With hate-crimes against Asians at a high, specifically due to the ongoing virus pandemic, it’s something of a balm for the senses to alight upon Lee Issac Chung’s Minari, a wholesome, home-spun, all American tale of racial assimilation which should warm the cockles of all those who see it. A sunny recollection of an 80’s childhood, and specifically a love story between a boy and his aging grandmother, Minari is a feel-good movie with heart, and one that gets a positive uptick despite some flaws.
With Brad Pitt’s imprint Plan B on production detail, and A24 helping to get the product to an audience, Minari would have been a sizable word-of-mouth hit if cinemas were open; the gentle feel of this story of settling in the Ozarks has a big, sweeping feel that belies the slightness of the story. Steven Yeun plays Jacob Yi, the head of a family hoping to make a living off the land; Jacob’s zeal recalls Close Encounters and Field of Dreams, other movies in which a patriarch’s blind enthusiasm turns up trumps. Jacob and his wife Monica (Han Ye-Ri) have some issues, so her mother Soon-ja (Youn Yuh-Jung) is sent for, but proves something tricky for the kids to handle. Little rascal David (Alan Kim) accuses her of not being a real grandmother because she doesn’t bake cookies for them, but Soon-Ja proves to be every bit the guiding, strengthening influences required, coaxing him out of regression caused by fears about a hole in his heart.
Chung isn’t above contriving medical emergencies or a house-fire as a way of adding melodrama; even down to its flowery title, Minari feels like the best film of 1927. Details about the family’s hard-scrabble life as chicken-sexers are very much in tune with 2021’s miserablist Oscars (Nomadland), and it’s brutally cutting when David bluntly responds to his father ‘we had nothing’ when asked about their previous life. But it’s also charming seeing how the family endorse the ’mountain water’ that they all love, but can’t quite admit is an off-the shelf soft-drink.
Such moments find a shared sweet-spot with audiences worldwide; Minari may be small fry, but it’s the kind of slight, persuasive work that suggests that when it comes to surviving, we’re all in this together. One may carp, however, at how American this story is; the Oscars increasingly seem to endorse the films of any race as long as they worship an idealised, sanitised notion of what America might stand for.
Thanks to Curzon for streaming access to this title.
Minari is out April 2nd in the UK.
https://www.curzonhomecinema.com/film/watch-minari-film-online
Just for the record, Yotsuba’s father never sexed any chickens nor did her grandmother.
A sketch of cuteness is one thing. Hours of it on end though? I’d have to think twice…
Who allows themselves to have a record for chicken sexing? I wonder how many chickens you’d have to sex to break it?
I haven’t read the Guinuess Book of World Records recently (however it is spelled), so I don’t know if that’s a new category or not. Somehow it doesn’t seem like it would be.
I’m not sure it’s a subject I would dwell upon.
You’re the one who brought it up, in the review itself too I might add.
Looks like the chickens have come home to roost…
I mentioned it once, but thought that I got away with it.
You get away with a lot of things around here 😀
Tell me about it.
I was surprised how much I enjoyed Minari, a lovely film, really nicely balanced. Made me long for summer! I wrote about it here (first review in a while, I’ve been too busy lately): https://wp.me/p8BjDL-1mD
I’ll come back to re-read your review, but we can certainly agree that it’s a dreamy film, unforced until the last act, and a nice outdoory film for springtime…
The Ozarks could do with a feel-good movie after the despoiling of its reputation by Jason Bateman and Co and this does sound like it would have been a potential break-out picture. Pitt has a good nose for unusual drama and is happy to put his money where his mouth is. And nice to know, otherwise Pitt wouldn’t be funding it, that there is still a market for this small type of movie.
My feeling is that is would always have worked, but there’s a push on for sure, and that is no bad thing at all. Quiet, effective bit of storytelling…
I’m glad people are making movies like this. I’m not going to see it, but it’s nice that it’s out there.
And it feels a bit like taking your medicine to watch this worthiness when there’s as-yet-unviewed Leprechaun movies out there., but it goes down surprisingly smoothly…
There are no as-yet-unviewed Leprechaun movies out there, at least for me. You, on the other hand, still have some work to do.
No, that work does not need to be done. Not by me, you or anyone…
Huh. Well, bring on your Kong vs. Godzilla review then . . .
I’m King Kong and you are a little man who gets squashed. That is my review.
Hm. So you are a giant ape that can only grunt and scratch itself and I’m an eminent, erudite and articulate critic whose work you regularly copy and paste. I understand now.
Haha, no I’m the hero of my own story and you are a bit part player that is instantly forgotten by all. That’s the bottom line, Bunty, and don’t you forget it.
That’s fine. I’ll be eating peanuts while I watch you fall from the Empire State Building and go splat on the sidewalk. Very heroic.
No, you’ll have been splatted some time previously, barely even noticed as I head off to my world-beating, ground-breaking adventure.
Ha. Try watching some of these movies. (1) You don’t get the girl. (2) You die at the end.
Wut? Everyone loves Kong. He’s the star of the show. The girl loves him forever. And he doesn’t die, he gets a heart transplant. Copy that.
https://film-authority.com/2020/07/19/king-kong-lives-1986/
This one is on my list to be seen at some point, so a Yep from me.
“the Oscars increasingly seem to endorse the films of any race as long as they worship an idealised, sanitised notion of what America might stand for” is this a thing now?
It’s a good film, and maybe I’m being a bit cynical about it…wouldn’t be the first time…
That figures.