2021 Oscars Review: Minari
Minari's Yi family: Jacob (Steven Yeun, left), Anne (Noel Kate Cho, center left), David (Alan Kim, center right), and Monica (Han Ye-ri, right). Yeun is nominated for Best Actor at the 93rd Academy Awards.
Here it is: the last review for the Best Picture nominations. We did it!! Well, Tom did it. I didn’t exactly write my Minari review just yet. This is just my little intro paragraph. So instead: Tom did it!! I’m currently doing it!! Minari is a lovely American film. Here are some of my thoughts.
“Minari is truly the best. It grows anywhere, like weeds. So anyone can pick and eat it. Rich or poor, anyone can enjoy it and be healthy. Minari can be put in kimchi, put in stew, put in soup. It can be medicine if you are sick. Minari is wonderful, wonderful!”
I have a very distinctive memory of my childhood. It’s like, my “comfort memory.” It’s early Saturday morning, and light is streaming into my bedroom. I can feel the cool wood floors under my feet as I sleepily tread into the kitchen. Gauzy curtains are billowing into the room as a light wind blows. And that’s it! I have no idea why this is something that I remember so clearly, but it is a scene that my mind returns to again and again. Minari reminds me of this memory.
This semi-autobiographical film, written and directed by Lee Isaac Chung, depicts a Korean-American family living in super rural Arkansas in the 1980s. The Yi family, led by the enthusiastic Jacob and skeptical Monica, set off to start a farm, where they can sell Korean fruits and vegetables to lenders. Of course, this is a difficult task, one that challenges the couple’s marriage and life with their two children.
Right away, what I loved about Minari was the nostalgic quality that seeped into every frame. While so many American families speak multiple languages at home (something that is portrayed masterfully in this film), I would argue that many people haven’t had the same experiences as the Yi family (or have even traveled to Arkansas for that matter). However, some things are universal. Everyone has felt a gentle wind shaking blades of grass outside. There is no doubt that every viewer has been told to eat something against their will as a kid, or has been forced to say hello to some random adult.
The fact that these moments were placed front and center in the film lends credence to the idea that the true protagonist is young David (played by the ICONIC six-year-old Alan Kim). I know that Steven Yeun is billed as the star, and has the Best Actor nomination to prove it. Maybe it’s a bias against young actors (something that has seriously been a problem over the years!) or some other reason, but this story truly feels like it is told through David’s eyes. Thinking about sweet David makes my heart burst even now. I don’t know if it was his obsession with Mountain Dew or his “enemies to friends” relationship with his grandmother, but Alan Kim’s performance helped to cement this movie in my top three Best Picture nominees this year.
Let me go back to memories for a second. I think that we have been trained, as movie watchers growing up in the '90s, to strain our eyes to see foreshadowing in every possible conflict. If a problem is hinted at, it HAS to come up again in a wild and violent way again, right? This movie proves that, just like in real life, sometimes the memories that stick out to us are the subtle and simple ones. While taking the church bus with his sister one Sunday, David sees his dad’s eccentric employee Paul (Will Patton) on the road. David smiles, until he realizes that some of the other kids on the bus are staring out the window, making fun of the man. If this was the early 2000s, this would pop up again, maybe with the kids provoking a violent incident with Paul. Instead, this mimics real life. There’s no incident later on. Paul presumably never finds out about these mean boys. Instead, we get something real: David sees how others treat people different from them. As the son of Korean immigrants living in a mostly white community, there is no doubt that David already knows this, but it is a look into the sort of conversations and minor events that we have all had as kids, one that make a lasting impact even without the fireworks that Hollywood might have focused on in the past.
I am not the only one that enjoyed Minari — it’s currently up for six Academy Awards, including some real biggies: Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Actor, Original Score, and my pick for the Best Supporting Actress trophy. Youn Yuh-jong plays Soon-ja, Monica’s mother who travels from Korea to live with the Yi family in the Midwest. Soon-ja is NOT the grandmother that David or his sister Anne expected. Instead of baking cookies, Soon-ja curses the kids out while beating them at cards. Forget about Murder, She Wrote playing on the TV. Soon-ja would much rather watch professional wrestling. Youn Yuh-jong plays Soon-ja with all of the brashness and lovable craziness as you could ever ask for, but with such heart and appreciation for her grandkids. I could watch her and the kids hanging out for hours and hours (maybe without the pranks that lead to some unfortunate “Mountain Dew” sipping). I really hope that she’ll be holding the golden statue on Sunday night. If that happens and we get anything even remotely close to her BAFTA acceptance speech, we are in for a treat.
I can’t recommend Minari enough. It is heartfelt, personal, and a truly American film. Barring its final act, the movie is quiet and meditative, but never boring. I will raise a glass of “water from the mountains” in celebration of this triumphant film.
Rating: 9/10