Weeks before “Minari” (Lee Isaac Chung) debuted on A24 virtual screening rooms, there was already social media buzz around the film. If you’ve been off of Twitter, you might not have heard that it received a nomination for the Golden Globes’ Best Foreign Language Film. According to the Globes’ requirements, any film that has at least 51 percent of the non-English dialogue is automatically considered for the foreign language category, which would explain why “Minari” was nominated for this category. But while “Minari” fuses Korean culture into its storytelling, at its core it is an American film, and it deserves to be awarded as such.
Written and directed by Lee Isaac Chung, “Minari” depicts the challenges that Jacob (Steven Yeun) and Monica Yi (Han Ye-ri) face as they relocate to start a farm in the South. Jacob and Monica uproot their entire family to Arkansas to provide a better life for their children, Anne (Noel Cho) and David (Alan Kim), and with the hope of achieving the age-old American Dream. The film is less about corn crops and more about the Yi family, whose dynamic one can’t help but fall deeply in love with by the end of the film.
“Minari” is nothing short of the A24 reputation for beautiful cinematography, heart-wrenching storylines, and unconventional character arcs. Although the film is an autobiographical film (Chung reflected on about 80 specific memories from his childhood in order to create the foundation of “Minari”), it resonates with many Korean immigrants. From mentions of a homemade traditional Korean herbal medicine known as Hanyak to Grandma (Youn Yuh-Jung) bringing home Myulchi, a staple side dish in Korean cuisine, the Yi family is portrayed as the typical first-generation Korean family.
But it’s not only first-generation Korean Americans that can relate to “Minari.” Chung chose to set the scene in Arkansas, his hometown and a place that Hollywood doesn’t typically depict on the big screen. “Minari’' sheds light on the hardships that immigrants endure, but also on the difficulties that farmers in rural areas face. In an interview, Chung said he felt that “immigrants [and also people living in the countryside] were being used to put forward political rhetoric.” Instead, he believed that “there is a view of people that transcends all these categories that are being thrown around and talked about.” In the interview, he recalls the farmers that worked alongside his dad and the friends that he had in Arkansas, all of whom inspired him to “take an approach with this film that reframes the discussion and hopefully talks about it in a more human way.”
“Minari” doesn’t conjure up a romanticized “Great Gatsby” version of the American Dream. It truthfully depicts the gruesome obstacles and tender moments that come with the American dream, so it’s ironic that a film that is just about as “American” as you can get is solely given a Foreign Film nomination. Maybe it’s the Golden Globes’ film requirement to blame or maybe it’s our inability to see past a language barrier and view Americans who look different than those straight from the American Gothic as true Americans. While “Minari” might be more than 51 percent in a foreign language, the multicultural story it portrays is 100 percent American.