Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter

An innocent girl's desperate adventure. The rumours always adds lots interesting stuffs than the actual news. Sometime we feel that should have been real, because of the sunning depth that even a real story can't match. That's why the false information spreads like a virus on the social media. This movie character was inspired by a real young woman from Japan, but not the real event. An urban legend surround her visit to Minnesota, United States, back in the 2001. I have seen many films of different versions of the same events or the persons, but I never heard of this one before. So after the watch I did a little research on the original and I thought this film looked much better than that, especially for the movie it supplied a fine story material. Still a very much predictable, but for an entertainment purpose, it did decently. It was a beautiful adventure-drama. The main character is just like the one from 'Citizen Dog' or 'Amelie'. Kumiko is an innocent and a solitude woman in the twilight of her 20s. Her life is not so good, with having no friends or a boyfriend, pressure from her mother and at work, she decides to chase an unexpected dream after learning about the treasure from the tape she finds in a seaside. That leads her to travel halfway across the world to an unfamiliar territory and what follows is her desperate drive to achieve the undertaking. "I discover treasure. Right here. It's mine." The end was heartbreaking, only if you understood it clearly. Though I'm not going to reveal anything about that part as it might spoil if you have not it yet. But there's no declaration in the opening or before the end credits about whether it was a real or what actually happened in the end. Lots of scenes make no sense, and gives the impression of the girl is so dumb. Also leaves many unanswered questions behind which is the negative side of the narration. That's what you get in an urban myth, a collective tale and each slice of it is someone's creation/prediction based on the original evidence that is not understood properly. The story might be Americas, but due to the Japanese lead character, the entire film was in Japanese with English subtitle and very often some English line with the American characters. Besides, it looks more a Japanese film than the Hollywood's. The 'Pacific Rim' star Rinko Kikuchi was outstanding in the title role. The direction was good, the director also appeared in a small role as a cop. In fact, that was a big one for this movie where a small role can impact on the high level. Even a ten year old can differentiate what is real and what's not from a movie he watches in this world. Whatever the girl from the movie believed in is simply a fictional account and an entertainment for us, so don't expect it to be an uplifting movie. As I said it was based on a speculation of some real incident, but a well made movie except not detailing everything they have shown. It got a mixed response with mostly positive feedbacks, but my take on it is definitely good. And finally, this movie is not for everyone, if you decide to watch, try not to analyse it deeply. 8/10

Much like Kumiko's character, this treasure hunt will likely leave you feeling empty and hoping for a better world. It's overtly artsy atmosphere shrouds a superb lead performance from Rinko Kikuchi.

There weren't any memorable characters. The movie wasn't funny, in fact, I don't remember laughing one time. The movie was boring and sad. The worst part was the ending. Why have an ambiguous ending when in real life, the fate of the woman is not ambiguous at all? Usually, the movie is better than real life...usually. What is funny are the ignorant reviews I've read from others. One person wrote that they didn't understand the plot, but rated it a 9. Are you stupid? Others are giving it a high score, yet are confused about the character's intent. If you are confused about why a character acts the way they do, then that's a red flag for bad storytelling. if you are wondering if she had a mental disability, or if she is crazy, or depressed, or something else .... then that's a sign of bad story telling and so you shouldn't give it a high score.

Sadly, at the end of the day this offering is an enervating, protracted account of the desperate defenses of one human against the abysmal reality of life in an uncommonly rigid culture. Neo Coen, not Coen.

This is a great 30 minutes ART film. Can't relate to the main character, it is excrutiating. The premise has little to do with the movie. Don't be taken in by the critics. Yes, this is definitely different, but so it getting my foot run over.