Bread, Bus and the Second First Love

An agreeable little romance. At first, it looked as if this was going to be a rather cheesy pop vehicle, but it quickly transpires that there's more to the characters and that the film has more to offer than just another tale of unrequited love. Bread, Bus and the Second First Love has some depth to it, but you have to be a little patient to get to it.

Fumi works in a bakery and is single. She doesn't have any real prospects and has declined marriage proposals before, not really feeling that certainty of being able to spend an entire life with someone. When she reconnects with Tamotsu, an old high school flame, that seems to change, but Tamotsu is still in love with his ex-wife.

Performances are solid, the soft-voiced nature of the film is typical for the genre and the cinematography looks clean and polished. The characters are a little edgier (even though they don't really look it) than usually the case in these types of films, but that's what makes Bread, Bus stand out from the pack. It won't convert people to Japanese romance/drama cinema, but it's nice that it offers fans a little twist.