Loading Events

SFFILM Festival

Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter

Directed by David Zellner

USA | 105

3 May
Sat, May 3, 2014 at 10:00 am PT

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

Director David Zellner

With brother Nathan, David Zellner has co-written and acted in five features to date: Plastic Utopia (1997), Frontier (2001), Goliath (2008), Kid-Thing (2012) and Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter (2014). The Austin-based siblings have also created numerous comedic shorts, many of which they brought to SFIFF in 2011 as part of the in-person “From A to Zellner” program.

Film Details

Language English, Japanese

Year 2014

Runtime 105

Country USA

Director David Zellner

Producer Nathan Zellner, Cameron Lamb, Chris Ohlson, Andrew Banks, Jim Burke

Writer David Zellner, Nathan Zellner

Editor Melba Jodorowsky

Cinematographer Sean Porter

Music The Octopus Project

Cast Rinko Kikuchi, Nobuyuki Katsube, David Zellner, Nathan Zellner, Shirley Venard