The Second Bakery Attack

is a short story by Haruki Murakami, originally published in the August 1985 issue of '' Marie Claire Japan''. It is a sequel to Murakami's short story "Bakery Attack", which was published in 1981. In 1986, "The Second Bakery Attack" was included in a short story collection of the same name. The story was later translated into English by Jay Rubin and published in the January 1992 issue of ''Playboy''. In 1993, Rubin's translation was included in the collection ''The Elephant Vanishes''.

Plot

A recently married couple in their late twenties lie in bed, famished; they have little in their refrigerator: a six-pack of beer and some cookies. After drinking and eating all of it, the man recounts to his wife a time he and his friend "robbed" a bakery ten years ago. The two intended to take all the bread they could from a bakery by force. The man who ran the bakery offers a counterproposal before the two men can act: since he is a Richard Wagner fanatic, if they listen to ''Tannhäuser'' and ''The Flying Dutchman'' with him in the bakery, he will give them all the bread they can carry. They agree, and the bread is enough to feed the two men for a few days. After hearing of that story, the woman suggests that they do the same thing, despite it being 2:30 A.M.

They drive around Tokyo looking for a bakery but all of them are closed; they "compromise" to "rob" a McDonald's instead. With ski-masks and a Remington automatic shotgun, they enter the restaurant and demand thirty Big Macs. The three employees working there fulfill the peculiar request. The couple then leave the restaurant and drive until they find an empty parking lot; they then eat four to six Big Macs each until they are full. The man feels calm after this experience.

Publication

"The Second Bakery Attack" was originally published in the August 1985 issue of '' Marie Claire Japan''. As its title suggests, "The Second Bakery Attack" is a sequel to Murakami's short story "Bakery Attack", which was published in the October 1981 issue of Waseda Bungaku, the literary magazine of Murakami's alma mater Waseda University. "The Second Bakery Attack" would later be included in a short story collection of the same name released by Bungeishunjū in April 1986.

In 1991, the story was translated into English by Jay Rubin and published in the January 1992 issue of ''Playboy''. Its cover page illustration was illustrated by Japanese artist Kinuko Y. Craft. It was the first time Murakami's work was translated by Rubin, who would later go on to translate many of Murakami's novels and stories.

Rubin's English translation would later be included in Murakami's 1993 short story collection ''The Elephant Vanishes''.

Adaptations

In 1998, the German film ''The Polar Bear'' (german: Der Eisbär), written and directed by Granz Henman and Til Schweiger, used elements of "The Second Bakery Attack" in three intersecting story lines. "The Second Bakery Attack" also became a basis for a segment of the South Korean omnibus film '' Acoustic'' (2010).

Short film

"The Second Bakery Attack" was adapted as ''The Second Bakery Attack'', a 2010 Mexican-American short film directed by Carlos Cuarón, starring Kirsten Dunst and Brian Geraghty. Dunst plays the wife, Nat, and Geraghty plays the husband, Dan. The film was shot in Brooklyn, New York, and Totowa, New Jersey (FICM) in Morelia, Mexico. In 2009, Cuarón received the Premio Cuervo Tradicional award from the FICM and was awarded 100,000 pesos to go toward his next film project, ''The Second Bakery Attack''. The film had its Asian premiere on 20 October 2010 at the 23rd Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) in Tokyo, Japan. The short film was also screened at the 20th Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia (SSFF & ASIA) in October 2018 at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum.

;Cast
* Kirsten Dunst as Nat
* Brian Geraghty as Dan
* Lucas Akoskin as Demitrio
* Sherry Gordon as Cherry

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Second Bakery Attack, The
1985 short stories
1985 in Japan
Japanese short stories
Short stories by Haruki Murakami
Works originally published in Marie Claire
Works originally published in Playboy
Short stories adapted into films
Tokyo in fiction
Robbery in fiction
Works originally published in Japanese magazines