Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter

Description

Standing out like one very sore thumb in Tokyo’s social landscape of relentless cheer and politeness, Kumiko (Rinko Kikuchi, all grown up from the deaf-mute teenager of Babel) is a true misfit and a blatant weirdo alongside the interchangeable perky girls with whom she shares generic office work. But Kumiko has a secret obsession: She’s found a videotape, and on it is evidence of a buried fortune. Never mind that said videotape is a ragged old VHS dupe of the Coen brothers’ classic Fargo, or that the treasure it shows hidden in a snowdrift is as fictional as Frances McDormand’s onscreen pregnancy. With a true believer’s fervor, Kumiko will get herself to the impossibly distant, exotic land of North Dakota—barriers of language, money, sufficient winter clothing and reality be damned. Her quest is as pure as it is, seemingly, insane. Whatever one might have expected next from the unpredictable Zellner brothers, this wasn’t it: A nearly plotless, frequently wordless road trip narrative, their absurdist humor boiled down to a cryptic, exquisite minimalism. It’s peopled with characters (including ones played by the siblings themselves) whose very human warmth is only heightened by Kumiko’s impenetrable oddity. The result requires patience, but rewards with considerable droll enchantment. Not the least of its pleasures are Sean Porter’s ravishing widescreen photography, and a consistently surprising original score by the Octopus Project. Executive produced by Alexander Payne, Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter is a bit like his recent Nebraska as re-interpreted by the Brothers Grimm in a transatlantic Twilight Zone. –Dennis Harvey

Film Details