“Oh Lucy!” – Makes us oh-struck [MOVIE REVIEW]
Shiobu Terajima as Lucy in “Oh Lucy!”. Director Atsuko Hirayanagi. Photo courtesy of Film Movement. “Oh Lucy!” is another in what is turning out to be a trend in multi-national film-making. Directed by Atsuko Hirayanagi, based on her short film of the same name, and co-written with Boris Frumin, “Oh Lucy!” is a stunning feature film debut. The movie is set in the Japan of robotic career office workers stuck in repetitious daily activity where the only entertainment is ridiculing older workers behind their backs with the encouragement of the company man boss whose only apparent job is to keep the paperwork flowing. It is not a coincidence that the opening scene is our over-the-hill heroine Setsuko witnessing a suicide by commuter train, something that seems to be a daily occurrence and gives her no pause. Setsuko, in a dead-end job, has limited resources, is isolated from her co-workers and lives in a miniscule apartment filled to the brim with the detritus of an uninteresting present and past. As we learn, she is alone and estranged from her sister; the sister who, many years before, married Setsuko’s boyfriend and is now separated from him. Setsuko’s only relationship is with her…
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