First Look: Rinko Kikuchi In The (Sorta) ‘Fargo’-Inspired ‘Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter’
Despite what that disclaimer led people to believe, theCoen Brothers’Fargowas not actually based on a real incident. But in a twist out of a Hollywood movie, the untrueFargowound up playing a part in a strange true tale after all, and now there’s a movie about the latter.
Directed by David Zellner and based on a 2001 event,Kumiko, the Treasure Huntercenters on a lonely Japanese woman (Rinko Kikuchi) who becomes convinced that a stash of money buried in a fictional film is real, and heads to Minnesota to seek the buried fortune.
Which sounds like a great basis for a whimsical indie — but in reality, the woman’s quixotic quest turned out to be something else, something sadder and darker, entirely. Hit the jump to take a first look at the pictures and find out what actually happened to the “treasure hunter.”
The plot synopsis suggests that Zellner’s film will be about a girl looking for made-up riches, but thetruetrue story had nothing to do withFargoor buried treasure at all.Badass Digesthas an excellent article aboutTakako Konishi(Kumiko’s real-life counterpart) and her tragic end, and it’s well worth a read.
The gist of it is that Konishi’s death — which local police and the media initially believed was an accidental result of her ill-advised search — was in truth a suicide caused by a personal, non-Coen-related crisis. The wholeFargolegend was just the result of what Paul Berczeller, who previously filmed a documentary short about Konishi,called"a Coen brothers-style series of tragic misunderstandings."
Whether Zellner will incorporate Konishi’s genuine motives into his movie remains to be seen, but either way her tale adds an interesting wrinkle to his premise.
