Rated: PG
Directed and Written by: Isaac Lee Chung
Produced by: Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Christina Oh
Director of Photography: Lachlan Milne
Editor: Harry Yoon
Starring: Steven Yeun, Yeri Han, Alan Kim, Noel Kate Cho, Scott Haze, Yuh-Jung Youn, Will Patton.
Korean with English Subtitles
A ‘Carther Truck’ rental tumbles down a dirt road ahead.
There’re hay rolls in the paddocks.
Black cows.
And the look of concern in the rear-view mirror.
It’s been Jacob’s (Steven Yeun) dream to plant a crop of vegetables traditionally grown in his home country Korea, but here in America. And finally he’s brought his family to where he sees his dream coming true: pan to a portable house but really a trailer still on it’s wheels in the middle of a paddock. And the threat of a tornado.
Welcome to Arkansas.
“This just keeps getting better and better,” laments Monica (Yeri Han), Jacob’s wife.
A city girl.
She doesn’t understand why they need to live in the middle of no-where.
But when your job is sexing chicks – the male chicks placed in the blue container, the female in the white, knowing the blue container is for the furnace because the male chicks don’t taste as good or lay eggs – it’s hard for Jacob not to want to make himself useful. Otherwise he might just end up as smoke in the sky.
Manari is the story of the family trying to make it work. Making that tree change and making the dream a reality.
The first priority is his family. But to look after his family, Jacob feels like he needs to achieve something that’s his.
It comes around.
A theme shown in the subtleties – Anne (Noel Kate Cho), the young daughter echoing her mother, “it keeps getting better and better”.
And how fire can mean the end, but also the beginning.
There’re all these bitter-sweet moments, like when Grandma Soonja (Yuh-Jung Youn) comes to stay – but she’s not a real grandmother, says David (Alan Kim). She swears and doesn’t bake cookies.
But she loves David so much she can laugh, and she can make fun, she smells like home: she finds the perfect place to plant, minari.
It’s in these quiet circles the family drama of Minari is shown with sunlight shining through the long grass, the warmth of Paul (Will Patton), the crazy God loving American who is just so weird but such a gift.
There’s little David with his cowboy boots and stripy socks.
And there’s hardship. But that just makes those good moments all the more sweet.
Most of the time I was smiling through-out this film, with a rise of emotion here and there, just a little melancholy. Kinda like taking a walk in the afternoon, with the sun shining behind some cloud cover that gets you feeling the breeze and the moment a bit. The sun comes out again. Then you walk home.