Images courtesy David and Nathan Zellner
Sundance favorite Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter is a film about a film, following the titular character's journey from Japan to North Dakota in search of a suitcase full of money buried in the snow at the end of the Coen Brothers' classic, Fargo. The first half of the film paints a picture of Kumiko's mundane life working as an office girl in Japan, plagued by the social stigma of being single and a loner.Kikuo Ohta, the visionary production designer behind Enter the Void, was in charge of creating the dark, cluttered apartment that Kumiko is trapped in as she watches a decaying VHS tape of Fargo each night, searching for clues to the buried treasure. While getting your favorite movie eaten by the VHS player is a distant memory for most digital natives, it is a truly painful moment when it happens to Kumiko, followed by one the most beautiful moments in the film, an overhead shot of Kumiko flushing the tangled film down the toilet. While the shot was in the script from the very early stages, it presented a challenge to directors David and Nathan Zellner: how to make a toilet powerful enough to flush an entire VHS-worth of tape in one clean, easy take. Ohta had the solution."Ohta-san was really excited when he showed us the toilet," David tells The Creators Project. It was the only fabricated set piece in the whole apartment, constructed entirely for a single, elegant, shot. "Our scripts are very visual, and this scene was very specific and part of the script from the start," they continue. While one might see the scene as a metaphor for flushing away her dream of treasure hunting or shedding her already tenuous connection with reality, the directors say it was composed strictly for its beauty. "Most of our choices are intuitive, based on what feels right tonally, aesthetically on a gut level. We don't tend to intellectualize these sort of things. That scene just fundamentally felt appropriate from the get go."Loosely based on a true story [warning: spoilers], Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter has plenty to delight a production designer. Ohta drew a whole set of illustrations of the film's greatest scenes—including the toilet. Check out The Creators Project exclusive images below.Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter is available today on Digital HD, Blu-ray, and Video On Demand.Related:Composing Kurosawa: an Exploration of Movement in the Movies of a MasterWatch Full Movies From Start To Finish In A Single GIFHere's a Supercut Tribute to 46 Years of Space MoviesThe Secret To Successful Sound In Movie Trailers
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