Page 7 - MidWeek - May 12, 2021

Set in the 1980s, Minari is about a family that moves from California to Arkansas in hopes to farm Korean vegetables and
Enter Monica’s mother, Soon-ja (Youn Yuh-jung). She moves in with the family
But this movie is no comedy. There’s a lot at stake. A mar- riage. A grandmother’s health. The future of two little kids. An ambitious, hard-working
Minari is currently available for rent or purchase on Ama- zon Prime, Apple TV and other streaming platforms.
MAY 12, 2021 MIDWEEK 7
Rotten
Making It In America
BY CHRIS MCKINNEY
PAPAYAS
Iwatched the Oscars the other weekend. I’ m half Korean and found myself immediately rooting for Mi- nari to win a bunch of awards. The funny thing is I didn’t even see it yet. I found my knee-jerk tribalism disturbing, not just because of the ignorant bias, but let’s face it: I don’t speak Korean. I’ ve never been to Korea. I’m about as Korean as a jar of Kohala kimchi. I can’t correct this, so I figured the least I could do is watch the movie.
sell them to a growing Korean immigrant population. It’s a dream driven by the family’s patriarch, Jacob (played by Ste- ven Yeun), but is not shared by his wife, Monica (Han Ye-ri), who resents that her husband has dragged her and their two kids across the country to live in the Ozark cut. It’s tough to blame her. Both work full-time sexing chickens, and when he’s not working, Jacob breaks his back to kick-start the farm. Their son, David, suffers from a heart condition, and they live nowhere near a hospital.
to provide her daughter with some companionship and help keep an eye on the kids. Youn, who won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in this film, is not the traditional American grandmother. She’s foul-mouthed. Adventurous. Hilariously inappropriate. The culture divide between her and her two American grandchil- dren is played to great come- dic effect. By the middle of the film, Soon-ja is hooked on pro wrestling and Mountain Dew.
man’s dream. When things begin to fall apart, and Jacob begins to silently, crushingly doubt himself, we see the full breadth of Yeun’s amazing acting skills. In fact, the en- tire cast is terrific, and the ac- tor who surprised me most is Alan Kim. His performance is the best I’ve seen from a child in years.
about race. There’s nothing in this film about racism in gen- eral. The fact that these charac- ters are Korean feels incidental. Also, the decision of writer/ director Lee Isaac Chung to set this semi-autobiographical film in the ’80s is smart. Set- tings often change over time and attempting to transpose the memory of a place onto the present can be fraught with storytelling danger.
Youn Yuh-jung captured an Oscar for her role in Minari. PHOTO COURTESY AP PHOTO/CHRIS PIZZELLO, POOL
Minari is a very familiar story. It’s simply the heartfelt, well-told tale of a struggling family trying to make it in this country. It’s about a man who doesn’t want himself and his wife to spend the rest of their lives working on a chicken as- sembly line. This movie isn’t
Minari is the name of an East Asian herb common in Korean cuisine. In this film, the herb, planted by Soon-ja from seeds she brought with her from Korea, thrives. The central message of this film is
built into this metaphor. The great thing about America is that anything can flourish if we let it.
chrismckinney808@gmail.com
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