I liked Kiyoko (Minako Ohashi) right off the bat as we see her talk about her disappointment with an arranged marriage in Japan, and so she came to America to have an "independent American experience." She gets a job as a kitchen helper and tries to learn English by herself in the evening. She talks about what she wants to do in America such as visit Yosemite and see the Golden Gate Bridge. However, she has difficulties expressing herself in English. A few minutes later, we meet Ken (Ken Nakagawa), a Japanese-American man, who has a dead end job and dreams about being a rock n' roll star. We meet him as his girl friend is walking out on him because he's boring. Ken sits there, stares blankly, and eating his Cheerios while she dumps him. Maybe he should have had his Wheaties that morning. We see Ken is very American with his liking for donuts and disliking manju or Japanese pastry in a cafe scene. The story builds slowly, but Kiyoko and Ken meet and they end up getting married in a marriage of convenience, so she can stay in America. The rest shows us Kiyoko's friends at work and Ken's friends in his band, maintenance worker job, and his dad and sister's family. There are some good supporting characters and there is some good humor as they give their opinions to both Kiyoko and Ken about each other. Lana (Kate Connell) arranges for the two to meet and likes Ken even though he doesn't talk much. On the other hand, Shari (Judi Nihei) belittles Ken as boring. The payoff is watching Ken change from being boring with his mundane life to someone who starts to care about Kiyoko and would like for their marriage to succeed. Kiyoko doesn't have the same thinking and expresses herself in Japanese, but Ken does not understand. There are some lighthearted comedic moments, and the film succeeds in expressing the relationship between Kiyoko and Ken and what obstacles they must overcome for a real relationship to blossom.
