A tender, autobiographical film about resilience, focusing on a Korean immigrant family striving for the American Dream in 1980s Arkansas.
Lee Isaac Chung’s fictionalised account of his rural US childhood explores the growing pains of a family farm. Jacob, has a big dream: he will farm the land and get rich growing real Korean vegetables for the many Korean immigrants in the US yearning for a taste of home, and particularly the Minari, a kind of water celery which also symbolises hope, resilience, and the ability to thrive in harsh, new environments. His wife resents her husband for uprooting the family from urban California to live in “hillbilly” country in an ugly extended trailer. The harsh realities of the back-breaking work, titanic struggles with the weather and constant financial woes are leavened by the occasionally very funny exchanges between the grandmother and their sweet but mischievous little boy David and the message that family unity and love are more enduring than material success. A delight from start to finish.
S. Korea 2021 Lee Isaac Chung 115m
