Terajima does not shy away from some of Setsuko’s more unlikeable characteristics, while also allowing the character’s deep hurt to show itself in the most unexpected ways.

| Feb 13, 2024

Setsuko could easily have become just another face in the crowd, but she fights for her right to experience life fully, both highs and lows.

| Nov 30, 2021

Terajima's performance is impressive, blending stoic resignation with flashes of humor, mischief, and longing.

| Nov 30, 2021

Shinobu Terajima is so completely in the moment that there is no sense she is aware of an audience. The desperation and loneliness her character experiences are raw, messy, and heartbreaking.

| Nov 30, 2021

A 96-minute culture-shock excursion that's hilarious at times.

| Jun 2, 2020

As willful, selfish, and cruel as Ferrell's screen dunces, [Shinobu Terajima] blunders into one humiliating situation after another, hardly sympathetic but never less than human.

| Apr 8, 2020

Slight and tonally awkward. I wasn't expecting Josh Harnett (of all people) to pop up in a Japanese movie.

| Jan 27, 2020

In watching Setsuko as she drops away mask after mask, we can consider doing that for ourselves.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 17, 2019

The writer-director uses one woman's life as a bizarre-but-funny vessel for humans' capacity for change.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 19, 2019

It is a strong first feature from director Atsuko Hirayanagi, and an excellent showcase for the considerable talent of actress Shinobu Terajima.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 24, 2019

Terajima's 'Lucy' magnificently wields the full spectrum of emotions to deliver an imperfect character that's broken yet still willing and able to heal.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Aug 28, 2018

Oh Lucy! is quirky and offbeat and strange and sometimes quite dark - and yet oddly lovable.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | May 31, 2018

The gags often play on stereotypes, while the drama sometimes verges on the overwrought. Yet on the whole the film is meticulously crafted; fine detailing is often absent in the usual Japanese "international" movie, whose brush of choice is broad.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | May 2, 2018

Viewers won't be able to divine just where Oh Lucy! will go next.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 27, 2018

But [Shinobu Terajima's] performance, especially when matched by[Kaho] Minami's hard-sighing world-weariness, is nothing less than transfixing.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 19, 2018

Led by a Terajima -- who wisely keeps Setsuko's motivations vague -- an able cast creates a genre-defying movie that takes us deep into the kind of life that normally would go unseen.

| Apr 5, 2018

...sensitive, penetrating and frequently unsettling study of one woman's battle with regret...

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 28, 2018

Many of the performances are perfunctory and/or badly thought out (not sure what to make of Hartnett's John), but there's no denying that leading lady Terajima is a compelling screen presence. She makes it worth the visit.

| Original Score: B- | Mar 27, 2018

At its best, it's a comedy of miscommunication, one that hits an occasional rough spot when the location shifts from Tokyo to SoCal and a chase ensues between Lucy and her mother and sister. 2017.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 23, 2018

Nothing here is wrapped up with a red ribbon the way it would be in an American film, studio made or otherwise. Oh Lucy! has the guts to leave things messy and unkempt, just like life.

| Original Score: B | Mar 23, 2018