Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter

Kumiko is a droll and often disengaged work. Taking it's central idea from a media misstep on a true story Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter takes a path of solitude and contemplation. It's not often that a film is so rudimentary in it's storytelling while being so proficient in setting it's world and reeling you into it. Kumiko is anchored by a great performance from Rinko Kikuchi. One that often treads the line of stoicism while being peppered with flashes of perfect comedic timing and emotional unrest. A difficult performance to hold down, and Kikuchi does so, at times, masterfully.

In Kumiko we are shown time and time again how mundane and unfulfilled her life has become. Kumiko needs something. Some sense of purpose. An adventure. She finds this in her belief that she can recover the buried money, or treasure, from the film Fargo. A truly preposterous starting off point for a story and one that could only be from a misunderstood quote from a real life event. Yes, the basis for this film is indeed rooted in reality. Albeit a misconstrued footnote from the tragic life of Takako Konishi.

Director David Zellner leads this film with great aplomb. His pacing is painstakingly slow though it is very much so deliberate. He lulls the viewer into a state of near boredom to drive home the mundane life Kumiko is enduring. His pairing with cinematographer Sean Porter could very well result in a masterwork in the near future. The two of them lens this film to perfection. Every shot is a gorgeous wonder to look at. Kumiko is often center frame on full display for all to see. This is important as she is a nobody in her life, yet here on this journey of her's she is the subject of interest. Their positioning of her here is quite brilliant. The snow riddled landscapes of Minnesota and North Dakota are beautifully majestic as the backdrop of Kumiko's treasure hunt.

Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter is a bizarre, haunting, darkly comedic, and powerful journey of a troubled individual looking to up the ante on the flop out of a poor hand having been dealt by life. Gorgeously shot and brilliantly performed by it's lead this sure to be polarizing film is an experience to behold. It's creeping pace will offset some, but ultimately there is more than enough here to make it's duration worth your while. 8/10.

At age 29, Kumiko is an isolated depressive working in an office position that's usually reserved for younger Japanese girls that are filling their time before finding a husband and moving on. With no ambitions to follow suit, after finding a water-damaged VHS copy of the Cohen Brother's 1996 film, 'Fargo', she becomes obsessed with finding the money-filled suitcase buried by Steve Buscemi's character and stitches together her own treasure map of the North Dakota tundra. Likening herself to a conquistador, she sets off on a journey to the 'New World' on a hunt for buried treasure via less-than legal means. The film is slowly paced but the humor never misses the mark and its unique tone and style is absolutely beautiful. The story hinges on Rinko Kikuchi's ('Pacific Rim' / 'The Brothers Bloom') performance which keeps even the lulls in the narrative interesting.

Kumiko, a Japanese employee, has only one hobby : treasures. She doesn't have any friends, and is really bored by her job. After seeing a VHS of "Fargo", she decides to travel to North Dakota to find the money hidden by Carl Showalter in the movie.

This movie is an excellent piece of work. Rinko Kikuchi appears under a new face with this introvert and amazing character, inspired by a true story.

David Zellner really did a good job of balancing comedy and drama : never exaggeratively funny, nor never desperately sad, the directing is very subtle and finds its own way to create an atmosphere around the point of view of an unusual character that sees the work differently than most of people do.

Which is, sometimes, really refreshing.

Viewers are asked to identify with the Coen Brothers' fictional "Fargo" and the reality of the Zeller Brothers' "Kumiko" (Rinko Kikuchi of Babel). Our leading lady on a treasure hunt for something we all crave – what we want.

Kumiko is insulated from the rest of the world through solitude, Her character cannot subscribe to Japanese societal norms and the journey is like many: weathering professional and personal criticism for not measuring up to the public barometer. She is hungry for the smallest dollop of approval. Frosty comrade pressures and a personal friend with child make the tiny Single made to believe she does not measure up. Even Mother is disappointed that she is still not married, a Japanese custom that girls are to wed by 25 or live at home.

Yet, our actress ventures out alone to find little gems wherever she goes, small hidden treasures that strengthen thoughts of another journey. She identifies best with her bunny Bunzo (Rabbit - symbol of rebirth and innocence). Emotionally drained, Kumiko cannot stay in a world that punishes her for not attaining expected behaviours. Mistaking make believe for real life, our disillusioned lead leaves native Japan penniless and fixated, but armed. She encounters Americans who unknowingly assist in her adventure. Blanketed in determination, our heroine explores self-abandonment, only to be rescued from the cold with local hospitality.

All this happens against a constant, white background of the silver screen, the Japanese symbol of death. This film leads viewers to decipher what is "not" real and what is. This film is a myth of fortune and the pursuit ... of what we each want. After watching, we may all realise we have been living a dream, maybe other's dreams … and not our own. Her future may be someone else's chaos.

An introverted, heavily antisocial woman in Japan sees Fargo, the Coen Brothers film about a couple of gangsters failing at a job, and in the process hiding and losing a briefcase full of money. Fair enough, but the fun and the story start when she becomes fixated on the fact that surely this must be a true story and there's a real treasure somewhere on the side of a North Dakota road just waiting for her.

Kumiko is a bizarre story, as you have probably already surmised. Rinko Kikuchi, most known for Pacific Rim, plays the lead here, and she absolutely sells the character. She is the epitome of a square peck in a round hole and it's at times painful to see her trying to surmount the obstacles of everyday life that we take for granted. And a lot of the mystery of the film comes from wondering how she ended up like this and just how deep her condition goes. There's a very good scene near the beginning where she meets an old friend, who greets her like any other high school friend you have not seen for years, and you realize that surely Kumiko was not always like this. Something happened.

But the real treats start rolling when Kumiko decides to follow her only true passion and buys a plane ticket to America. The rest cannot be really talked about without spoiling the story, but trust me that it's just as surreal as Fargo at its best and, more often than not, even more so.

Plus, the ending, which is just about perfect. The only way this kind of story could really end.

Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter is an experience. Its reach is perhaps greater than its grasp, but it's still a movie I'd definitely recommend for its sheer ambition and uniqueness.