Confucian beliefs have played an important role in East Asian societies for centuries, so Japan is no exception. One of the main characteristics of Confucianism is the set of five hierarchical orders, one of them being the interaction between the master and his disciple. It can be tailored to a specific relationship between a ramen noodle master and his apprentice. These types of interactions were shown in the Japanese film Tampopo and its modern American remake The Ramen Girl. In both films, the interaction between student and teacher can be seen as one of, if not the most important, narrative thrusts around which all the action is centered. This essay will discuss this pecking order in the context of The Ramen Girl, where the relationship is rather Americanized and goes against Japanese traditions. The main character is not only disrespectful to his teacher, but is overall very ignorant towards Japanese culture. This film will be compared to the already mentioned “noodle western”, Tampopo, where the hierarchy is much more obvious, although it is slightly modernized. Therefore, while using the medium of food and the hierarchical order of Confucianism, both films manage to tell viewers a lot about how people interact in the nations depicted. The Ramen Girl is a 2008 American-Japanese film directed by Robert Allan Ackerman. is intended to be a loose remake of the infamous Japanese film Tampopo (1985). The film's main plot centers on Abby, played by Brittany Murphy, an American woman who followed her boyfriend to Tokyo but was abandoned shortly after arriving. Heartbroken and lost, she stumbled into a noodle shop, where her destiny changed. After being served a bowl of ramen noodles, A...... middle of paper ...... collective work more than individual merit. As Confucianism is still very important in this state, respect towards elders, especially towards the teacher, who is like a parent, who can not only guide his student in his particular training, but also influence his entire educational journey. life, is also. , Robert Allan, dir. The ramen girl. Media 8 Entertainment, 2008. DVD. Ashkenazi, Michael. "Food, play, business and the image of Japan in Itami Juzo's Tampopo". In Anne Bower, ed., Reel Food: Essays on Food and Cinema. New York: Routledge, 2004. PrintItami, Jūzō, ed. Tampopo. Itami Productions, 1985. DVD. Ohnuki-Tierney, Emiko. “The ambivalent self of the contemporary Japanese.” Cultural Anthropology 5.2 (1990): 197-216. Print."The Ramen Girl." IMDb. IMDb.com, and Web. December 25, 2013. “Tampopo.” IMDb. IMDb.com, and Web. December 25. 2013.