I love the movie Fargo. Like, LOVE the movie Fargo. I recently likened The Legend of Barney Thomson to a Scottish Fargo, and believe me, that’s the highest compliment I know how to pay.
Kumiko lives in Tokyo. She is an “office lady,” working a demeaning job for a patronizing boss. She’s an extreme introvert and doesn’t seem to have any hobbies or outside interests other than hunting for treasure to escape her dreary life. Her most recent acquisition, found buried in a cave, is a VHS copy of the movie Fargo where she “discovers” buried treasure. You know – the bag of money that Steve Buscemi buries in the snow? Yeah.
So poor confused Kumiko embroiders herself a treasure map and flies to Minnesota with “I want to go Fargo” as her only English and a stolen company credit card her only money. Do things go well? No they do not.
Rinko Kikuchi is nothing short of fantastic as Kumiko and director David Zellner elevates the somewhat silly premise with beautiful things to look at. But I can’t say I loved this movie. It’s offbeat in a way I want to like, but I was so turned off by Kumiko that I couldn’t really surrender to the movie. Kumiko is stubborn and subservient and child-like and capable of tantrums. You just want to shake her, but no one ever does. I found myself wondering if perhaps she is mentally challenged, and I can only surmise based on her thoughts and actions that she is, but that doesn’t seem to concern the script very much. Instead it just launches her into absurd and dangerous conditions, and best of luck to her – and to us, for sitting through it. Because I most certainly did. There was so much potential that I kept willing it to be just a bit better, to see just a little bit of character development from her, any growth at all. I was willing to take anything.
Instead, any satisfaction I got was not from Kumiko but from a friendly cop (played by the director) who seemed to sense if not feel our frustration, and provided some much-needed laugh-out-loud moments that broke up the beautiful imagery dotted with the annoying Japanese woman.
While I can’t quite embrace it, I am a little fascinated by it, and would love to hear from anyone who saw it. Did you find a way to connect with it? Or did you survive it by delivering constant mental slaps?
We had this movie over here in August 2014 for Sydney Film Festival – one of the writers, Nick, pretty much though the same thing as you – read his last line 🙂 http://saltypopcorn.com.au/kumiko-the-treasure-hunter/
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Yup, we’ll always be bowing down to that one.
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Hmm. I’ve been wanting to see this one, but… Well, now I want to see it even more since it annoyed someone. If that makes sense. Lol 🙂
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Let me know what you think!
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I’ll try to remember! 😉
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Hmmm, I haven’t heard of it… And I’m intrigued , by what u write.. And I loved Fargo too;)
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Yes, Sean was just reminding me how much I mention that movie!
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Lol
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Have not seen Fargo, so no idea what any of this is all about, but hey ho I’m not likely to see this either 🙂
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What a compelling concept. I loved Fargo too. This actress has been pretty superb thus far as well. Looking forward to this peculiar little film. Thanks for spotlighting it!
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It’s definitely an oddity – I’d look forward to hearing your thoughts.
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I heard about this one. The review I read was more complimentary than yours, but I still don’t want to see it. It just sounds silly.
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It’s too dismal to be silly.
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Hm… Hadn’t heard of it, but think I’ll pass on this one…
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This film was based on a true story, a story which is sadder and much more complicated. So, needless to say, the true story isn’t funny at all. I won’t say anything more about it but you can hear about it here:
http://www.podcastpicks.com/posts/462
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OH lord.
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I really liked Rinko Kikuchi in this, but I couldn’t love the movie as a whole. It was too slow and pretty illogical at points. My biggest annoyance was always the guy at the airport giving Kumiko driving directions to Fargo instead of telling her to take a plane there. Seriously, it’s a 30 minute flight from Minneapolis to Fargo. lol
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I really want to watch a movie with your commentary!
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I have to watch this one, Jay! I let you know what I think about it 🙂
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