Could a Korean-language film win the Oscar for best picture for a second year in a row?
“Minari” might or might not follow in the footsteps of “Parasite,” but it is indeed one of the best films of the past year and is firmly in awards consideration — it garnered a Golden Globes nod and three Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations, and it is a sure bet to get some love when Academy Awards nominations are announced on March 15.
But the difference with “Minari” is that despite its language, it’s a uniquely American film about the American dream. For a family of Korean immigrants who move to rural Arkansas in the 1980s, that dream is starting their own farm.
The director, Lee Isaac Chung, grew up on an Arkansas farm, so its authenticity is earned.
The film begins with the Yi family moving from California to Arkansas. Husband Jacob (Steven Yeun) and wife Monica (Yeri Han) are chicken sexers, which means they identify the sex of newborn chicks for chicken farms. The females are kept for eggs and poultry, while the males are thrown in the incinerator.
Jacob has bought a cheap plot of land and the dilapidated trailer home that goes with it. Together, they will raise their two young children and hopefully start a successful farm so that they can leave the monotonous, soul-killing work of chicken sexing behind.
There is clear marital tension between Jacob and Monica, and it is only exacerbated by the isolation and loneliness of their new home. Their life in California, it seems, was far more social, but they couldn’t afford to stay.
They try to ingratiate themselves into the local community, joining a church. Their ethnicity is a novelty, but they are mostly welcomed.
Jacob and Monica quickly find that holding down their jobs, trying to start a farm and raising two children is too much, so they send for Monica’s mother, Soonja (Youn Yuh-jung), a septuagenarian who instantly brings life to the household. Her first task: win over the skepticism of her young grandson David (Alan S. Kim). Granddaughter Anne (Noel Cho) is much more reasonable.
But even with the new help on the home front, Jacob struggles with his farmland. One problem after another presents itself, beginning with a lack of a cheap water supply. But an angel appears in the form of Paul (Will Patton), an eccentric Vietnam veteran and evangelical Christian, who offers to help farm the land.
They make an unlikely and effective team. However, just as success beckons, Soonja suffers a stroke, throwing the family into crisis.
Chung’s character-driven script and gentle, unhurried direction give the cast and story room to breathe. This is top-notch filmmaking from beginning to end, a modern-day version of Jean Renoir’s “The Southerner” that is as relevant to these challenging times as it would have been in the Reagan era in which it’s set.
The anchor of the movie is Yeun, an actor born in South Korea and raised in Michigan who is at home starring in both Hollywood hits like the TV series “The Walking Dead” and Korean art house films such as “Burning.” His work in “Minari” is nothing less than masterful, a performance of subtlety and depth matched by Han and Youn. (Both Yeun and Youn were nominated by SAG.)
Just what is minari? It is an edible Korean water plant, like watercress, that is said to grow anywhere. That’s an apt metaphor for a movie about the resilience of immigrants.
But it is more than that. Although it was made in 2019, before the pandemic, the racial reckoning in America and, of course, the recent attacks on Asian Americans in the Bay Area and beyond, it’s impossible to watch “Minari” without keeping those events in mind. It is not just about the American dream; it is a search for America’s soul.
N“Minari”: Drama. Starring Steven Yeun, Yeri Han, Youn Yuh-jung and Will Patton. Directed by Lee Isaac Chung. (PG-13. 115 minutes.) Opens Friday, Feb. 12, in theaters nationally, including the West Wind Capitol Drive-In at 3630 Hillcap Ave. in San Jose, and virtually at screeningroom.a24films.com. Screens at 8 p.m. Tuesday, March 2 at Fort Mason Flix, 2 Marina Blvd., S.F. fortmason.org
