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Review / ‘Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter’ (PG) *** and a half

Kumiko, the Treasure HunterAT age 26, Kumiko lives in a tiny Tokyo apartment with only her pet rabbit for company. She has a boring office job. Whenever she calls her mother in another city, the tirade – have you been promoted, are you engaged, are you pregnant, when will you come home to take care of me? – quite dominates the conversation.

Writer/director David Zellner’s film begins with Kumiko finding a water-damaged videotape of the Coen Brothers’ 1996 crime thriller “Fargo”.  Salvaging enough of it to see a thief burying the proceeds of a robbery, she travels to Minnesota to find it.

Minnesota in winter is no place for a young woman totally unequipped to undertake such a demanding quest in a strange land where social customs are a world away from those in Japan.

That’s the framework for a delicate, optimistic and occasionally bleak movie showcasing Rinko Kikuchi’s impressive performance as Kumiko.  Zellner also plays a highway patrolman who takes her under his wing and tries to persuade her that “Fargo” is fiction, there is no hidden cache of money.

The film derives poignant visual and emotional impact from her tiny figure trudging through deep snow guided by a road map and sustained by indomitable determination, enveloped in a cloak made from a stolen motel bedspread.

We feel frissons of concern for Kumiko’s welfare. Her courage comes from a combination of innocence and doggedness rather than stubbornness. Often in harm’s way, her avoidance of disaster is never less than credible. Award-winning direction, sensitive writing, wonderful acting, beautiful images – what more could you ask from a film?

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Dougal Macdonald

Dougal Macdonald

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