Minari (2020) (Korean & English Language)

Review

115min

Genre:       Drama

Director:     Lee Isaac Chung

Cast:         Steven Yeun, Yeri Han, Alan S. Kim…and more

Writers:     Lee Isaac Chung

-Synopsis-

In 1980s rural Arkansas, a young Korean immigrant family toils to make a living in their isolated farmstead and carve out their place in a strange land, while the young son and daughter begin to come of age as the mother and father grow further apart, with the arrival of their unusual grandma setting them on a path which will define the destiny of the ‘Yi’ clan.

Never have the immigrant experience, the complexities of a multicultural society, and the issues surrounding diversity and representation been further at the forefront of popular discourse and the headlines than they are right now in America and the Western world, with cinema in general and Hollywood in particular making them a driving force for change in the industry. Now against this backdrop writer/director Lee Isaac Chung turns inward to his own personal experiences to simultaneously tell a touching Korean immigrant tale and a classic working-class American family drama with oodles of heart.

Steven Yeun stars as chicken hatcher and patriarch of the young ‘Yi’ family ‘Jacob’, a Korean immigrant who relocates his wife ‘Monica’ (Yeri Han), young daughter ‘Anne’ (Noel Cho) and even younger son ‘David’ (Alan S. Kim) from California to Arkansas in the hopes of building a new life beyond endlessly sexing chickens for enough scratch to provide for his family. But his farming dreams soon take a stumble when the difficulties of rural living pile atop their children’s needs and the couple begin to drift apart in their visions for the future, as the arrival of the singular grandma ‘Soonja’ (Youn Yuh-jung) sets in motion events which will set a path for this young family.

In many ways ‘Minari’ is the kind of film that Hollywood and even indie cinema is only likely to make in the 21^st century, an immigrant story from an Asian perspective mostly in the Korean language. But this is also every inch a classic US family drama, and not only thanks to its period framing and rural American setting, as Chung tenderly but frankly pieces together the most emotionally honest type of family tale—a personal one—drawing on his own experiences of growing up in the rural Arkansas of the 1980s to craft a human drama from a distinct perspective but with truly universal and broadly relatable tones.

Luckily for him he can also rely on a collection of performances tinged with pathos but filled with heart and more than a bit of charm, delivered by a small cast all on form. A cast featuring Korean-American talents like Steven Yeun who admirably leads the line as the stoic melancholy but determined father, and young Alan S. Kim as his precocious and adorable little boy who frankly steals every scene he’s in with unbridled charisma, combined with South Korean actors like Yeri Han as the suffering wife caught between obligations, and Youn Yuh-jung as the visiting grandma who arguably proves the unconventional heart of the piece. Not to mention the likes of screen veteran Will Patton as the pious farmhand, who injects some local quirkiness into the proceedings.

Chung can also rely on plenty of indie talent behind the camera, leaning on a crew which brings together plenty of Korean interest from editing and casting to production and costume design—a rarity for what is ultimately an American film. Not to mention the likes of Australian cinematographer Lachlan Milne who vividly captures with natural light the lush greenness of rural Oklahoma standing in for Arkansas, helping bring to life the story’s little Korean agricultural eden in the middle of the American heartland, while American composer Emile Mosseri provides a melodic and often whimsical score which is both timeless and fittingly retro, injecting plenty of atmosphere into the drama and contributing to his growing reputation after his marvellous work on recent films like ‘The Last Black Man in San Francisco’ and ‘Kajillionaire’.

When it comes to the film’s greatest strength and its real source of emotional resonance, one could argue that the nuance of the writing and its delivery is what truly stands out in ‘Minari’, and what makes it as versatile as the plant after which it is named.

Rather than descending into melodrama, Chung delivers the film’s emotional notes with restraint but conviction and honesty, couching them in charm and frank humour while delivering a hugely relatable story of familiar strife and personal growth. He also skilfully threads through a meditation on the conflicts of urbanism and rural living, and plays upon the quirks of religion and superstition, all while touching on a clash-of-cultures and outsider theme and subtly shining a light on discrimination and bigotry, without hyperfocusing on them or resorting to the clichés so favoured by Hollywood.

The Bottom Line…

Lee Isaac Chung plunges into his own past to lovingly craft a very personal human tale which seamlessly combines the classic working-class American family drama with a modern immigrant story, delivering a humble little indie gem packed with charm and character but also pathos and restrained emotion—delivering a beautiful Korean chronicle that echoes in the hearts of all.

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