2/5 stars Inspired by an apparently true story that first appeared on a university message board in 2015, My Best Friend’s Breakfast became a bestselling novel for author Misa and has been published in numerous languages, before making its inevitable transition to the big screen. A high-school romcom populated by awkward, inarticulate teens and stuffed with misunderstandings and misconceptions that could be remedied by a single conversation, this directorial debut of veteran screenwriter Ryan Tu will be catnip for fans of its young fresh-faced cast, but borderline interminable for everybody else. Moon Lee ( Terrorizers , Detention ) stars as Wei-xin, the eccentric, interfering but ultimately well-meaning heroine, who seeks solace in food after the separation of her wayward parents (Darren Chiu and Esther Liu), which has left her home life in tatters. Never one to stay out of other people’s business, Wei-xin comes, unsolicited, to the aid of swim team hunk You-quan (Eric Chou) after overhearing him fighting with his unfaithful girlfriend, by setting him up with her BFF and the school’s most sought-after belle, Qi-ran (Jean Ho). Wei-xin’s meddling results in Qi-ran being sent two breakfasts each morning by her new secret admirer, which Wei-xin inevitably eats herself. Simultaneously, guitar club captain Yuan-shou (Edison Song) convinces Wei-xin, with whom he is infatuated, to play a solo in the upcoming school concert. She is reluctant to agree until You-quan offers to give her private lessons. During all this tedious ping-ponging between swooning adolescents, all of whom are head over heels for a classmate who only has eyes for somebody else, My Best Friend’s Breakfast drops a few crumbs of genuine creativity, in particular Patty Lee Pei-yu featuring in a recurring cameo as Wei-xin 15 years hence. The embodiment of Wei-xin’s crippling insecurity, the future self materialises when our young protagonist is at her worst, to illustrate what life will be like if she continues down a particular path. At a moment when multiverses and parallel realities are all the rage, this is a tantalising tease of a more ambitious narrative that never fully materialises. Elsewhere there are notable appearances from Chen Shu-fang as You-quan’s grandmother and pop star Lou Jun-shuo as Qi-ran’s bad boy boyfriend, and a genuinely intriguing car-crash marriage between Darren Chiu’s aspiring musician and Esther Liu’s alcoholic hostess. Sadly, all these infinitely more fascinating strands are sidelined in favour of Wei-xin’s bumbling and increasingly exasperating antics. Want more articles like this? Follow SCMP Film on Facebook