Nineteen years later, and Joel and Ethan Coen’s thrilling classic “Fargo” stills finds its place in all sorts of pop culture. Last year, the surprise spinoff series with the same title became an award-winning hit, and this year, an even broader use of inspiration was found in the independent film “Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter,” by another set of brothers (David and Nathan Zellner).
Based on the debunked urban legend that an Asian woman died while trying to search for the money Steve Buscemi buried in “Fargo,” “Kumiko” is even stranger than its previous influence.
In the middle of Tokyo, a 29-year old secretary named Kumiko (Rinko Kikuchi) hates her job and isolates herself from her family and friends. When she’s not alone in her studio apartment with a pet rabbit named Bunzo, Kumiko follows maps that she’s convinced will take her to something hidden. At the beginning of the film, we see her find an old videotape of “Fargo” buried in the middle of a beach. Kumiko believes that somewhere in the middle of the Minnesota city is a snow-buried suitcase of money, simply because the opening card of the movie falsely says ‘based on a true story.’ So intent on finding the non-existent money, she quits her job and flies all the way to Minnesota.
To say Kikuchi is one of the most talented actresses of her generation is just the least. She is only the second Japanese woman to be nominated for an Academy Award (for “Babel”) and also starred in Guillermo del Toro’s action epic “Pacific Rim”. Now she’s gaining even more critical exposure and acclaim for the Zellners’ latest indie feature, completely capturing the essence of a mentally delusional hermit who perplexes her colleagues and the strangers she meets. With little dialogue, in Japanese or English, the viewer can see the emptiness and numbness in the young woman just in her eyes. At one point in the film, a stranger Kumiko meets tells her “solitude is just fanciful for loneliness.” This line sums up the main theme of the whole movie.
The new team of brothers, with David as the director and Nathan as his co-screenwriter, has created a special type of film that will draw the same kind of following “Being There” and “Lars and the Real Girl” did. “Kumiko” won’t likely find a mainstream audience, but it does have a chance at finding a cult fan base in the future for those who are fans of the actress, filmmakers or just a fascinating look at reclusion from society.
In 1965, Roman Polanski’s “Repulsion” showed insanity as a nightmarish hell for Catherine Deneuve; in 2015, David Zellner’s “Kimuko, the Treasure Hunter” shows it as a bizarre, yet endearing, fantasy for Rinko Kikuchi.
