Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter– **** out of *****
Blu-ray | Digital
Directed by David Zellner
Starring: Rinko Kikuchi, David Zellner, Shirley Venard
Theatrical Release Date: March 18, 2015
Blu-ray Release Date: June 30, 2015

The abilities that film, as an art form, harbors are staggering. Few other art forms have the tendencies to evoke such various forms of emotion with the use of imagery and sound. We know it can inspire and influence an entire generation, spreading across the globe rampantly to speak to each person on an intimate level. It is a fascinating pleasure, though, when one perceives that film’s abilities can be remarkably negative – awakening within a person a mindset that once has been unaccounted for.

Devoid of any sentimentalism that may plague other films that attempt to pay homage to a particular movie, Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter, directed by David Zellner, who also wrote the screenplay with his brother Nathan Zellner, references Joel and Ethan Coen’s 1996 film Fargo in a peculiar way that both thwarts and extols that film’s ginormous influence. With Kumiko the Zellner brothers achieve artistic relevance as they ultimately reveal, in a jokingly yet deadly serious way, the limitless plethora of wealth that cinema can afford to us, especially to an individual beaten-up by life who is looking for some meaning to her bland existence.