InaneSwine Kumiko requires a lot of post-film reflection, as one tries to figure out what the point of it all really was. On the whole, it seems to be a story about a confused, naive and depressed young woman on the search for a better life, or at least something different.The slow opening of the film set in Tokyo does run on a little long, but once Kumiko arrives in America, we're treated to a lovely host of well-rounded characters that our titular character meets along her harsh journey through the freezing roads of Minnesota, beautiful imagery and an alluring performance from Kikuchi, not to mention the film's spot-on, deadpan comic timing.

Rodrigo Amaro Dream doesn't cost a thing, people say. It doesn't. But to make into a reality is a whole different story and there's always delusions on the way. In "Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter" Rinko Kikuchi plays the title role, a young Japanese woman whose source of happiness is to find buried "treasures" in places. One day, she finds a VHS copy of Coen brothers classic "Fargo" and becomes obsessed by one particular part of the film which revolves around Steve Buscemi's character hiding a bag filled with money, burying it in the snow. Kumiko doesn't have much going on with her life: can't stand her colleagues from work, barely connects herself with an old friend, and there's pressure from her boss and more pressure from her mom living somewhere and always putting her daughter down for leaving her behind. With that mind frame, our "hero" is about to go on a journey to the States to find "Fargo treasure". Why? Because she thinks it's real. Like "Fargo", this film puzzles its viewers in trying to find ways to establish what can be deemed real and what it's not. The Coen's film begins with a disclaimer about the events portrayed as a real story. I watched it as a kid and totally believed, and they weren't the only source for that information. Many people jumped on that bandwagon without doing a bit of research. It'd take me a few more years to find out nothing like that happened and that the directors were doing a prank on viewers. It's effect was a masterful and successful one. Now, comes the opposite side: "Kumiko" was indeed based on a real story, the story of Takako Konishi, a woman from Japan found dead in a field in Minnesota and the report on the news was that she was looking for that bag of cash from "Fargo". But the Zellner brothers didn't make a thrilling project with all those great elements. It's the most annoying film I've seen in ages, sad, bleak, with poor use of symbolism and a picture that don't make a good service, whether being entertaining or cheating a whole section of the crowd with its final image. A gorgeous and meaningful cinematography couldn't make for the film's errors and loads of absurdity. I just couldn't care for any the characters (except the state trooper, he was well-intentioned but too bad he wasn't a cinephile like I am. I'd be more helpful in that situation he faced); Kumiko was one of those characters that you understand while she's facing objections and problems in life, she's very depressed but doesn't know exactly, acting in a child-like manner and she can only get a sense of pure joy when she's watching "Fargo" repeatedly to the point of destroying the tape. Most of her actions make the story go further and further from enjoyment and greatness. Ripping a page from a book when she could've asked for a photocopy; her actions with her old acquaintance, someone who truly likes her; and when told about that the film is not real ("No fake!"). Those moments had me cringing so bad, I couldn't wait for its ending. Nothing wrong with Kikuchi's performance but it's a minor effort that wasn't worthy of her talents and in some bits I was reminded of her role in "Babel", and that made her seem as an one note actress.A cultural thing or coincidence? I'm not sure. But I was reminded of another Japanase individual - a more famous and also real one - who was stubborn with his actions and it also revolved on him being stuck in the wilderness to follow his ultimate convictions. His name was Hiroo Onoda, the last WWII soldier to surrender in 1974 (that's right, 29 years after the end of the conflict). He stood there on this island in Philippines, refusing to accept the war was over because he needed his superior officer word on that. He and three other soldiers stuck on this place receiving leaflets and other messages about the fact (one gave it up in 1950, two others were shot through the years). And I like to think he was the lucky one unlike Kumiko, which makes me wonder what would be fundamental in Kumiko or Konishi in stopping their pointless search? Possibly the presence of Joel or Ethan Coen - if they ever heard of them. If the makers took the real premise of someone trying to find the impossible after seeing a movie, turn into a comedy with a bunch of friends trying to find this money (my idea goes like this: a megalomaniac film buff joins his two slow-minded friends to a search around the globe) then we'd have something far more relevant than this thing. The Zellner's weren't aiming at anything specifically. What was the point? To show that the escapism brought on by the movies can actually move mountains yet they'll never be real except in one's head? The right movie must fall into the right hands and minds? Obsessed people need to be better controlled, even the ones who look more innocently? I got nothing from here except some beautiful landscape and the daring move of making the majority of the film in Japanese with captions instead of going with English in everything. High hopes for this movie but the final result was a total crash. They had the intriguing real-life story to follow (the reasoning behind the woman's obsession was right after some relationship issue, and the writers should have follow that story) yet they messed it up. Unworthy of the praise it got in several places. 3/10

MisterWhiplash It would be one thing if the filmmakers, David Zellner (director) and brother/co-writer Nathan Zellner, were coming up with the idea for Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter out of whole cloth. It's certainly one of the best 'hooks' (or as the industry calls then 'loglines') in many years: a young woman from Tokyo is obsessed with the scene from Fargo where Steve Buscemi hides the suitcase full of money by the fence, buried in the snow, and never comes back for it. Naturally, as she assumes from the opening title card telling the audience 'This is Based on a True Story' that the suitcase is still there, and goes to Fargo to find it. The thing that makes things even wilder to find out (though this is after the film ends) that while the Coen brothers' Fargo is not based on a true case (it was their sort of satire of movies that do the 'true story' for artistic license), Kumiko, strangely enough, is.According to IMDb, a woman naked Takako Konishi actually watched the movie Fargo and went out to try and find it. At least, that's the extent to which the movie and real life connect. Perhaps the Zellners took license from there; certainly it would seem to make sense, but they take this true event (from a not-true event from the film) and use it as a way of jumping off into a character study of this rather lonely woman. Or, one should say, she's perhaps alone but not exactly lonely - except for one aspect involving her rabbit, which should be addressed - as she has this movie to give her hope outside of her dreary job and inquisitive mother.She is not interested in meeting a man or getting married or having kids. In the one of the few moments we get some character development, we see that she considers herself a "Spanish Conquistador" going to "The New World" (this actually pops up as the title card when she arrives in Minnesota). So she makes a decision one day, not exactly on a whim but after what seems to be much thought (and going through the possible tragedy of a torn VHS tape - how she finds the tape is never explained, same with the ending, but more on that in a moment), and leaves her rabbit on a subway car. This last part - the bunny is Bunzo, can't forget that - seems oddly sad, just by nature of this character having a pet its cared for and now the pet's no longer there. Plus, it's a cute bunny after all.There's a bit of culture clash - apparently there's no one who's Japanese up in Minnesota/North Dakota, Kumiko knows very little English, and the one helpful Deputy in town (played by director Zellner) thinks a worker at a Chinese restaurant can help translate. There's a few moments of sort of awkward comedy here, which if I had to be honest were the parts that worked for me the least. Maybe this is where the Alexander Payne connection comes in (he's executive producer here), and there's one character in particular that seems air-lifted out of a Payne film into Kumiko's journey. But it's ultimately about what Kumiko is going and how she is going to get there. It's predictable stuff to see these sort of folks in this environment, even as it is refreshing to see a police officer depicted as just a straight-shooting, caring person like the Deputy here.This concept could have been delivered in a few ways. This could have gone even more into meta terrain based on the 'real' 'fake' real' 'fake' sort of play at work, or even been more exuberant or crazy; certainly, when one hears about this idea for a story, it has to come down to execution. I think those who hear about it like that may be thrown off or even disappointed by what Kumiko the Treasure Hunter is. It's much more of a film about its own sense of magic realism, that this indicator of treasure is discovered one day in a cave off of a beach (why is she there, what for, who knows it's there), and then when the ending comes, which, spoiler, she DOES find the suitcase in the snow (with Bunzo present), it feels like it's gone off from reality.Is this in her head? I think its ambiguity is not unearned but part of a kind of dreamy logic that is really all about a dreamer. It's most telling that Werner Herzog has a glowing recommendation on the front of the blu-ray; many of his films deal with people trying to find something great that is beyond them, yet the vehicle of cinematic expression itself makes things more realer than reality, that it carries on an extra dimension for an audience member (i.e. Aguirre as an actual Conquistador, or Fitzcarraldo with the ship, or Stroszek, also set in the North Mid-West, which I thought of a few times). It's a downright Herzogian trip, and the lead Rinko Kikuchi (you may recall from Babel and Pacific Rim) is outstanding in scenes where she has to also play it (and even wear that red hood, a fairy tale character with a blanket-shield) as ambiguously as the writers have it: is she crazy? Is she a little 'off'? Who's to say? I don't think the filmmakers ever judge her for a moment, and that's why this story works - on the contrary, if anything she is practically lifted to mythic status, and it will deliver different things depending on the audience watching. Do you want a sad ending or happy ending? Should a dreamer like Kumiko get what she's after? Like the film that Kumiko is obsessing over, it's never quite so clear.

Danny Blankenship Just finally watched the indie picture "Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter" and I must say it was a pretty pleasant and wonder of a film. It showed and displayed the theme of dreams do come true just like a fairy tale in the world! Rinko Kikuchi is Kumiko a lonely Tokyo office worker who has no life she don't have many friends nor does she blend in socially and she has no love life no male friend. As with phone conversations her mother worries about her wanting her to move back home as she can't even get a promotion on the job. Yet oddly and in extreme interest all she lives for after finding an old VHS tape of the American classic "Fargo" is searching for the buried suitcase of cash in the film, as Kumiko is certain it's real! So for sure she heads to frozen North Dakota to search for the buried treasure only to discover that fiction and reality is often a tough blend. Overall this film is a mixture of search, and an emotional hunt for discovery of finding a dream a life fortune. Overall it proves that life can have a happy fairy tale ending thru search and wonder as one can find discovery.