Tampopo now feels dated, and the comedy falls flat

The 1986 Japanese comedy Tampopo, about a group of truck drivers, devotees of ramen and noodle shops, help the woman who runs a highway truck stop noodle shop turn her business into a first-class operation - or at least that's what I surmise it's about from having watched only the first half or so. In its day this was considered a daring, rule-breaking comedy - as the truck drivers are a contemporary take on the Samurai and an Asian take on Western cowboys - riding into town and shaking things up and righting the wrongs (protecting the shop-owner's bullied son, e.g.). Today, the scenes of their putting the shop owner into training - running sprints, etc. - and spying on rival shops to learn their culinary secrets, seem forced and not very funny. There are also some other plot elements only loosely woven into the narrative, such as a group of Japanese businessmen visiting an expensive French restaurant and not knowing what to order (their young assistant, however, does know French cuisine); we also see an etiquette class teaching wealthy Japanese women how to eat noodles w/out slurping. Ha ha. After 45 minutes or so we had enough; any point the movie was trying to make about Japanese culture now seems extremely dated - as fusion cuisine rules the world of course - and the humor, often physical, has lost its edge as well.