image by Astrid Caballeros
A very quick recap, since Google and Wikipedia can provide all the details. In the early 2000s, a minor news sensation was created when a Japanese girl was found dead on her way to Fargo, North Dakota. Her interactions with the locals in Minnesota led police to believe that she was looking for the treasure buried in the movie, Fargo, through some kind of delusion believing it to be real. This formed the basis for the story in the movie. The movie is stylish in a minor key.
There is a wonderful small documentary, This is a True Story, and a wonderful small radio version of the documentary story on the delightful show Snap Judgment, that tell the TRUE story of what happened here. The woman in question, Takako Konishi, had an American boyfriend, who she attempted to find again after her life in Japan fell apart. Whether she was suicidal or carelessly froze to death in the Minnesota winter is still unknown, but the documentary version tells the subtle story of how perception of the foreign mixed with the imaginary elements in the locals' minds to create the myth of the woman looking for the treasure of Fargo. Watching the movie after learning this true story was certainly more interesting, but the true story is sadder and more tragic than the film version. Watching/listening to all three of these things together makes for a very rich artistic experience.
What is the personal aspect of this case for NJ Kpopper? This bear is very, very interested in capturing some of the kinds of subtle and bizarre twinkling recombinations of culture that can happen when "cultures collide". But I am thinking not about car crashes, but the strange gravitational attractions that occur when the stars in two separate galaxies merge and recombine into something entirely unexpected. Yes, that. Just that.
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