With Oh Lucy!, the Randaince film festival opens with a Japanse-American coproduction, starring Josh Hartnett and Shinobu Terajima. Our celebrity journalist Liselotte Vanophem spoke to director Atsuko Hirayanagi right before the UK premiere and had a chat about the exciting but nerve-wracking experience of having your film opening a film festival, about the difference in filming in Japan and America but also about Atsuko her next projects.

Hi Atsuko, welcome to Raindance Film Festival. Excited to be here?

Yeah, very excited. It’s a UK premiere.

How do you about that? Nervous or even more excited?

Well, it’s nerve-wracking actually. I’m kind of putting my performance face on now.

You’re doing great.

Thank you!

Can you tell us a little bit more about Oh Lucy!?

Oh Lucy! is about a woman who’s having a late awakening with her new identity Lucy.

So the movie was shot in both Japan and America. Is there’s a big difference in filming a movie in those places?

We were talking about this earlier. I think in Japan they film fewer takes and also less coverage. Coverage means you shoot the take from different angles. I think these are the main difference.

Raindance is all about independent movies. Why do you think that people should watch independent movies?

Because you get to see parts of the country, in which the movies are made, that you might not see otherwise. You can hear voices that you never heard before and see characters that you have never seen before. I think independent movies are all very original stories and that’s very different with the movies you normally watch like Iron Man or so, which is great too. Independent movies tell more a human story and that’s very important.

Like more personal stories?

Yeah, indeed.

So Oh Lucy! is opening the festival but do you have any more films that are coming up in the near future?

Yeah, I’m developing two films right now and I’m also reading other people’s scripts. As I develop original movies, I’m very careful in choosing about what to do next.

Just Celebrity Magazine Film and Celebrity Reporter Liselotte Vanophem