Minari

Director: Lee Isaac Chung, Yeri Han Lee Isaac Chung

Overview

Steven Yeun, Yeri Han, Yuh-jung Youn, and Will Patton star in writer-director Lee Isaac Chung's poignant and semi-autobiographical immigrant family drama. A Korean American family relocates to a small farm in Arkansas in the 1980s ? to pursue their own version of the American Dream. The arrival of their irreverent grandmother disrupts the balance they try to maintain between cultural assimilation and autonomy.

Product Details

Release Date:	05/18/2021
UPC:	0031398326564
Original Release:	2021
Rating:	PG-13
Source:	Lions Gate
Language:	English
Sales rank:	61,076

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Steven Yeun	Jacob
Yeri Han	Monica,Monica
Yuh-Jung Youn	Soonja
Alan S. Kim	David
Will Patton	Paul
Scott Haze	Billy
Eric Starkey	Randy Boomer
Esther Moon	Mrs. Oh
Darryl Cox	Mr. Harlan
Jacob M Wade	Johnnie
Jenny Phagan	Bonnie
Tina Parker	Debbie
Chloe Lee	June
Joel Telford	Older Kid
Kaye Brownlee-France	Lab Tech
Skip Schwink	Doctor
Laurie Cummings	Sales Lady
Laurie Frost	Church member
Warren Lane	Church Goer
Jonnie Parnell	Bank Teller
Ernie Robinson	Church Member
Ed Spinelli	Church member
Debbi Tucker	Hospital visitor
April Warren	Church Goer
Eugene Webster	Big Man
Daniel Fortman	Church Usher
Amanda Pearce	Church Goer
Han Ye-ri	Actor
Noel Kate Cho	Actor
Alan Kim	Actor
Noel Cho	Anne
Ben Hall	Dowsing Dan
James Carroll	Brother Roy
Emile Mosseri	Composer

Technical Credits

Lee Isaac Chung

Lee Isaac Chung	Screenwriter,Director
Joshua Bachove	Executive Producer,Producer
Brad Pitt	Executive Producer
Steven Yeun	Executive Producer
Dede Gardner	Producer
Jeremy Kleiner	Producer
Christina Oh	Producer
Jamie Baxter	Special Effects
Julia Kim	Casting
Yeri Han	Director
Kent Sparling	Sound/Sound Designer
James Russell	Sound Mixer

Editorial Reviews

Minari is a drama about a Korean family that chases after the American dream by moving to the Ozarks on the prospect of making money by filling a niche. When Jacob gets the idea that he can move away from the fields of California to grow Korean vegetables to an increasing number of Korean immigrants living in America's Heartland, he inadvertently creates a rift in his family, who are out of their element in this new place. His struggle to be the provider lands them all with a host of new challenges. Young parents Jacob (Steven Yeun) and Monica (Yeri Han) are struggling to make ends meet at their dead-end farming jobs in California. Sick of sorting chickens and eking out a living that's not sustainable, Jacob wants to move to Arkansas to start a farm, and a big one at that. He wants to build a life for them so that they can thrive, rather than live in eternal poverty. Monica's not sold on the idea, as she's more accustomed to living in the city, but willing to entertain it for Jacob's sake. Her end goals for her American-born children are at least in line with his financial goals. She, too, wants the best for her family and while she struggles to see how they can find it in this new place, she makes a concerted effort to rise to the challenge. But when Monica's mother - grandmother Soonja (Yuh-jung Youn) - arrives from Korea, an interesting new dynamic is added in that she's supposed to be there to help with childcare, but ends up adding new problems of her own. Committed to her own ideas and ideals, she doesn't pull any punches with her words, or her actions, often taking her childcare to the next level as she provides unwanted care for her own adult child. As committed as the family is to trying their best to fit in, with Jacob adopting the mannerisms of the farmers around him and all of them trying to pick the right church to make friends at, they're still faced with a looming dark truth. How much of their fitting in is assimilation and how much of their roots can they hold onto in this new world? Written and directed by Lee Isaac Chung (Abigail Harm, Lucky Life) this is a semi-autobiographical tale of his own roots in Arkansas. There's a truth he manages to capture in each of the characters, which springs from their own desires and appears genuine. The metaphor of the hearty minari crop which Soonja plants in a nearby stream, which only needs water to adapt to its new environment, describes perfectly the Korean family trying to make it in the heartland of America. Arkansas is a far cry from their California and provides the beautiful backdrop that's strikingly different than the desert they're accustomed to living in, while at the same time offering new challenges for them all to overcome both physically and emotionally. Overall, Minari boasts some fine performances through well-written characters, as well as a unique setup for a fairly commonplace though timeless fish out of water tale, retold in a slightly different way than usual. There's something universal that connects this family to all humanity, turning their struggles and lighthearted moments into a fine piece of cinema.