Pushing a food-and-drinks cart on an express train used to be a glamor job for young Japanese women. (Or, if they aspired to be flight attendants, something of a come-down).
The Odakyu Romance Car, which debuted in 1957, is one such train, traveling to and from Hakone, the mountain resort that has been drawing foreign visitors for generations with its hot springs and promise (not always realized) of spectacular Mt. Fuji views from nearby Lake Ashi.
The heroine of Tanada Yuki’s
Round Trip Heart (Romance) is one such cart pusher, dressed in a spiffy uniform and spreading perky good cheer.
To her passengers, however, Hojo Hachiko (Oshima Yuko) is little more than an ambulatory convenience store clerk, while to a bumbling junior colleague (Nozaki Yoshimi) she is an accomplished veteran who is a fount of job-survival wisdom.
Then Hachiko’s smoothly functioning routine hit a bump when a tall, lanky passenger pilfers a box of snacks from her cart.
She tries to turn him in to station authorities, but he makes his escape and Hachiko gives spirited chase. To shorten a rather incredible story (scripted by Tanada), pursuer and pursued finally call an exhausted truce and embark on a journey together to find Hachiko’s long-lost mom, who has written her a heartfelt letter suggesting that she might commit suicide.
Tanada, who last filmed her own script for the charming 2008 road movie Million Yen Girl (Hyakuman-en to Nigamushi Onna), tests audience sympathy by this sudden shift of focus, especially given that the shoplifter, Sakuraba (Okura Koji), is that least empathetic of types, a failing movie producer.
Cue labored opposites-attract romcom or formulaic cheer-up drama about two lost souls discovering their respective grooves?
The film instead mostly finds a happy middle ground between these two dire extremes. Yes, Hachiko tenderly recalls a long-ago family trip to Hakone, before her flighty, fun-loving mom (Nishimuta Megumi) broke up with her dad. And Sakuraba, who at first noisily denies wrong-doing and proclaims himself a big wheel, reveals a more believably (and pathetically) human side in the course of their adventure.
But rather than milk this material for sighs and tears, the film stays realistically dry-eyed about its two principals, including their chances for romance. Hachiko, for example, keeps calling the 41-year-old Sakuraba “ossan” (“old man”) over his protests. Coming from an ultra-polite Romance Car attendant this is funny, as well as indicative of her determination to maintain an assured clear distance from her amorous traveling companion.
As Hachiko, Oshima Yuko reveals a talent for comedy and drama that may surprise fans who know her only from her stint with the AKB48 idol group, but not those who saw her turn as an ethically borderline bank clerk in Yoshida Daihachi’s Pale Moon (Kami no Tsuki, 2014), a performance that won her several best-supporting-actress prizes.
She more than holds her own with co-star Okura Koji, though this veteran has a far longer string of film and TV credits – and a habit of stealing scenes.
Also, Tanada’s film entertainingly reflects a fundamental truth: Strangers may bond on the road, but their personalities – and problems – remain the same when they part.
Hachiko nostalgically croons Departure on a Fine Day (Ii Hi Tabidachi), the 1978 Yamaguchi Momoe hit that was her mom’s favorite karaoke tune, but she also likes being on the rails – and the Romance Car waits for no one.
Can she get back on track? The answer is well worth the ride to the final stop.