The title character in Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter (Rinko Kikuchi – Oscar nominated for Babel) flies from Japan to Minnesota on a quest to unearth the suitcase of loot that Steve Buscemi hid in the snow in the movie Fargo. Because she doesn’t speak English or have any money, navigating the frigid 200+ miles from the Minneapolis Airport to Fargo, South Dakota makes for a fish-out-of-water comedy, albeit a tiresome one-joke comedy.
We meet our heroine living a solitary life of utter dissatisfaction in Tokyo, where she spits in every cup of her boss’ tea. At night, she watches and re-watches a scratchy VHS tape of Fargo. As we watch her increasingly bizarre actions, it becomes clear that she is starkers. The absurdist humor in Kumiko comes from the completely deadpan depiction of the bizarre. It’s all very droll, with many genuinely funny moments, but it finally becomes tedious. And I didn’t buy the glimpse of magical realism at the ending.
Here’s something I liked about Kumiko – the director and co-writer David Zellner also plays the role of the rural deputy sheriff – and he’s really great at capturing the essence of a well-meaning man driven to help, but utterly unequipped to do so.
So, how funny, really, is mental illness? Having seen it up close in my own life, I don’t seek it as necessarily cute or quirky. This woman is raving mad, but she’s been able to remain (barely) functional with a highly regimented life in her own culture. When she plunges herself into an alien world, she inevitably decompensates. I am able to enjoy mental health humor (and I aspire to be the farthest thing from a scold on the subject), but just watching someone flail around within their disability isn’t entertaining for me.