Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter

2014

104 mins

Directed by David Zellner
88%
64%
15+
Drama
Award Winner

Sundance-winning drama based on the urban legend of a lonely Japanese woman (Rinko Kikuchi, Pacific Rim) who, after watching the Coen... More

Sundance-winning drama based on the urban legend of a lonely Japanese woman (Rinko Kikuchi, Pacific Rim) who, after watching the Coen brothers' 1996 thriller Fargo obsessively, is convinced the events depicted are true and sets off to America in search of the buried money.

"Kumiko lives in a cluttered, cramped apartment in Tokyo with her pet rabbit, Bunzo. She works as an office lady, robotically preparing tea and fetching dry cleaning for her nitpicky boss. But on her own time, she obsessively watches a well-known American film on a weathered VHS tape. Rewinding and fast-forwarding repeatedly, she meticulously maps out where a briefcase of castaway loot is buried within the fictional film. After hours of intense research—convinced that her destiny depends on finding the money—Kumiko heads to the United States and into the harsh Minnesota winter to search for it." (Sundance Film Festival)

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Where to watch Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter

Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter is available to stream in New... More Zealand now on Google TV and Apple TV Store and Academy On Demand and AroVision.

Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter | Ratings & Reviews

88_%138 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes® rating
64_%8,780 reviews
Audience score rating
15+Age suitability
Children & Media rating

"A beguiling fable of buried treasure and movie-fed obsession."

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Variety

"The result is a fascinating – at times illuminating – tightrope act, but rarely an enjoyable one..."

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Time Out

"Strange as it sounds – and is – Kumiko comprises a lingering display of empathy for its heroine, marching stridently on through her own peculiar headspace."

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The Telegraph

"There's a spooky poetry to the climactic sequences."

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The Dissolve

"The film's chief delight -- and it is, for the most part, quite delightful and quirky -- lies in these marginal characters."

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The Australian

"A work of rigorously disciplined eccentricity... at once entirely accessible and yet appealing only to a rarified crowd ready to key into its narrow-bandwidth sense of humor."

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