Cinema Review: Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter

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Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter

Studio: Amplify
Directed by Nathan Zellner

Mar 18, 2015 By Austin Trunick Web Exclusive

In this film’s surreal opening, Kumiko (Rinko Kikuchi) stumbles into a beachside cavern and uncovers a VHS tape that’s been mysteriously buried. It’s a badly-deteriorated copy of the Coen Brothers’ Fargo, which she mistakes to be a documentary that will lead her to the suitcase of money hidden by Steve Buscemi’s character in that film. The depressed, frustrated young woman becomes obsessed with the treasure hunt, meticulously breaking down the movie’s “clues” before fleeing her life and job in Tokyo and traveling to frozen North Dakota in search of untold riches.

The Zellner Brothers’ Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter is as strange, surreal, and darkly funny as it is ultimately tragic—a fitting paean to the Coen Brothers classic it references. While it’s clear that there is something deeply wrong with poor Kumiko, the further you accompany her on her delusional quest, the more you’ll find yourself hoping she does somehow locate that briefcase full of treasure. Beautifully shot on the cold, snowy Northern landscape, Kumiko also features an appropriately hypnagogic score from The Octopus Project.

www.kumikothetreasurehunter.com