Starting life from scratch was not easy, especially for Korean Americans in the 1980s. The movie Minari represents the life of a Korean American family in search of the American Dream in the state of Arkansas. The film throws the audience into the journey of the Yi family and the hardships they face during their new beginning. Following their journey, viewers will feel themselves struggling alongside while forming a profound bond with the characters in the movie.

A Step Further for Korean Films

Minari is an American movie written and directed by Lee Isaac Chung, a Korean American director. This movie can be viewed as a semi- autobiographical account of Chung’s childhood, seeing that he was also raised on a farm in Arkansas. He initially attended Yale University to study biology and then planned to attend medical school; however, he discovered the wonders of cinema and dropped his career plans to become a film writer and director. His first movie was released in 2007, but Minari made him recognizable worldwide.

Minari first premiered in January 2020 at the Sundance Film Festival and won two awards. When released, it topped box office sales internationally, earning over two million United States (U.S.) dollars. Even during a pandemic, people were willing to go to the theater to see this award-winning movie.

Recently, it was nominated in six categories at the 93rd Academy Awards, commonly referred to as the Oscars: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Original Score. Moreover, it also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film and earned six nominations at the 74th British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) with Youn Yuh-Jung being awarded Best Supporting Actress.

Due to the overwhelmingly positive feedback from critics, many anticipated that Minari would be nominated for major categories at film awards. However, at the Golden Globe Awards, instead of being categorized and nominated as Best Drama, it was put into the category of Best Foreign Language Film, as it contained too much Korean dialogue. However, the movie has a mixture of English and Korean dialogueandisdirectedbya Korean American, which made many argue that this movie should have been nominated as Best Drama as well. If the Golden Globes’ treatment of Minari dissatisfied many, the Oscars, on the other hand, may have made those people happy. Since the victory of Parasite, Minari is the first movie directed by a Korean and primarily about Korean culture and life to be nominated at the Oscars. It has even gone a step further, with its Korean actors and actresses being nominated for awards as well.

Inside the Movie

The movie begins when the Yi family decides to move from California to Arkansas to start a plantation of Korean vegetables. Jacob, the father, is excited for his new project; however, his wife Monica is extremely worried about their financial situation. To make extra money, they begin to work at a chicken factory. Even with the income from the factory, moving to a new state to start from scratchleavesthemwithlittlemoneyto support their family. Due to this problem, Monica’s mother comes from Korea to look after the two kids and tries to adapt to a completely new culture.

Throughout the film, Monica and Jacob go through many hardships in their relationship while the grandmother and the kids bond by planting minari seeds by the creek. According to the director, the minari plant is a “type of plant you put into food to provide a little bit more of a kick” and is a very popular plant in Korea. At first, the minari plant seems to have no meaning at all, yet by the end of the movie, the viewers realize it is an important symbol in the movie. If the audience did not catch it the first time, this movie is worth rewatching in order to fully appreciate the meaning of the plant in the film. At the end, the minari seeds they planted come to symbolize the life of the Yi family; hence, the title of the movie.

Themes Behind the Film

Minari is built around two major themes. The first one is the life of immigrants and their struggles to achieve the American Dream; the second one is love of family. It is undeniable that starting a new life in another country is full of struggles. A new country means a new job and finding well-paying jobs in the 1980s for an immigrant who is not fluent in English was without a doubt difficult, to say the least. In the movie, the viewer can see how enthusiastic Monica is when she meets a Korean woman at her workplace. Although their job and working environment are undesirable, theyhavenootheroptionthantowork overtime to earn the minimum wage to pay for food and housing. While they are fictional characters, Monica and Jacob represent the very real first generation immigrants to the U.S. and their arduous yet resilient lives — their representation extends beyond Asian Americans to all American immigrants, perhaps even beyond that, adding to the film’s universal quality.

The second theme is love of family. Digging deep, Minari emphasized the importance of family by using the minari plant as a symbol. In the movie, the grandmother tells her grandchildren how useful the plant is, and she predicts that the plant will have a plentiful growth. The minari plant grows by itself in places where there is an abundance of water, and planting the minari seed in the movie represents the deep roots of family as well as the abundance of love within it. Just like the minari plant, this movie emphasizes the importance of family and leaves viewers with a beautiful message: never forget your roots.

Film Information

Release Date: February 12, 2021 (U.S.)

Director: Lee Isaac Chung

Cast: Steven Yeun, Han Ye-ri, Youn Yuh-jung, Alan S. Kim

Running Time: 115 minutes

Genre: Drama