Being both a foodie and Japanese, I love movies dealing with other food obsessed people, and it's just a bonus if it's a Japanese film. After watching both Tampopo and this film, it's very obvious that Juzo Itami was a foodie.
Supermarket Woman features Nobuko Miyamoto, the same actress from the Taxing Women series - as a supermarket expert (by way of being "just another housewife"). The plot is pretty simplistic - a big (Walmart) name supermarket comes into town, slashes prices, uses underhanded tactics to drive their competitors out of business. Meanwhile, the owner of the local grocery store - who's long lost his love for the job - gets a fire lit under him by the Supermarket Woman to improve quality, raise worker morale, and beat the big, nameless company. You can probably guess who wins.
That being said, the acting can probably be called "over the top" and silly, but very "Japanese," - ie: something you'd see on a normal NHK broadcast. There were several points in the movie that had me laughing out loud as well as inwardly groaning in several "They didn't just do that!" moments.
If you're a foodie, even though there isn't really any cooking in this movie, you'll still love this movie. Afterall, the quality of your ingredients makes the biggest impact on the quality of your food.
If you're a Japanese culture fan, you'll probably still enjoy this film, however it is very akin to watching a sitcom from the 80's and assuming that the United States is still like that - this film is very "old" so the culture aspect is out of date, but it will still give you some insight.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A movie before its time commenting on consumer culture, October 9, 2011
This review is from: Supermarket Woman (DVD)
I know that most people will draw a parallel between Supermarket Woman and director Juzo Itami's best known work, Tampopo, since both feature food prominently. But that's really where the similarity ends. While Tampopo is about the joys of pure hedonism, Supermarket Woman is really about how products are sold to us, the consumers, and how we need to be savvy enough to not be taken in by the tactics and outright trickery of the more unscrupulous. Itami's wife, Nobuko Miyamoto, who starred in all of his movies, plays Hanako, a widowed housewife who is also a super-savvy shopper. At the grand opening of a new supermarket Bargains Galore (the original Japanese name of the place is Yasuuri Daimao, which means Cheap Selling Demon King) she runs into a friend from elementary school, Goro. Goro runs a competing supermarket called Honest Goro (again, the original Japanese name of his place is Shojiki-ya, The Honest Store). Goro has been depressed and demoralized since his wife's untimely death, and the sad state of his store shows it. One thing leads to another, and Goro puts Hanako in charge of revamping his store. In the meantime, his store manager is stealthily spying for the Demon King's owner and.... Supermarket Woman was made in the mid 1990s, and does show its age in some places. But some things are still pertinent and fascinationg. The unscrupulous Demon King store uses bait-and-switch tactics, false labelling, trick lighting, and so much more to purposefully fool their customers into thinking their "super-cheap" products are a good deal. But The Honest Store at the start is not much better; their produce is wilted, the fresh meat and fish are not the freshest, the prepared goods and bentos (lunchboxes) are made with inferior or day-old ingredients. Despite the resistance of the two-timing store manager and the entrenched "pros" in the back (the butcher, the fishmonger etc) Hanako gradually manages to change things around, relying on her housewife's savvy. The point is made again and again that as far as supermarket shopping is concerned, moms and housewives are the ones making the purchasing decisions, and they know best, rather than the "pros". Another reviewer stated that Juzo Itami was a 'feel-good' movie director. I would respectfully disagree. All of his movies to some degree took a hard, cynical look at various aspects of Japanese society and skewered them subtly but brutally, be it the widespread practice - even acceptance - of tax evasion (A Taxing Woman, A Taxing Woman Returns), the hospital system (The Last Dance or The Seriously Ill) or funerals (The Funeral). One of his movies, Minbo no Onna skewered the yakuza, who took revenge by assaulting the director and injuring him seriously. A creator of feel-good movies does not get beaten up by the subjects of his work. (Some people in Japan even believe that Itami was killed by the yakuza, though the official verdict was that he committe suicide.) Supermarket Woman is a much lighter look at at arguably a less 'heavy' subject than the ones I have mentioned, but nevertheless it does manage to put a critical fork into the grocery business. Perhaps to cover himself against lawsuits and such, the movie tellingly starts with a disclaimer that the movie has nothing to do with Ito Yokado and other major Japanese supermarket chains. I may have made this sound like a boring, preachy movie, but on its surface it's an light hearted, action filled caper with plenty of good and bad guys, plus a sweet romance between the middle aged and widowed Goro and Hanako. Nobuko Miyamoto is in top form as usual playing the "everywoman". Near the end, there's one of the more exciting truck chases you'll see on film (involving an awesome decorated truck) that doesn't involve anyone or anything exploding.
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