Kumiko the Treasure Hunter- the charming new film from brothers David and Nathan Zellner- hails from a particular strain of
American comedy which takes in not only the film's producer, Alexander Payne, but also the Auteur directors that inspire our hero’s search.
We meet Kumiko (Rinko Kikuchi); a melancholic girl in an oversized hoody.
Her boss is a prick; her job’s a drag; her colleagues are scarcely better.
Kumiko seeks adventure and promptly finds it when she
inexplicably unearths a VHS of the Coen brother’s Fargo from a beachside cave and, duped by their opening passage, embroiders a map, nabs the company card and heads to Minnesota to
claim the loot.
It’s a sensual film of crispness and sound with Kumiko as a wide eyed Red Riding Hood in a world of her own. We've come to know these things as cautionary tales, but Zellner treats it like a fantasy. At one point she takes a blanket to keep warm; it should be a symbol that things are looking bad, but the director shoots it, instead, like a superhero's cape.
Much like Bruce Dern's Woody from Payne's recent Nebraska, we know our hero's search is in vain, but these are tragic heroes so we root for them all the same. Both seem desperate for adventure in their lives and share an understanding that making a break from the mundane is never without meaning, even if it is on the back of an empty dream.
