Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter (2014)'s comments

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Fargo may not have really been based on a true story despite its opening card, but Kumiko the Treasure Hunter was... sort of. There really was a Japanese woman who did some of the things in this film, though whether or not she really was seeking Fargo's bag of money is debatable. This isn't a docu-drama, but rather an elliptical film inspired by those events, presenting middle America with a folksy strangeness that captures well Kumiko's sense things lost in translation and putting us, the Western audience, in her shoes in a neat empathetic reversal. Like Clavell's Shogun, a book she is offered, which is necessarily a Western snapshot of Japan (certainly to its reader), an "idea of what Japan is" yet is not, Kumiko's image of America, taken from a Coen Bros. film, is equally absurd and cognitively dissonant once she gets there. Though on the surface the portrait of a troubled woman, lost in obsession while running from an unhappy life, there's something magical and hopeful about her journey, and both the artful use of mirroring (compare her to Bunzo the bunny, or the deaf taxi driver, for example) and gorgeous cinematography make this a slow burner worth watching.

7 years 1 month ago

Ninjagodzilla

Solid performance from Kikuchi Rinko but ultimately Disappointing.

Watch the documentary for the actual story.

9 years ago