Romansu

Hachiko is an attendant upon the romance-car serving drinks and snacks. An altercation with a thief leads hachiko on an adventure across the countryside. Sakuraba leads hachiko off to recreate a childhood holiday she once embarked upon with her now-divorced parents, in the vain hope of finding her mother.
ROUND TRIP HEART is a film that eloquently flows along, with small moments of emotional drama, interspersed with flashbacks of hachiko’s holiday as a young child. Overall this works well, with scenes in hakone, bright blue lakes, hot springs and beautiful grassy fields creating a scenic experience whilst hachiko and Sakuraba talk about their past. The film always dances around the romance-comedy genre to promote laughs, but instead stays rather realistic in the way that we never see the two characters hook up. Tanada yuki’s directing feels minimalistic throughout, as the characters seem to flow in scenes that almost feel off the cuff in scripting, whilst the camerawork itself is rather platonic in movement and instead focuses on precise framing and beauty shots to create a mellow cinematic road trip adventure. (Andrew Daley)