Atsuko Hirayanagi was born in Nagano and raised in Chiba, Japan. She graduated from NYU Tisch School of The Arts, Asia, with an MFA in Film Production. Her shorts include “Mo ikkai,” “Wake,” and “Link.” “Oh Lucy!” originated as a short and won second place at the 2014 Cannes International Film Festival in the Cinéfondation Selection. The feature version of the film is nominated for Best First Feature at the Independent Spirit Awards.

“Oh Lucy!” opens in NY and LA on March 2 with additional cities to follow.

W&H: Please give us your description of the film.

AH: “Oh Lucy!” is about a 55-year-old single “office lady” in Tokyo, who is given a blonde wig and a new identity — “Lucy” — by her unconventional English language teacher. Lucy awakens desires in her she never knew existed.

W&H: What drew you to this story?

AH: It started in a writing-class exercise during the second year at my MFA program, where we had to come up with 100 three-line film ideas in four weeks. They gave us random subjects like write a rom-com, a buddy film, musical, a dinosaur film, etc.

The question for this one was, “Write something about someone you know.” So I did, and then I totally forgot about it. When it was time to write a thesis script, I went back to the 100 ideas to see if anything hit me, and this particular one did. I expanded on the log line and made it into a script.

W&H: What do you want people to think about when they are leaving the theater?

AH: That sometimes uncertainty can present great potential.

W&H: What advice do you have for other female directors?

AH: It starts with a phenomenal team.

W&H: Name your favorite woman- directed film and why.

AH: I really liked “Lost in Translation.” Sofia Coppola uniquely portrayed the very complex feelings of a woman going through a quarter-life crisis, which I had not seen done before, especially in that honest way. It left a very strong impression on me.