Ramen Shop

Ramen Shop (2018) is Eric Khoo's quiet drama about food and family, free to watch online on iFILM. Masato cooks ramen in a small Japanese town until his distant father dies without warning. Among the man's things he finds the journal of his late mother — so he travels to her homeland, Singapore, to reassemble a story no one ever told him.

In this film the kitchen does the talking. Masato (Takumi Saito) hunts down the taste of his childhood: bak kut teh, the pork-rib soup his grandmother once made, and tries to braid it together with his father's ramen. Along the way he learns why his parents stayed estranged from their own roots, uncovering a grudge that reaches back to the wartime occupation. A food blogger played by Seiko Matsuda and a stall owner played by Mark Lee help him fill in the blanks.

This France-Japan-Singapore co-production films cooking almost like a ritual — steam off the pot, pork sliced thin, broth simmered a full day. It's gentle, low-key cinema for anyone who likes their drama served through a bowl rather than a shouting match. Stream Ramen Shop (2018) online on iFILM.