Greenes Please don't spend money on this.

UnowPriceless hyped garbage

Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

ActuallyGlimmer The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Raymond This seemed like an interesting movie to watch on mubi, I didn't actually know much of what it is about, but based on the trailer the cinematography and mood seemed to be top notch, and they were, but nothing else really worked for me.Another reviewer wondered what motivates someone to make a movie like this, I was thinking about this too. The movie was slow, so there was a lot of time to think about. So I read this is based on a true story, I must have missed it if it was mentioned in the movie, but this might be one motivation. My initial idea when watching the movie was that they just wanted to be creative and artsy, probably made by people who work on advertising or music videos, but this may as well not be the case.So, the images on screen were stunning, the cinematography is absolutely great. The script is somewhat interesting, although I've never liked it when they reference other real movies within a movie. I don't know why, this just never worked for me, especially when it's such an integral part of the movie. But there are many more problems. Kumiko was left as a mystery. Maybe there were hints why she was the way she was - depressed, anti-social, delusional, autistic? She had a driving ambition to get money, but why? I never understood what was the motivation. Was it a social commentary for expectations towards women in Japanese culture? They surely underlined the work and family aspect, how women are expected to build their lives. Her mom was constantly asking Kumiko about dating etc, I have a hard time believing a mother of an autist or a mentallly ill would do this. She also meets an old friend which suggests that Kumiko wasn't always as she is now, so something must have happened, but what? And what's the connection between this and the quest for money. Why would a depressed woman obsess so much about money, what would she do with it. She also showed emotions towards her pet, but was clearly not big on people skills (even without the language barrier).Kumiko started out and stayed very distant in the movie and it was difficult to understand any of her actions. Maybe if she had been slightly more relatable this would have worked, or if they had opened a bit more of her past, but as it is, it definitely didn't work for me.

Oliver Davidson I loved this film for its surreal story line and beautiful photography. Its about a girl who seems to be detached from the outside world and uninterested in engaging with work colleagues, family or old friends. She leads what seems to be a lonely life in a small apartment which she shares with her pet rabbit. One of the beautiful things about the film is that you can never really tell what Kumiko is thinking, or what her emotional state is. The film starts with Kumiko walking to a beach and using a map to locate what we expect to be treasure, but in fact is an old VHS copy of Fargo. This is the source of her inspiration to go hunting for the treasure hidden in that film. There are many great scenes and to me this is an instant classic. I particularly like Kumiko's determination and conviction when everyone else is telling her she is mad. She is a really interesting character.

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.

lasttimeisaw This indie feature opens with a blurred VHS tape showing - the film is based on a true story, which actually is from Coen brothers' FARGO (1996, 9/10), has its implicit double meaning, because the film itself is a reinterpretation of a real-life event about our centre character Kumiko (Kikuchi), a 29-year-old office lady in Tokyo, who is hooked by FARGO's scenes where a briefcase of cash is stashed in the snow land by Steve Buscemi's Carl Showalter, firmly believes it is her destiny to retrieve the money and embarks on a journey to USA. With such a tall tale as the precondition, one naturally will doubt Kumiko's sanity, the first half is about her life in Tokyo, stuck in a dead-end job, with her mother keeps nagging on the phone about her unfit situation of being single and urging her to move back living with her, Kumiko is an introvert loner, which even in Japan, she is very jarring with the reality, her only friend is a pet bunny named Bunzo, (the cutest bunny I've ever seen and a great animal actor too!). Her life is hopeless apart from her obsession of FARGO's hidden treasure. As we acquaint with her miserable quandary, her behaviour furthermore nonpluses us, she insists on getting the map of Minnesota on an atlas so as to steals it in the library, as for any sane person, it is quite easy to make a photocopy instead. This interlude offers a clear statement on her saneness, so when she embezzles her company's credit card and boards the plane for her quest which starts the second half (being a Chinese, I'm super jealous of Japanese can acquire a USA visa so effortlessly), we can sense it will not end well for her, although the parting sequences with Bunzo is so heartbreaking to watch, at one moment, I even thought she would throw it in front of an approaching metro. Yet, the hospitality of Minnesota citizens (a patent opposite of Tokyo's frigid person-to- person aura) is overwhelmingly cordial to a foreigner who can only utter simple English and doesn't even bring enough clothes for the freezing cold weather, she encounters a kind older woman (Venard), a helpful sergeant (director David Zellner himself), a deaf taxi driver (Hall) who doesn't even chase her when she escapes without paying the fare, through her one-track mind journey, but runs away whenever they deny her pipe dream, but not enough kindness can save her suicidal trek. Wearing a tacky quill walking aimlessly to her doom, Kumiko's dedication is unerring because the reality is too cruel for her to wake up and face the music, so she must go to Fargo, to collect the money and start anew (only there is no place for her in this vast world), thus, Zellner fabricates a dreamlike finale where Kumiko not only finds what she is looking for and reunites with Bunzo as well. But it is not a gratifying happy ending since it is an impossible mission under that absurd context, on the contrary, through which, the fancy wish-fulfilment exudes much more visceral pathos, as we all can access a bleak mental picture of Kumiko's fate. Directed by David Zellner and written with her brother Nathan, this tale of woe has done a commendable job to foreground the cultural disparity within its minimalistic modus operandi apart from establishing itself as a deterrent of how loneliness can eventually erode one's mentality. Rinko Kikuchi, finally lands another great role stateside that can match her Oscar-nominated performance in BABEL (2006, 8/10), still not relying on line-delivery, her body language and facial expression is wondrously tapped. Certainly, the film can be panned for its patience-testing spuriousness, and the calculated characterisation which is shopworn in indie shock-drama, but one must give credit for Zellner brothers' courage and ingenuity to, say the very least, make such a far-fetched fable leave an indelible mark in viewer's mind.