Watch Ramen Girl

Brittany Murphy stars as an American woman named Abby who recently moved to Japan so that she can live with her boyfriend. Suddenly he abandons her after she moves there. Abby is unable to return home to the States. While despondent and crying, Abby stumbles upon a restaurant. She meets Chef Maezumi (Toshiyuki Nishida), a Ramen chef who owns the restaurant. Abby is inspired by his ramen and the hospitality of Chef Maezumi's wife and decides that she wants to prepare ramen. Unfortunately for Abby, Chef Maezumi is a temperamental man who does not speak a word of English. Abby does not speak any Japanese. Finally relenting to Abby's incessant requests, he makes her clean the kitchen and the toilets and wait tables.

Maezumi's angry demeanor makes for a difficult but comical time for Abby. She works and bears the abuse of her Japanese boss but does not have the opportunity to learn right away. Abby is a lost, trying to make her way in her new-found situation. She struggles to adapt to the radically different Japanese culture, language and customs. Her character is believable because she does not speak Japanese, nor does she pick up this difficult language easily.

As Abby is working hard, she meets a youthful, handsome Japanese professional. They become involved romantically. Eventually, he has to relocate to Shanghai and asks Abby to come with him. Eventually, Abby and Chef Maezumi come to terms with each other.

The movie is in two languages, Japanese and English. English subtitles are provided to translate the lines of the Japanese characters in the movie.