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 × 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 × 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.