Minari; not to be confused with Atari – one is this movie, and the other is a classic videogaming console. From the trailer, Minari mightn’t seem like something overly appealing to me, but damned if I’m going to be left on the backfoot like I was with Parasite last year. But, um, comparing Minari to Parasite, I probably could have saved my money.
Korean native Jacob Yi (Steven Yeun), has moved his family from California to Arkansas, where he believes he can turn a paddock of good soil into bonified farmland. His wife, Monica Yi (Han Ye-ri) is hesitant, stemming majorly from their young son David (Alan Kim) having a heart-condition, where their new home is too far away from a hospital. A fight between Jacob and Monica results in the decision to have Monica’s Mum Soon-ja (Youn Yuh-jung), whom I will refer to as Grandma, come help out around the house while the family adjusts to their new lifestyle. Directed by Lee Isaac Chung, Minari follows this budding family as they plant their roots in rural America, while Jacob literally plants roots, aiming to grow Korean vegetables for a growing Asian-American market.
Steven Yeun is most famous for playing Glen on The Walking Dead, and it’s good to see his face intact again, after Negan infamously smashed it in with a baseball bat. Not much has changed for Yeun though; as Jacob, he is still debating whether his group should leave or stay, working together to find their best chance to survive. I kid, as nothing in Minari is truly comparable to zombies (well, maybe the final scene with Grandma walking down the road, but that’s not funny). Instead, Minari is pleasing, depicting Jacob’s drive to build an independent life, steaming forward causing his wife to worry, and solving challenges that go hand-in-hand with farming. I love the way Yeun characterises Jacob by putting his hands on his hips often; it’s a small thing but I noticed it, and it stuck out for me. But as much as I wanted the father to succeed, the realest investing story comes between David and his grandmother, as they learn to get along. David is sceptical that this Korean woman, who doesn’t bake cookies and wears men’s underwear, is even a grandmother, probably influenced by what he’s come to expect from watching American TV. But Grandma doesn’t care, and cherishes David in her own way; even going so far as to apologise on David’s behalf when he gets very cheeky. Their misunderstandings of American culture are adorable; believing Mountain Dew is healthy water from the mountains, and that wrestling is a death-defying venture. Soon-ja is a fun Grandma, and Youn Yuh-jung provides the best characterisation in a litany of great performances provided across the board.
Negatively, there’s nothing much poignant going on; this international family moving to the country in America could be anyone. Actually, I take that back as a possible criticism; it’s probably to the movie’s credit, and it’s a welcome difference that any racism this family face in this small town is minimal, as the locals are very accepting of their new neighbours – one boy stares at David’s ‘flat’ face in church, but wants to be friends with him straight after. The boy’s deadbeat father doesn’t even seem to have a problem with the Koreans ‘round the corner either. The most ridiculed man in town is actually Jacob’s farm-hand Paul, played warmly by Will Paton, who, every Sunday while the other townsfolk are in church, literally has his own cross to bear. Minari is not an overly ambitious movie, and so it doesn’t fail or excel for me. Around the halfway point, I felt I got the gist of it; the day-to-day misadventures of this religious family, and farming – The Dig was more intriguing, and that was about digging. I didn’t connect to Monica’s woes, as I think, just coming off The Nest which explicitly details the wife’s thoughts on moving the family for a fresh start in the first few scenes, we don’t have any pretence as to what Monica expects by the move to Arkansas, and what she’s willing to accept from her family life. A couple early scenes indicate to me that David’s father is responsive to the seriousness of his heart-condition, and even Grandma thinks Monica is worrying too much about David’s health, frightening the young boy, and limiting his ability to enjoy his own life. I’m not a doctor, so I won’t judge who’s right, but I will say that farming takes time, and if I’m really being critical, even the ending seems abrupt in reconciling Jacob and Monica’s disagreements, as Monica is now actively helping with the vegetables on the farm after they almost lost it all; maybe all she needed was to feel included, for Jacob’s dream to be her dream too.
I suppose Minari is exactly like Grandma’s description of the plant in which the movie is named after – durable, and appliable for all occasions. Perhaps I’ve been done in by hype; I saw a quote that said Minari will ‘break your heart and then put it back together’ but unless my heart has turned to steel (which is entirely possible actually), it does no such thing – I kept expecting something drastic to happen, heart or snake related, but nothing doing. Maybe it’s the gentle lived-in-ness of the movie that critics are enjoying, like what happened with Adam Driver’s Paterson a few years ago where nothing happens, or maybe it’s the multicultural lens over the ‘American dream’ that’s making everyone giddy – personally, I’d rather watch Fresh Off the Boat. When Grandma starts walking down the road, part of me wanted to laugh, when I think that scene is supposed to be one of the highest points of emotional resolution – so maybe Minari isn’t for me. But before I close-out, I don’t want to overlook the contributions of the daughter of the family, Anne (Noel Kate Cho), as like Meg from Family Guy, I could build a case that Anne is often forgotten about, when she is probably the sweetest, most proactively caring member of the family. Her mother does acknowledge her goodness by the end, which is good to hear.
Since I’ve just come off seeing The Nest, I’ll use the example again: Minari is probably a better film of the two, but if I’m picking one to ever watch again, it’s The Nest for sure.
3.0
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