When successful Japanese scriptwriters direct films, they tend to try too hard, cramming in characters, gags, plot twists and a blizzard of cuts. Sometimes, the busyness works, as in Koki Mitani¡¯s ¡°Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald,¡± a 1997 screwball comedy about a chaotic radio broadcast that delivers on its laugh-a-minute promise.
More typical is ¡°Love ¡Á Doc,¡± the first feature directed by Osamu Suzuki, a veteran TV scriptwriter whose rare ventures into films includes the hilarious fantasy/rom-com ¡°The Handsome Suit¡± (2008). Not that this film about a 40-year-old pastry chef¡¯s romantic misadventures assaults the senses, but it does strain to be a perfect pop cinema confection, like an overloaded tart.
Based on Suzuki¡¯s original script, ¡°Love ¡Á Doc¡± does not sugarcoat the difficulty of finding true love. The heroine, Asuka Goda (Yo Yoshida), jumps headfirst into relationships that to rational observers look like bad ideas. In her cool-headed moments, Asuka knows this, but bad habits die hard.
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