Nominations: Academy Awards 2021

If Parasite, the winner of the 2020 Academy Awards, showed us how life is in Korea during our times, Minari focuses on the lives of Korean immigrants in the USA in the 1980s.

Written and directed by Lee Isaac Chung, and partially based on his own upbringing, Minari tells the story of a Korean family who moves from California to Arkansas, where the father, Jacob (Steven Yeun), plans to grow Korean produce to sell. Even though he’s optimistic about their future, his wife Monica (Han Ye-ri) is worried about being so far from the city, especially because their son (Alan Kim) has a heart condition.

Since Monica and Jacob work all day sorting chickens at a hatchery, Monica asks her mother (Youn Yuh-jung) to come from Korea and help them. Grandmother Soon-ja tries to adapt to the new life, but has a few problems, especially with her grandson. She’s the one who brings minari seed from Korea and plants them by the creek, while explaining how resilient that plant is.

The plant is indeed resilient, and so is that family. They endure many hardships while deciding to put down their roots there.

Minari is a very delicate film, and it takes its time to show us just how hard that family’s life can be and how difficult it is to adjust to a new culture. The whole cast does a phenomenal job, especially Youn Yuh-jung, a very well-known actress in South Korea.

Although it is not my favorite movie among the eight nominees, it is definitely a good sign to have it there, with diversity finally being more relevant at the Oscars.