Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter movie review

Article by Gabe Zia

Lazy Film Critic reviews...

Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter is a drama following a lonely and mentally unwell Japanese woman who finds a VHS copy of the movie Fargo, and believes it to be a video revealing the location of an actual bag of money. The film is directed by indie director David Zellner, who also co-wrote the film with his brother, Nathan Zellner. The film stars Pacific Rim actress Rinko Kikuchi as the title character, as well as a few other small roles who last about a few minutes.

I haven't seen Babel, which is why I went into this movie with a fair bit of skepticism. See, the only other time I had see Rinko Kikuchi in a film prior to Kumiko was in Pacific Rim, and regardless of how fun that movie is, the acting in it was seriously bland and one dimensional. However, fortunatly, Kikuchi proves her acting talents greatly with this movie, and gives the first real oscar worthy performance of the year so-far. She plays a character who is completely jaded, her social skills are almost nonexistent, and she doesn't read and social situation all that well. Rinko Kikuchi does a fantastic job playing this character, as she stays consistently believable as someone who has these kinds of problems throughout the movie, never once breaking character.

The cinematography is among the highlights of this movie, as the director of photography shows a lot of skill with both the angles of each shot, the framing of each shot, and the choice of each setting for the shots. The film takes full advantage of both the beautiful snowy landscape of Minneapolis, as well as some of the amazing sights in Japan. This is one of those movies where you can tell as you're watching it that every shot had at least an hour of preparation, be it the lighting, the props, and all the things about each scene.

Now, the plot of this movie is obviously not all sunshine and butterflies. It's not dark in the sense that it's gritty and violent like '71, but rather in the overall tone of the film. Like I said, this movie is about a mentally unwell woman who is under the delusion that Fargo is some kind of documentary, and with a film like that comes a very unsettling nature, and a kind of upsetting story. Now, for some people like me, the end result for a film like this is an absolutely genius film. However, for what I honestly think would be a quite a few people, this film could be too dark for some, without any blood or guns.

Final Rating

Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter is a fantastic movie, one of the best this year. Rinko Kikuchi
is absolutely brilliant in this film, and plays easily her most complex role. She gives what is without a doubt the first oscar-worthy performance of the year so-far. The cinematography in this movie is amazing, and shows just how much effort was put into this film. It's one of the darkest and most grim films I've seen in a while, without anything you'd expect from a dark or grim movie. It may not be for some people, but for me, this is a masterful film.

Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter: 4.7/5