Oh Lucy!

Lauded Japanese-American female filmmaker Atsuko Hirayanagi's feature debut, OH LUCY!, derived from her own eponymous short, is a USA-Japan coproduction starring Shinobu Terajima as Setsuko, a Tokyo-dwelling, 40-something unwed, childless office lady (a kindred spirit of Kumiko in David Zellner's KUMIKO, THE TREASURE HUNTER, 2014), whose benumbed workaday existence is shunted into a new lane when she enrolls in an English class for beginners, welcomed by the open-handed warmth generated from the American teacher John (Hartnett, still handsome enough to conquer lonely-hearts), and christened with a new English name Lucy and sporting a blond wig, Setsuko instantly cottons to John, soon....

keep reading my review on my blog: cinema omnivore, thanks!

This is dark humor at its finest. If you like the works of Ruben Östlund (Force Majeure and the Square) or Yojiro Takita (Departures), you will absolutely fall in love with this movie.

This film is such an amazing mix between absolute nothingness, and horrible traumas... If you want to be emotionally shook up, this is the movie for you!

How does one reconcile reality and delusion when the illusion of love is at hand? A rather wound up and repressed Japanese woman takes a leap. An interesting twist in a woman's search for love. What crawled under my skin was how Japanese culture was portrayed...emotionally repressed, and the 'awkwardness' that ensues. I felt like I was in Japan again... Although topically a comedy, the underlying theme is loss. The actors do a magnificent job.

Love can be strangely overwhelming at the most odd times of our lives, and this movie shows us exactly that. I really enjoyed it and appreciate the people who make movies like this.

There is something to say of a film with such a slow casual pacing that keeps you enthralled and waiting for the next turn. The story and cast were wonderful with some unexpected turns. Watch and enjoy.