The Boston Festival of Films from Japan: Oh Lucy!

Setsuko is a lonely woman stuck in a dull office job and leading an emotionally unfulfilling life in Tokyo. One day she’s convinced by her niece Mika to enroll in an unorthodox English class that requires her to wear a blonde wig and take on an American alter ego named Lucy. This new identity awakens something dormant in Setsuko, and she quickly develops romantic feelings for her American instructor, John (Josh Hartnett). When John suddenly disappears from class and Setsuko learns that he and her niece were secretly dating, Setsuko enlists the help of her sister Ayako, and the pair flies halfway across the world to Southern California in search of the runaway couple. In a brave new world of tattoo parlors and seedy motels, family ties and past lives are tested as Setsuko struggles to preserve the dream and promise of Lucy.