Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter’ is the wonderfully wacky homage by the Zellner Brothers to the Coen Brothers in which their possibly best work ‘Fargo‘ plays a central role. It is a funny, eccentric but at times uncomfortable and unsettling film based on the true story of a Japanese woman, Takako Konishi, who was found dead in snow-covered Minnesota in 2001. At the time it was insinuated by the press that she died in her search for the money which in ‘Fargo‘ was buried in the snow by Steve Buscemi. However, the real story was much more mundane as it turned out later that she was a depressed Tokyo office worker who lost her job and decided to travel to the place where she had spent a happy holiday in the past and commit suicide. The urban legend was turned into a documentary in 2003 by filmmaker Paul Berczeller (‘This is a True Story‘) and now into a feature film by David and Nathan Zellner.
The film tells the story of Kumiko, a painfully shy and awkward young woman who lives with just her rabbit in a depressingly tiny and messy apartment in austere Tokyo and spends her days in a boring office job as “office lady” which appears to require no other skills than making cups of tea for her boss, regularly picking up his dry cleaning and buying presents for his wife. Her social life is pretty much non-existent and seems to consist of not more else than answering phone calls from her bossy mother who is very vocal about her disappointment over the fact that her daughter is still unmarried at 29 and without any realistic prospect of change. The film begins with Kumiko finding an old VHS tape hidden away in a cave along the beach. She plays the tape at home and although seriously damaged, it turns out that this is the 1996 Coen Brothers classic ‘Fargo‘, according to the credit based on a true story. Transfixed by the scene in the film where Steve Buscemi buries a briefcase with money under the snow near a fence in the middle of nowhere in arctic Minnesota and fooled by the assertion that this is a real story, Kumiko decides to prepare a treasure map and heads off to Fargo, Minnesota, with the company credit card from her boss to collect her treasure.
Her total lack of communication skills – by this point in the film she has barely spoken two words – and being entirely clueless as to what to do and where to go, she wanders around in Minnesota, her stay and expenses initially funded through her boss’ credit card but, once that has been blocked, relying upon the kindness of local strangers, including the local sheriff played by David Zellner himself. Most of the locals she bumps into on her journey are completely bewildered why a Japanese tourist would want to visit remote Minnesota. Once left to her own devices and without any further help from the goodhearted and eccentric Midwesterners, the naivety of Kumiko, beautifully portrayed by Rinko Kikuchi (‘Babel’ and ‘Norwegian Wood’), becomes at times uncomfortable to watch and deeply unsettling. At the same time this is the part of the film where the viewer is treated to some stunning cinematography of the snow covered and desolate Midwest. Here, serene Japanese storytelling is combined with unorthodox ‘Coen-like’ wackiness and absurdity and in doing so the Zellners do the Coen Brothers more than justice. That the film is a little long is then easily forgotten and excused.
Director: David Zellner
Stars: Rinko Kikuchi, David Zellner, Shirley Venard
Writers: David Zellner, Nathan Zellner
Producers: Nathan Zellner, Cameron Lamb, Chris Ohlson, Andrew Banks, Jim Burke
Director of photography: Sean Porter
Running time: 104 min
Country: US
Film Rating: 
