Get ready to call your parents after seeing Minari.
As a Korean and American, it is always exciting for me to see the Korean representation in the media. Who can forget the last year when Parasite won awards season and ultimately won best picture at the Oscars? This year, Minari captured people’s hearts – and awards should follow.
When the film debuted at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, it immediately received rave reviews. Since then, it has been named Best Picture by the New York Critics Online, nominated for Best Film – Foreign Language at the Gloden Globes, and received three SAG Awards 2021 nominations, including Cast Outstanding Achievement and Recognition for Steven Yeun and Yuh-Jung Youn. In fact, as the first Asian-American to receive an Oscar nomination for best actor, Yeun could very well make history.
I remember crying just watching the trailer and was thrilled to see an early film screening in January. I didn’t know how my life would change in a few hours. Minari tells the story of a Korean immigrant family who moved from California to a farm in Arkansas in the 1980s to pursue their American dream. Yeun portrays the family patriarch Jacob, who eagerly hopes for success, but his wife Monica (Yeri Han) struggles to support his ideas because they are struggling financially. Your children David (Alan Kim) and Anne (Noel Kate Cho) also need to adapt to their new environment, especially with the arrival of their grandmother (Yuh-Jung Youn) moving in with the family.
