Minari

Lee Isaac Chung’s Minari is a simple and human story told with authentic sweetness. A story about how a family learns to adjust to their surroundings and make a better life for one another. While it combines Korean culture with the pride of living the self-made American dream, it finds a way to bridge the gap between the two in the give and take within a family. It isn’t so much about overcoming obstacles, as being able to find ways to bear them and still live. It was made with great care, and that love is in the film’s every moment.

Minari follows The Yi family, who have moved from California into their new plot of land in rural Arkansas, where Jacob (Steven Yeun) hopes to grow Korean produce to sell to vendors in Dallas. While he’s optimistic about their plans, his wife, Monica (Han Ye-ri) does not share the enthusiasm. She preferred the life they had in the city and fears for their son, David’s (Alan Kim) heart condition. The development of Jacob’s plan is slow going, and it leads to many arguments between him and Monica while David and their oldest, Anne (Noel Kate Cho) looks on. Monica’s mother, Soon-ja (Youn Yuh-jung) comes from Korea to watch the kids while Jacob and Monica work at a chicken hatchery. Her presence could be viewed as more of another issue than an element of reprieve. The family must contend with a lack of funds, lack of water, potential tornados, physical ailments, and one another’s wants and needs, all the while integrating themselves in an area of the country where they stand out.

Everything in this film feels natural, from the conversations to the performances to the humidity you can almost feel coming off the screen. Scenes don’t have a dramatic crescendo because things cannot be fixed so easily. Many aspects of the narrative seem to suggest a payoff, especially in the case of David’s heart condition, or in the character of Paul (Will Patton) who Jacob enlists for help on the land. But their is no real payoff, instead we’re just watching a family’s struggle as they try to live a singular existence. What did happen for me was my growing to care about the characters and my wanting for their happiness.

Performance wise the film is a home-run. To American audiences, Steven Yeun will be the most known Korean member of the cast, and he’s excellent. He clearly relishes in bringing a Korean story to life, and his very personal performance reflects that. Han Ye-ri is also wonderful in a role that could easily make her look like an unsupportive spouse despite her character being the one to sacrifice a way of life that she preferred. The married couple end up coming away as two flawed people who I wanted to find the middle ground, even if it isn’t really there. Of the two children, Noel Kate Cho as Anne gets less to do, but she’s still really good. However, it’s Alan Kim who steals the movie. Whether speaking in Korean or English, Kim is believable as an inquisitive little boy. He pulls a prank on the grandmother in the film, and it not only made me laugh, but I believed it was something that David would do. Not just any boy, but David. And speaking of the grandmother, Youn Yuh-jung, a well known Korean actress, gives the film a boost of energy every time she’s on the screen.

Writer/director Lee Isaac Chung gets a little too Terrance Malick with his visuals, but otherwise has made an unassuming film that will make people fall in love with a family. And he has done this without obvious pulling on the heart strings. If there is a real flaw for me, it came at the ending. It contains a scene that doesn’t feel as authentic as what came before, and it allows the film to wrap things up too abruptly and easily. Though I suppose the point is that all it takes it to bring a family together is to make them realize how much they care about one another. It doesn’t mean the problems are fixed, it just gives them the greatest reason to face them.

I hope for the best for the Yi family.

Grade: B+