The setup here might promise routine road comedy: A sad and lonely Japanese woman, who somehow believes the 1996 Coen brothers movie Fargo is a documentary, ventures from Japan to the frozen Midwest to find the cash Steve Buscemi buried in the featureless snow. So—a comic series of cultural misunderstandings ending with vindication for the determined Kumiko? Just the opposite, and indie filmmakers David and Nathan Zellner have no interest in obvious gags. Half their movie is scene-setting in Tokyo, where dejected Kumiko (Rinko Kikuchi) is considered an old maid (at 29) by her office mates. Her mother exists only as a nagging voice on the phone. Her only friend is a pet rabbit. And her Eleanor Rigby-like solitude is given purpose only by the magical discovery of a Fargo VHS tape that she obsessively studies, making notes and tracing diagrams, for what she hopes will be a triumphant adventure. (Later we’ll have cause to doubt the origin of that tape and to question Kumiko’s grasp of reality.)

Oscar-nominated for her bare-all performance in 2006’s Babel, Kikuchi turns her soul to lead for this role. Kumiko can barely make eye contact or sustain a conversation (she speaks limited English). More than shyness or defeat, an ever-widening distance separates her from the world beyond her imagination. Kindly strangers, including a widowed Minnesota farm wife and a sympathetic cop (David Zellner), barely register. The lights go on only when Kumiko is planning her quest. Kikuchi gives her an Asperger’s-like focus and detachment, another reason this isn’t comedy. (Fargo had far more laughs and humanity—for better and worse.)

Unseen in Seattle, the Zellners’ prior two features, Kid-Thing and Goliath, also dealt with alienated loners. Kumiko can likewise be seen as a character study; though, like her supposed treasure, it’s not certain if that character actually exists. A stubborn obstinacy lies at Kumiko’s core, but also delusion (and possibly mental illness). With its careful widescreen framing and often-unsettling score (by The Octopus Project), Kumiko sometimes put me in mind of Kubrick. It’s a very composed and controlled picture, with a heroine who believes she’s on the cusp of something transformative, even cosmic. The ending achieves a kind of 2001-like apotheosis that leaves you wondering if Kumiko ever truly belonged on this planet.

bmiller@seattleweekly.com

KUMIKO, THE TREASURE HUNTER Opens Fri., March 20 at SIFF Cinema Uptown. Not rated. 105 minutes.