Oh Lucy!

East-meets-West provides the background for numerous films but while the eastern US is forever in the shadow of Old World Europe, its west coast remains the New Frontier, aligned with Japan’s Rising Sun! Lonely, alienated after her own sister stole and then married her boyfriend, Kawashima Setsuko (Shinobu Terajima) is jarred from her doldrums by a subway platform suicide. When Mika, her niece, suggests she complete her unfinished English class, it’s there she meets John (Joss Hartnett) who transforms her into “Lucy.” After Mika and John leave for California, Lucy and her sister follow to bring the wayward girl back home in this almost Mizoguchi take on strong women on the precipice between tragic tradition and self-exploration through the land of pink motels and smiley-face donuts!

[NR]