Kumiko the Treasure Hunter.

A young woman in a bright red coat walks along an empty beach with a map in hand. She enters what looks like a cave and unearths a videotape. Returning to her flat joined by her pet rabbit Bunzo she pops the tape in her video player and at the beginning it tells her that the Coen Brothers 1996 film Fargo, is a true story and that the events depicted in this film took place in Minnesota in 1987. At the request of the survivors, the names have been changed. Out of respect for the dead, the rest has been told exactly as it occurred.

 

"now where is Fargo?"

"it can't be far know"

Written and directed by the Zellner Brothers, Nathan and David, their third feature film together, Kumiko the Treasure Hunter (2014) is based around an urban legend surrounding the death in November 2001 of a Tokyo office worker Takako Konishi who was reported in the media to have died of hypothermia close to Detroit Lakes Minnesota, where she was attempting to locate the suitcase fall of ransom money buried in the snow by Steve Buscemi’s character Carl Showalter.  In Zellner’s movie the 29-year-old Kumiko leaves her job and travels to the ‘New World’ in search of the buried treasure. We follow her from her home in Tokyo to the snowy wastes of Minnesota meeting various quirky characters on the journey.  

 

"do you know marge Gunderson?"

A fine atmospherical sound track by the quaintly named Octopus Project and some great cinematography by Sean Porter underline a great performance from Rinko Kikuchi, who you may remember from Babel (2006), Norwegian Wood (2010) and 47 Ronin (2013), as Kumiko who is portrayed as a lonely and unhappy young woman who hates her office bound job where her lazy boss takes advantage of her. Filmed entirely on location around Tokyo and Minneapolis Minnesota USA the rather oddly mystical and touching movie is a great joy to watch with a story that slowly evolves and a main character you can’t help but empathise with.  A movie for more enlightened film lover.

"she's not gonna find my treasure" 

Norwegian Wood

Japanese Film Poster.

The story begins in the late 1960’s and follows a student Watanabe Toru, played by Death Note actor Matsuyama Kenichi, as he moves to Tokyo to start University leaving behind Naoko, Babel (2007) nominated actress and model Kikuchi Rinko, the girlfriend of his best friend who for no apparent reason committed suicide. Two years later, after a chance encounter Watanabe visits Naoko and sleeps with her, but any escalation of their relationship is halted when she is sent to a sanatorium in the countryside because of her deteriorating mental state due to the earlier suicide and thereafter refuses to see him. After a string of casual encounters he starts a romance with a pretty emotionally uncomplicated student named Midori, played by American born Mizuhara Kiko in her debut film, but this relationship founders as he finds himself unable to forget Naoko. When he finally visits Naoko again at the sanatorium, this encounter prompts intense soul searching and confessions leading ultimately to tragedy!

It took several years of negotiations between Vietnamese/French director Tran Anh Hung and Haruki Murakami author of the novel adapted for Trans latest screen offering Norwegian Wood (2010). The reason these negotiations were so protracted was that two of his novels had been previously adapted and it has been reported that he was not happy with them; especially the 1980 film Hear the Wind Sing. The other movie was Tony Takitani (2005) (see link below), which I feel is similar in tone to Norwegian Wood.

Watanabe and Naoko

The script for this nostalgic story of loss and sexuality was firstly written in French than translated into English for the directors dealings with Murakami who provided extra dialogue especially for the film and then finally into Japanese for the cast, a language that Tran does not speak!

The movie is beautiful to look at, lovingly filmed by Mark Lee Ping-Bing who did the same for In The Mood For Love (2000), wonderful colours and visual detail. The musical score is by Jonny Greenwood a member of the English alternative rock band Radiohead who also did the score for There Will Be Blood (2007). My only criticism is that the film can be a little measured at times but I think a second viewing would probably help with a better understanding of a quite deep and meaningful story.

http://brianmatthews60.blogspot.com/search/label/Tony Takitani