"Fargo" tells the story of a husband who asked someone to kidnap his wife for money, hoping to get a ransom from his father-in-law, which led to a series of murders. The film tells that one of the kidnappers buried a part of the ransom in the snow somewhere in Fargo in order to monopolize the entire ransom.
Five years later, in November 2001, a Tokyo OL named Takako Konishi (Xiaoxi Yuko) died by the lake in Fargo. The urban legend Takako (honor son) went to Fargo to find the ransom in the movie "Fargo" and died.
Two years later, in 2003, American director Paul Berczeller pursued Takako's death and shot a documentary called "This is a True Story". Paul Berczeller discovered that Takako is a Tokyo OL who has a dissatisfaction with her life and work. She has visited Fargo many times because this is the place she and her lover have visited. Takako stayed at Motel the night before his death and made a long-distance call to Singapore, believing that the call was to her lover. The next day, she went to the lake alone and committed suicide. She also left a suicide note to her parents in Japan, signed "Yuzi".
Takako's story ends. Kumiko's story begins.
At the beginning of the "Fargo" movie, there was a paragraph, "THIS IS A TRUE STORY" The
Coen brothers later stated that this paragraph was purely nonsense. The story of "Fargo" is inspired by a basket of cases, but in general, the story, characters, and location are all created by the Coen brothers.
Paul Berczeller's documentary shows that this is his real truth. "This is a True Story".
The beginning of the movie "Kumiko" also has the subtitle "THIS IS A TRUE STORY".
The director stated that "Kumiko" is a story inspired by the story of "Fargo" and Takako.
However, the director did not film the true cause of Takako's death, and chose to describe Kumiko's story in an urban legend.
The story is very simple, just like Takako's urban legend, Kumiko is an OL in Tokyo, believes in the "Fargo" story, went to find the "treasure" alone, and finally died cold by the lake.
But the real "story" is hidden behind the "story", this is True Story.
The whole story revolves around a word "Solitude" that once appeared in the movie's dialogue.
Solitude and Lonely are not the same concept.
Kumiko is a 29-year-old OL. In Japan, most women get married before the age of 25 and leave the workplace to become full-time housewives. Business women will either continue to work hard after getting married before the age of 25, or try their best to climb up in the workplace instead of choosing marriage. There are very few OLs like Kumiko, who is 29 years old, unmarried, but still at the lowest level of the workplace. The invisible pressure in and outside the workplace and even in the native family is huge. If I can’t talk to my colleagues, young colleagues will think that Obasan’s work ability is bad, so he has not been promoted; family worries and urging about marriage are frequent; leaving home and farewell are also incompatible with the rhythm of the metropolis. Kumiko looked like a body without a soul when she was at work, talking on the phone with her family, and even throughout her life. The only thing that excites her is the plot of the old movie "Fargo". She jotted down a lot of notes in her notebook, and was busy rewinding "Fargo" every day. During the period when Kumiko was addicted to the film of the "Fargo" movie, while she was twisting the fast turn button, her life was given meaning.
"This is the most important thing in my life." This is her dialogue describing the treasures of "Fargo".
"Treasure hunt" is a somewhat mysterious and dreamlike concept, just like a fairy tale. The "treasure" that Kumiko "searched for" is not actually the treasure of "Fargo", not money, but the belief that he can change his life to give it meaning. "Treasure" is a metaphor. Even if you travel all the way from Japan to the northern part of the United States, even if no one else believes it, the "belief" that you only believe in is the most important thing that affects Kumiko's life.
Kumiko met a lot of people on her way to Fargo: it seemed that the duo of missionaries, the old woman living alone, the police officer who helped Kumiko alone, the Motel manager, and the taxi driver who instructed her to take the tour bus were actually the same as Takako. Anyone you meet can check in. At the same time, these people are all negative projections of Kumiko. Each of them is alone, but not lonely (Solitude). In the interview, the director mentioned that for loneliness, some people will put this emotion inward, and some will put this emotion outward. These extroverts are the people Kumiko meets, and the introverts who fall into the ending are Kumiko. The old woman said that Solitude was not good, and being alone would make people do stupid things.
Kumiko's red dress is like the red dress on the "Fargo" poster. Snow scenes and shooting methods similar to road movies seem to pay tribute to "Fargo". The vast white snow, bottomless scenery, unchanging roads, impassable languages, and the distance between people and their hometown all add to Kumiko's loneliness.
In Kumiko's story, she wandered on the verge of leaving Solitude several times. If the result is not like that, the ending may change.
Once, Kumiko and her old friend Michi met again, and they met in a coffee shop. If Kumiko and Michi can become friends again, occasionally the girls will have someone at a similar age to talk to, maybe there will be no following story. However, Michi brought her own child. Kumiko knew that it was impossible to have a topic in common with Michi, and her interaction with her would only increase the pressure on her city, so she ran away.
Once, she made a long-distance call to her mother for help, saying that this was the most important thing in her life. However, her mother just continued to scold her for embezzling the company's credit card to embarrass herself and disappoint her not to marry or go home. The two couldn't communicate, so she hung up the phone.
Once, Kumiko felt that the police treated him well and kissed the police. At this moment, she realized that she was alone in the past and she didn't want to go on like this anymore. It turns out that there is a person who is kind to herself that life will be meaningful. However, the police avoided, saying that he had a wife and children, and he just wanted to help her. Kumiko realized that she was alone, no more, so she ran away again.
Every time Kumiko stretched out her hand, she was slapped away. In the end, when she knew that there was no hope and only loneliness in life, the last utopia was in the "treasure", that is to say, she could only fall into her own "belief."
The last two scenes of the movie use lights, panning and horror music to make the audience's adrenaline soar, tense and desperate, and let the audience feel the protagonist's psychological emotions, which is really a magical touch.
The end of the movie is like the last match drawn by a little match girl. Bright colors, nursery rhyme-like background music, the appearance of Bunzo the rabbit (mascot), and the fairytale ending "find the treasure and live happily". We all know this is fake. In other words, the concept of "treasure hunt" is false. When the audience realizes that the pleasant part in the back is fake, and only the gloomy and gloomy part in the front is real, they also realize that the real story and the real concept are the lonely reality. Takako’s story is about finding Fargo’s treasures or committing suicide in Fargo. The loneliness of the city behind it is the real story.
Interestingly, the director usually typed "THIS IS A TRUE STORY" in the same font as a tribute to "Fargo". What he wants to say is this is Takako's true story? Or is this the true story of all our lonely urbanites?
In order to pursue one's own beliefs, how far can one go?
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