Minari

In many ways Minari is a depiction of a very specific time and place. It's written and directed by Lee Issac Chung who drew from his own childhood. The film sees Korean couple Jacob (Steven Yeun) and Monica (Han Ye-Ri) as they move from California where they had been making a decent living sexing chicks to Arkansas where Jacob hopes to set up a successful farm selling Korean produce. 

There's not a whole lot of plot here, no obvious point to get to (indeed, the lack of a proper ending is one of my few criticisms). The film also doesn't exist to make a political or societal point, though it certainly does make some along the way. It's simply the everyday challenges the Yi family face from issues with water supplies to trying to make friends in the white community to their son's heart murmur. 

Much of the film focuses on the aforementioned son David (Alan Kim) who is a joyous little boy. I really like the way that this film makes him feel like a real person unlike many that make children either evil or angelic with nothing in between. David is grumpy at times and plays a horrible (but funny) trick on his grandmother. He, and his sister Anne (Noel Cho), just feel like real children. 

The family focus of the film means that despite the very specific scenario this feels like a very relatable story of childhood. To some extent we can all relate to times when we moved house, when our parents were struggling to keep up an income for the family, formed close relationships with relatives and were pained by their illness and demise. Minari is a film we can all connect to. 

That said, the context is important. This is a film which features a cast who are mostly Korean or Korean-Americans and much of the dialogue is in Korean. The Golden Globes, in the latest in a long line of errors, awarded this film "Best Foreign Language Film" which seems absurd. Sure, it's not English but the film is set in America and feels totally American- the whole country is founded on the idea of families coming over to create a better life for themselves. Many Americans speak Korean or Spanish or many other languages but that does not mean they are not American. 

Minari is just a lovely film, from it's gorgeous visual to the realistic family feel and the authentic depiction of childhood.