The Women of THIS IS NOT A TRUE STORY

Madama Butterfly, the renowned opera by Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, is the story of Cio-Cio-San, a Japanese geisha who enters a marriage arrangement with American naval officer B.F. Pinkerton as part of the rental agreement on his house in Nagasaki. Cio-Cio-San gives up everything for Pinkerton, even after he is called back to the U.S., waiting day after day with their son for his return. When Pinkerton returns with an American wife, having truly abandoned her and their child, Cio-Cio-San commits ritual suicide, choosing to die with honor rather than live in shame. 

In Miss Saigon, the epic musical based on the opera, Kim is a young Vietnamese bar girl in love with Chris, an American G.I. who agrees to marry her after just one night together, then abandons her during the fall of Saigon. In the aftermath of the Vietnam War, Kim fights to survive with their son, Tam, believing that Chris will return for them. Once Chris learns of his son’s existence, he does return — with his American wife, Ellen. In her heartbreak and desperation, Kim kills herself so that Chris will take Tam with him to the U.S.

The title character in Kumiko the Treasure Hunter is based on an urban legend about a real-life person, Takako Konishi, who was found dead after traveling from Japan to North Dakota. According to the myth, which spread across online forums in the early 2000s, Konishi believed that the Coen Brothers film, Fargo, was a true story and went looking for buried cash from the movie. The real story was much grimmer: Takako lived alone and had lost her job after 9/11. She went to Fargo — a place she had previously visited with her former married American lover — to commit suicide.