MANILA, PHILIPPINES — America has long presented itself as a country of immigrants. Aside from Native Americans whose ancestors have been on the continent before the arrival of Columbus, practically every other nation has found its way to the United States and planted roots there. A veritable “land of milk and honey,” America has also represented a second chance or an opportunity to find more success than they did in their country of origin. For what feels like one of the first times ever though, a film finally shows that story from an Asian perspective, as seen in director Lee Isaac Chung’s Minari.
In the 1980s, immigrants Jacob (Steven Yeun) and Monica Yi (Han Ye-ri) have uprooted their small family from California to rural Arkansas. Jacob has long dreamed of owning his own land in America and hopes to provide a better life for his wife and kids Anne (Noel Kate Cho) and David (Alan Kim). Born with a heart condition, David is constantly told not to run around like other boys his age do. Despite her trepidation about the land Jacob bought, Monica agrees with Jacob’s decision for their family.
Jacob wants to farm and harvest Korean vegetables in the hopes of selling to a growing Korean population near and around Arkansas. David arranges for Monica’s mother, Soon-ja (Youn Yuh-jung) to travel from Korea to help watch the kids while the parents are at their day job sexing chicks in a hatchery. Although David doesn’t initially think that Soon-ja fits what they think a grandmother should be, she teaches him card games and soothes him to sleep.
Soon-ja also brings Anne and David to the nearby creek to plant minari seeds there. The grandmother tells the kids that minari is a resilient plant that can be used in a number of ways and that there will likely be a bountiful harvest in the spot where they’ve planted the seeds. With difficulties arising due to water drying up, vendors not fulfilling agreements, and others, the marriage of Jacob and Monica is strained even further as she keeps asking that they move back to California.
Jacob maintains the need to own this land in Arkansas in the hopes of fulfilling something that the couple dreamed of back when they were in Korea. When Soon-ja suddenly suffers a stroke that limits her speech and movement, the relationship is pushed further to the brink as Jacob and Monica seem to be coming apart even as their children are still adjusting to their lives in the country.
Almost a year after Bong Joon-ho stunned the world with Parasite winning several awards including Best Picture and Best Director at the Academy Awards, it is Korean-American filmmaker Chung’s semi-autobiographical story that takes centerstage. This story of the South Korean diaspora in hopes of achieving the proverbial American dream resonates for different cultures who have all had some semblance of that dream lived by people they know or are familiar with.
Yeun, who gained international fame playing Glenn Rhee in The Walking Dead, gives up his natural North American accent for that of a South Korean whom he probably constantly heard around him growing up. Struggling through a menial job while trying to set up a farm and also dealing with his son’s heart condition is not easy by any means and the pain on Yeun’s face reflects that several times throughout the film.
He is matched by Han’s Monica, who not only sacrifices her more comfortable existence in California for this dream of her husband, she also constantly misses life in Korea and not even the arrival of her mother nor their attempts to go to church more frequently can fix this. There is a constant longing in Monica’s eyes, she struggles so hard not to hide being disappointed in Jacob even though she still does love him. The climactic scene near the film’s end finally forces her to pick a side and her choice proves to be important for the film’s resolution.
It is, however, the performance of 73-year-old Youn that is most exceptional in Minari. An actress for over 55 years, Youn’s Soon-ja’s struggle to understand her daughter’s family, particularly her grandchildren, reflects how important the extended family is for Asian families like what we have in the Philippines. The generation gap is a real divide yet grandparents are always making the effort to bridge this gap by spoiling their grandchildren and bonding with them in ways that their own parents can.
The subsequent stroke that Soon-ja suffers changes how Youn acts even though she still wants to be helpful and productive in the household. Even with slurred speech and limited movement, the actress’ interaction with the younger actors is crucial in telling this generational story of immigrants in America. It thus comes as no surprise that she was nominated for Outstanding Female Actor in a Supporting Role by the Screen Actors Guild, a first for Korean actors.
Already a winner of the US Dramatic Grand Jury Prize and US Dramatic Audience Award at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, Minari has also been nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2021 Golden Globe Awards and named one of the best films of 2020 by the American Film Institute and the National Board of Review. It would not be surprising if Chung, Youn, and Minari itself receive Academy Award nominations for this year’s Oscars soon.
In a world where cinemas remain largely closed due to the global pandemic, it’s amazing that a story this deeply personal and with a relatively small cast of central characters was made, let alone that it’s story and the acting in it was so good. The challenge to not just get this film made but for it to be released mostly in Korean with subtitles echoes what Parasite had to go through last year. Luckily, also like Parasite, Minari has found success despite these perceived limitations and, like the plant itself, it is resilient enough that an audience has discovered it and shown it the appreciation it deserves.
