MINARI | FILM REVIEW
Dir: Lee Isaac Jung (12, 115 mins)
A Korean-American family leaves California behind as father Jacob, played by The Walking Dead’s Steven Yuen, dreams of setting up a farm in rural Arkansas. Things do not go as planned in this quiet but deeply affecting drama of family ties and coupledom. Yuen has a job sexing chickens alongside wife Monica, played by Han Ye-ri; he is fed up of the nonsensical grind and wants to create something bigger for the family, but is it just for himself?
The family have two children – the adorable David (a winning Alan S. Kim), who has a hole in his heart and has to be watched carefully, and disgruntled daughter Anee (Noel Kate Cho). They are soon joined by Granny, a mischievous Yuh-jung Youn, initially very much an outsider and a figure of fun but who gradually forms an unlikely bond with her grandson as his parents’ marriage starts to crumble.
Minari is a Korean herb, one Granny sows when other crops look compromised and obstacles get in the way of Jacob’s business. This awareness of who and what you are sits deep in the film’s DNA. Yuen is superb as the driven wannabe farmer out to do something with his life and failing to truly grasp the impact it is having on his family. This is never done in histrionic scenes but with quiet observance, writer/director Jung drawing on his own personal experience to tell the story.
The family dynamic feels real and true, the displacement genuine as floods and fire threaten and the realization dawns that not everybody wants the same things out of life. A very human tale told with humour and empathy that lingers in the memory: despite its apparent low-key dramas, Minari resonates.
Released on Fri 19 Mar
words KEIRON SELF images MINARI.FILM