Minari
A close-knit family of Koreans struggles to realise the American dream in Lee Isaac Chung’s multi-Oscar-nominated drama.
Heads above water: Yeri Han, Steven Yeun, Alan Kim and Noel Kate Cho
In spite of an
enviable position on the world stage, South Korean cinema has largely been
ignored by the American Academy. It wasn’t until two years ago that the first Korean
film was even nominated for a best
foreign film Oscar. And a year after Lee Chang-dong’s Burning won that distinction, Parasite
came along like a gong-grabbing express train, snapping up four Oscars, for
best picture, director, screenplay and best foreign language film. Technically,
Minari isn’t a South Korean production,
but it’s in the Korean language and is the work of a filmmaker whose parents
are Korean. And it’s been bestowed with six
Oscar nominations, including nods for best picture and best director. The
zeitgeist works like that.
‘Minari’ is
the South Korean word for water dropwort, a herb that grows much stronger in
its second season, after it has died and come back. It was a metaphor that
suited the writer-director Lee Isaac Chung, who built his film around the
experience of his own family acclimatising to a new life in rural Arkansas. From
the start, Chung asserts his creative credentials, bathing the viewer in the
pastoral splendour of 1980s’ Americana, reflected in the features of a child’s
face staring out of a car window. The latter is the American-born David Yi (Alan
Kim), who is about to witness his father take his first tentative steps towards
the American Dream. Their new home looks underwhelming: a long box on wheels. But
it is the land around it that holds the potential to their future.
Lee Isaac Chung
understands the power of a child’s face, and much of his story unfolds from this
perspective, as David and his older sister Anne (Noel Kate Cho) observe their
parents quarrel and make up, and watch as their father Jacob (Oscar-nominee
Steven Yeun) toils under the baking sun to raise crops for the local Korean appetite.
Anybody who’s seen Claude Berri’s heart-wrenching Jean de Florette (1986) will know that this is unlikely to be plain
sailing, particularly when water proves to be so crucial to the farm’s success.
At first, Jacob hires a local dowser but balks at the man’s asking price, so
employs his own common sense to locate a water source. “Korean people use their
brains,” he reassures his ever-attentive son. But Jacob’s wife, Monica (Yeri
Han), just mutters, “This is not what you promised” – “It just gets worse and
worse.” To make ends meet, Jacob and Monica spend their days separating male
and female chicks at a local factory, a soul-destroying occupation known as
“sexing.” Despondently, David and Anne sit and watch. Once detached, the male
chicks are incinerated en masse. Life
then takes a change when Monica’s mother, ‘Grandma’ (Oscar-nominee Youn
Yuh-jung), arrives from Korea to take over baby-sitting duties. But ‘Grandma’
seems no such thing to David, as she cannot cook or bake cookies, swears a lot and
watches boxing on TV.
All this is
beautifully observed, and thanks to Chung’s expert direction and the quality of
the five central performances, we become emotionally invested in the family’s
status quo. There’s deliciously ripe support from Will Paton as the labourer
hired by Jacob, a religious zealot who cannot thank God enough, cries copiously
and drags a life-size crucifix along the dusty main road every Sunday. Emile
Mosseri’s delicate, evocative score is another major plus, and earned another
Oscar nomination for the film. Like Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland, for which Minari
is competing for the top prize come April 25, Chung’s film takes a balanced
view of the enchantment and idiosyncrasy of rustic America – as viewed through
largely foreign eyes. It’s a winning, poignant snapshot of a close-knit family
on the brink of a Brave New World.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Steven Yeun, Yeri Han, Alan Kim,
Noel Kate Cho, Scott Haze, Youn Yuh-jung, Will Patton, Esther Moon, Jacob Wade, Ben Hall.
Dir Lee Isaac Chung, Pro Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner and
Christina Oh, Ex Pro Brad Pitt and
Steven Yeun, Screenplay Lee Isaac
Chung, Ph Lachlan Milne, Pro Des Yong Ok Lee, Ed Harry Yoon, Music Emile Mosseri, Costumes
Susanna Song, Sound Kent Sparling.
A24/Plan B Entertainment-Altitude Film Distribution.
116 mins. USA. 2020. Rel: 2 April 2021. Available on Curzon Home Cinema. Cert. 12A.