Lee Isaac Chung delicately crafts a charming and intimate portrait of the American Dream with Minari

Aptly named after a Korean fruit that grows and thrives wherever it is planted, Minari is the story of Korean-American family struggling to plant their roots in 1980’s Arkansas. Written and directed by Lee Isaac Chung, this is his autobiography and it stars Steven Yeun as Jacob, Han Ye-Ri as Monica, Yuh-jung Youn as the grandmother, Alan S. Kim as David, and Noel Cho as Anne. David and Anne are the young children of Jacob and Monica. Though the film is mainly focused on the story of Jacob and Monica, I believe that the most clever and interesting aspect about this film is that every character has their own small narrative that allows us to know each character on a personal level and how they are struggling with integrating into this new world.

First, let’s talk about the broad, overarching narrative. The film opens with the family pulling up to their new home, a small mobile home in the middle of vast fields in Arkansas after they were forced to relocate from California. Immediately, we see their different reactions. Jacob(Steven Yeun) sees hope and promise among the acres of land. Jacob wants to create and start a farm in rural Arkansas so that him and his wife could be self-sufficient. However, Monica does not hold the same perspective on Jacob when it comes to the farm, or Arkansas in general. She stumbles into the small mobile home with help of Jacob and she asks him “this is it?” as if she hoped there would be a punchline. The home is tiny, and she jumps up and down, shaking it. She looks like she is ready to cry. “This is not what you promised.” she says. But, of course, Jacob tries to assure her that it will be soon.

Creating a farm from scratch is a serious endeavor, that obviously requires lots of time and money, which unfortunately they do not have much of, as Jacob and Monica have been working tirelessly for years as chicken sexers. This means pretty much what it sounds like. Their job is simply to pick chickens up and they check if they are male or female and sort them into corresponding boxes. As you can imagine, they work long hours and for not a lot of pay. So, Jacob’s dream of self-sufficiency is draining physically, financially, and emotionally. We watch Jacob struggle to make his dream happen for his family, so that they may one day lead a better and more comfortable life. This is the story, of course, the American Dream. However as the film continues on, we are also forced to question to what extent? We watch him sink hours upon hours into his day job, then come home, just to work day and night on his farm. Slowly but surely, the work begins to eat at Jacob. We watch Monica and Jacob’s relationship being strained and tested as they begin to fight more and more over the finances that he is sinking into this project and the hours that he is spending away from his family. Monica questions if the farm would succeed at all, rather sink them. As Lee Isaac Chung poses the all important question that we have heard a thousand times, all this effort that you are putting in, in pursuit of money or the American Dream, is it more valuable than the time you spend with your family?

My favorite of all of the smaller narratives being told is the connection and bond between Soonja, (Yuh-jung Youn) or the grandmother, and David (Alan S. Kim). As Monica feels increasingly alone and isolated, Soonja was invited from Korea to stay in the family’s household for a while to keep her company and help watch the children. Soonja is an odd, quirky, charming little grandmother who just wants to bond with her grandchildren, as she never got to meet them. However, we also are introduced to a cultural divide here. Soonja is not your typical grandma. She does not bake, cook, or play board games. Because she is so different from what they expected, the children hate her at first and don’t consider her a “real grandma”. David (Alan S. Kim), is the one who mainly struggles to form a relationship with her, because he finds anything Korean strange. He has never really been introduced to his own Korean culture. Soonja would try to reach out with her native food or tea and David would throw it up or hide in his room. Though, this relationship and story, I believe, is the heart and soul of the film. Because Minari is also the story of understanding cultural differences and integrating, I love David's story so much. He not only struggles with his new environment in Arkansas and struggles to make friends, but for the first time in his life, he is confronted with Korean customs. David must learn to be at peace with both of these worlds simultaneously.

Minari is both an emotional and charming story of a family attempting to make a new home and find their way past cultural differences. I loved pretty much every aspect of this film. Every actor here brought Oscar-worthy performances. Both Alan S. Kim and Yuh-jung Youn were my favorites in this film. Alan actually has a lot to carry on his small back, and never once did he crack under the pressure. Alan was an adorable, precious fun presence on screen. What was really excellent about Alan is not just how cute his performance was, but just how emotional it can be. Several times I found myself tearing up during his scenes. Truly one of the best child performances I have seen thus far, and I really look forward to his career. Yuh-jung Youn who plays Soonja, breathed a whole new life and energy into this film once she stepped into it. I could praise her performance forever. Yuh-jung Youn was charismatic and comedic, but she also displayed some moments of intensity throughout as well! Of course I cannot forget to mention and praise Steven Yeun. His performance is very intense and dramatic. Of course, he plays a very driven hard-working father, and we see this continuously dialed up as it goes on. Besides the story or writing, the cinematography and score is also some of the best I have seen this year. Though Monica calls the farm a “wasteland’, Lee Isaac Chung lovingly crafted every shot. We see many wide shots of the wide open fields, rolling hills, or winding roads. Every shot was so picturesque, warm, and cozy. It was such a breath of fresh air to escape into this movie and see nothing but fields and the sunrise. Of course this is all accompanied by a tender and gorgeous acoustic guitar score which only highlighted the beauty and tranquility of the landscape. Everyone involved in this movie did an outstanding job, from Lee Isaac Chung to writing and directing one of the beautiful films this year, to the entire cast for giving an incredible and emotional performance. I cannot recommend this enough!

I believe Minari will be on streaming next week, please keep an eye out!