“Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter” is a moody comic allegory about desperation, disconnection and dreams that uses “Fargo,” the Coen brothers movie from 1996, as a touchstone to examine modern life.
The film stars talented Japanese actress Rinko Kikuchi, Oscar-nominated for her stirring portrayal of a deaf teen in “Babel,” as Kumiko, a depressed cog in a corporate wheel who is slowly being ground down. Her story starts on a low in Tokyo in the fall and ends on a high in a deep, snowy North Dakota winter. Her quest, which keeps nudging the film forward, is to find the cash-filled briefcase that the bad guy in “Fargo” (that would be Steve Buscemi) buried in the snow.
The winter scenes that define “Fargo” keep showing up in “Kumiko” thanks to a scavenged videotape Kumiko discovers in Japan. But it’s another pair of brothers — Texas indie filmmakers David and Nathan Zellner — who are the wonderfully strange minds behind this tale. David directs, and both brothers wrote the screenplay. They also both have roles in the film. Though having seen “Fargo” adds a few more enjoyable layers to “Kumiko,” all that is needed to understand and appreciate the journey is embedded by the Zellners.
The movie starts with that mysterious videocassette Kumiko finds hidden in a cave that overlooks a deserted shoreline. The intrigue, and her obsession, begins the moment she watches the badly damaged tape. Amid the scratches, the opening words of “Fargo” emerge on her TV screen, promising that what is to come is true.
Kumiko is a believer. She’s meticulous about examining every bit of evidence “Fargo” affords, rewinding endlessly, carefully noting in her journal the spot where the briefcase lies unclaimed along a deserted road, an orange ice scraper marking the spot. Kumiko soon becomes certain she can find it, that she is, in fact, destined to find it. Besides, hunting for buried treasure is far more enticing than facing the pressure from all sides to marry, to have children, to fit in.
After a series of events allows Kumiko the tools she needs to make her treasure quest a reality, she heads out to find Fargo. Minnesota, her first stop in the U.S., is bewildering. From the moment she steps off the plane, she’s blanketed by the kindness of strangers, quite often more misguided than she is. Her favorite, at first at least, is a deputy who buys her some all-weather gear, though his stock goes down when he tries to explain that “Fargo” is just a movie.
Kumiko won’t accept that the movie is fiction, and soon she’s off in a blinding blizzard in search of a missing briefcase and reminding us how much better the world is when we have the whimsy and wonder of Quixotes in it.
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