Minari

This was a film that I didn't get to during its initial run last year (2020) but we needed to choose a film as part of a quiz night win so we landed on Minari. As you can guess from my lack of enthusiasm, I didn't necessarily have high hopes for this but I was impressed on the whole. It's an engaging family drama set in the 1980s about a Korean family who immigrated to California some time before, but are now trying to take a stab at country life in Arkansas. 

The dad, Jacob (The Walking Dead's Steven Yuen), is the driver of this attempt to go bush, while mum, Monica (Yeri Han), is less impressed. Throughout, their relationship appears to be entering the final innings. The kids range from hating the move, to putting up with it, to enjoying it - in no particular order. Regarding the kids, there's a lot for Alan Kim to do as David, much less for Noel Cho as Anne. She basically plays the family crutch; looking after younger bro, helping mum and dad, tolerating crazy granny when she comes to live with them. It's a pretty under-written role but she does what she can with it. Granny Soonja is played by Korean star Yuh-Jung Youn, and her supporting role Oscar is well-deserved. As you can imagine, she gets most of the laughs, as well as a hefty share of the pathos.

The 'fish out of water' trope with Minari is familiar but it's given a splash by the pieces in play. I can't remember ever seeing a film focussing on a Korean family in the 'hillbilly' region of the US. This freshness almost papers over the forced ending, which is kind of hard to reconcile with the rest of the film. Would minds be changed so quickly - surely, if anything, the situation has become worse?

In essence, the minari plant of the title explains writer/director Lee Isaac Chung's feeling towards the family (and perhaps Korean people in general), in that they're resilient and can 'grow' anywhere. Jacob's ultimate acceptance of the minari, and thus, his mother-in-law, shows that he can finally compromise. 

See also:

A couple of films spring to mind relating to farming troubles. The excellent Jean de Florette (1986), directed by Claude Berri, and the also brilliant Honeyland (2019), directed by Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov.