On Tubi, I watched Oh Lucy!, a 2017 Japanese-American drama co-written and directed by Atsuko Hirayanagi, starring Shinobu Terajima as Setsuko, a lonely middle-aged woman working as an office drone who is distant from her co-workers, lives alone, and is estranged from her sister. She goes out to karaoke with her co-workers for a retirement party, then drunkenly yells that no one actually likes the retiree and that everyone laughs at her behind her back. She gets a call from her niece Mika (Shioli Kutsana), who is working as a waitress in a maid uniform in a restaurant, and tells her that she had signed up for a year of English language classes, but can't afford them anymore because she needs to save money, and gets Setsuko to pay for the remainder of classes and take them in her place. Setsuko goes to the school, which seems hidden behind a seedy exterior, and meets John (Josh Hartnett), the American teacher who is very friendly and open and frequently hugs his students, of which Setsuko and later Takeshi (Kōji Yakusho), are the only ones. John gives them English names to use in class, Lucy and Tom, and gives Lucy a blonde wig to wear as "Lucy." Setsuko is charmed by John's friendliness and develops a crush on him, liking the warm embrace of his hug and becoming another identity as Lucy.
But when she returns to the class, John has left for America, and the replacement teacher is more conventional and not as physically affectionate, and Setsuko preferred John's eccentricities. Then she finds out that Mika and John are dating, and that Mika has run off with John to the U.S., driving a further wedge between her and her mother Ayako (Kaho Minami). Setsuko receives a postcard from Mika, letting her know that she and John are in San Diego, and invites her out. Setsuko lets Ayako know, and they go together to San Diego to confront Mika and convince her to come home. But when they find John, he's alone in his apartment, saying that Mika has run off, and the three of them, combined with John's limited Japanese and Setsuko and Ayako's limited English, go look for her.
I found this movie to be pretty interesting. I liked that it focused on a middle-aged woman going on an adventure and getting out of the rut of her life, and how a lot of it was about her and her sister having a complicated relationship with each other. Ayako would pick at Setsuko, calling her selfish if she didn't also get her a drink at a vending machine after getting herself one, then refuse a drink once Setsuko bought one for her. Setsuko accuses Ayako of stealing and marrying Setsuko's boyfriend, and still harbors resentment towards her. Terajima's performance as Setsuko brings a lot of sensitivity to the role, and I liked how she would still want to slip into being "Lucy" when she wanted to feel more brave or more open to trying new things. I looked her up, and saw that she was in a film I had really liked, Vibrator (2003), where she plays a young woman who meets a handsome truck driver and goes on a journey of sexual self-discovery. It was a very intimate drama that felt very character-driven, and felt like a little hidden gem of a film.
I wasn't as into the second half, when Setsuko is more deluded towards John because of her unrequited crush, leading her to make bad decisions that alienate people, and really didn't like that she makes a mess of her life and other people's lives, especially since John was often at fault for taking advantage of Mika, likely fetishizing her as his cute Japanese girlfriend, and bringing her to the U.S. and away from her life in Tokyo. He also kept calling Setsuko Lucy, not bothering to learn her real name, with a colonizer perspective of not wanting to call someone by their real name if it's too hard for him, out of internalized xenophobia. Even when he calls out a waiter for mocking Setsuko's English in a diner, he still calls her by her fake Anglicized name anyway.
I really liked seeing Yakusho in his smaller supporting role as Takeshi/"Tom," as I've liked him a lot in films like Shall We Dance? (1996), 13 Assassins (2010), and Perfect Days (2023). He as "Tom" first seems very smiley, into hugging and speaking stilted English in the class, then when walking with Setsuko after class, introduces himself as Takeshi, and is more sensitive and quiet and reserved than as his Tom persona with a wig on. He appears more in the finale, and explains more about how putting on the persona helps him when he doesn't want to deal with struggles in his own personal life as himself, much like how Setsuko did when she liked the Lucy persona better.
I liked checking this movie out, more so for the acting and the journey of the main character than for the film as a whole.
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