Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter

Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	David Zellner
Produced by	Jim Burke Andrew Banks Cameron Lamb Chris Ohlson Nathan Zellner Executive: Alexander Payne
Written by	David Zellner Nathan Zellner
Starring	Rinko Kikuchi Nobuyuki Katsube
Music by	The Octopus Project
Cinematography	Sean Porter
Edited by	Melba Jodorowsky
Production company	Ad Hominem Enterprises Lila 9th Productions
Distributed by	Amplify
Release dates	January 20, 2014 (2014-01-20) (Sundance) February 8, 2014 (2014-02-08) (Berlin) March 13, 2015 (2015-03-13)
Running time	104 minutes[1]
Country	United States
Language	English Japanese
Box office	$543,894[2]

Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter is a 2014 American drama film co-written and directed by David Zellner.^[3][4] The film stars Rinko Kikuchi, Nobuyuki Katsube, Shirley Venard, David Zellner, Nathan Zellner, and Kanako Higashi.

The story is based around the urban legend surrounding the death of Takako Konishi. It was reported in the media that she had died trying to find the treasure depicted in the 1996 film Fargo. In actuality, she committed suicide.

Plot

In the massive city of Tokyo, Kumiko lives in utter solitude. A struggling twenty-something, she works a dreadful, dead-end job under an awful boss, is intimidated by her well-off peers, and nagged incessantly by her overbearing mother. The only joy in her life comes from a grainy VHS tape – an American film in which a man buries a satchel of money in the snowy Midwestern plains. Kumiko is somehow convinced that this treasure is real, and obsesses over its discovery.

With a hand-stitched treasure map and a quixotic spirit, Kumiko embarks on an incredible journey over the Pacific and through the frozen Minnesota wilderness to uncover a purported fortune.

Cast

Release

Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter had its world premiere on January 20, 2014 at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival as part of the US Dramatic Competition.^[5][6] It later made its International Premiere at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival on February 8, 2014.^[7][8] The film has gone on to screen at South by Southwest, BamCinemaFest, Maryland, Karlovy Vary, and Sydney Film Festival.^{[9][10][11][12][13]}

Reception

The Octopus Project won the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Musical Score at the festival.

The film received largely positive reviews upon its premiere at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival.^[14] Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 87% rating based on reviews from 61 critics, with an average score of 7/10.^[15] Metacritic gives the film a score of 77 based on reviews from 10 critics, indicating "Generally favorable."^[16]

Scott Foundas, in his review for Variety, gave the film a positive review by saying that "A beguiling fable of buried treasure and movie-fed obsession" and added that "At every turn, we can sense what’s going on behind Kumiko’s doleful, downcast eyes; Kikuchi pulls us deeply into her world."^[17] Todd McCarthy in his review for The Hollywood Reporter called the film "A work of rigorously disciplined eccentricity, Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter is at once entirely accessible and yet appealing only to a rarified crowd ready to key into its narrow-bandwidth sense of humor."^[18] Eric Kohn of Indiewire praised the film and said that "Striking a complex tone of tragedy and uplift at the same time, Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter both celebrates the escapist power of personal fantasies and bears witness to their dangerous extremes. It's the rare case of a story that's inspirational and devastating at once."^[19] David Ehrlich of Film.com gave the film 9.1 out of 10 and said that "Less of an homage to Fargo than the next appendage of the same exquisite corpse, Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter plays like a dryly hilarious riff on Don't Look Now" but ultimately said that "[it's] one of the best films to ever premiere at Sundance."^[20]

Accolades

The film went on to be nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards: Best Director and Best Female Lead. For his work on Kumiko and other films, Producer Chris Ohlson received the Spirit Award's Piaget Producers Award.^[21][22]

References

External links

• Official website
• Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter at the Internet Movie Database
• Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter at Rotten Tomatoes
• Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter at Metacritic