You probably know him as Glen from the undead juggernaut The Walking Dead but Steven Yeun has been on a mission to show his talent and range since his grisly exit from the apocalyptic wasteland (not that today’s landscape is much better), with brilliant turns in Chang-dong Lee’s Burning and now director Lee Isaac Chung’s semi-autobiographical Minari. Chung surrounds Yeun with a bevy of Korean-American talent who bring his intensely personal story of a young family moving to Arkansas to start a farm to the screen with empathy and honesty, as each family member struggles with the changes in their own ways. While it may not hit the dizzying heights of last year’s smash South Korean hit Parasite, Minari is still an incredibly powerful and intimate portrayal of perseverance and one family’s struggle to achieve the American Dream.
Yeun plays Jacob, patriarch of the Yi family, who have recently relocated to rural Arkansas, committing their life savings to the dream of working for themselves as a Korean vegetable farm and setting an example for children Anne (Noel Cho) and David (Alan Kim) of what hard work can achieve. Optimism and hope for what lies ahead soon fades as tensions rise between Jacob and wife Monica (Yeri Han), prompting the arrival of Monica’s mother Soonja (Yuh-jung Youn) from Korea to assist in raising the children while Monica works long hours in town and Jacob toils in the farm, determined to prove himself a success to his children. As their parents struggle, David and Anne are distracted by Soonja’s wild, un-grandmotherly antics – gambling, watching pro wrestling and drinking unhealthy amounts of Mountain Dew – forcing them to question her behaviour and uncover their Korean heritage and its place alongside their American upbringing.
Chung’s script doesn’t fall into the typical tropes of stories of immigrants acclimatising to life in America; encountering systemic racism and eventually good fortune at the end of their long struggle. Instead he draws from his own experiences, creating a world that feels much more lived in and real than most films of its ilk. There is no clear-cut antagonist; the children of the local church group are not inherently mean-spirited and racist towards the Yi children, they simply lack understanding of the Korean culture. Chung does not seek to place blame but to educate in these scenes, demonstrating the impact that just a little patience and tolerance can have on a person’s growth. One scene in particular involving Anne and a local girl initially shocks with its casual, flippant racism but shocks even further with its even-handed approach to Anne’s response to this racism. In her childlike innocence she does not see the girl’s queries about her language as offensive, nor does the girl asking see the issue with her query, but through this innocence and a desire to both learn and be taught the pair part ways richer for the experience, having both benefitted through education and burgeoning friendship.
Where Minari may divide viewers is in this lack of convention. The film moves at a measured pace – some might say meandering – through the daily life of the Yi’s and their struggles. Jacob’s inability to get the farm into profitable shape weighs heavily on the young father and his marriage to Monica. David struggles with a heart murmur that inhibits his ability to do what most children would take for granted. Soonja helps as much with the children as she can but feels that her presence is contributing to the tensions in Jacob and Monica’s marriage. There are certain defining moments that pivot the story into new directions but largely this is a life-like portrayal of a family coming to terms with their new life. Small hurdles are overcome, mistakes are made but at the end of the day love will prevail. The heart and charm of the somewhat uneventful story comes from Chung’s obviously personal touches, like the affectionate labelling of Mountain Dew as “Mountain Water” or the delightfully childish pranks David plays on his grandmother. Young Alan Kim is a star here, carrying the audience through large chunks of the film with equal parts comedic talent and by being ridiculously cute. When the story returns to the heavier struggle of Jacob, Yeun shifts to a higher gear than ever before, with an emotional performance that will have you crying at the lows and pumping your fists in the air at the highs.
To compare Minari to last year’s award winning Parasite just because of its Korean dialogue and similar critical praise is to do the film and yourself a disservice. Significantly smaller in its scope, Lee Issac Chung’s is an emotional, heartfelt portrayal of one family’s struggle to strive for more and achieve the elusive American Dream, rather than the ruthless upheaval of classism by Bong Joon-Ho. With excellent performances from the whole cast -particularly a phenomenal Steven Yeun and David Kim – gorgeous cinematography and a stellar score, Minari is a beautifully told journey that will leave you cheerful and inspired and hopefully, like Parasite, open to the idea of exploring a whole new world of Korean cinema.
Minari stars Steven Yeun, Yeri Han, Alan Kim, Noel Cho & Yuh-jung Youn – In cinemas now.