Lee Isaac Chung waited until his fourth film to process his childhood experiences on film. His highly praised and excellent family drama MINARI is about Korean-American Yi family, who don‘t move out west in search of the American Dream, but rather from California to rural Arkansas. Father Jacob (Steven Yeun) has bought a plot of land there that he wants to develop into a farm. In the meantime, he and his wife Monica (Yeri Han) work in a chicken factory, while the two kids, who were born in the US, Anne (Noel Kate Cho) and David (Alan S. Kim), stay at home. The link beween the generations is grandmother Soon-ja (Yuh-Jung Youn) who comes from Korea to take care of the kids. The stubborn woman brings something else with her too: the traditions of the homeland.

You can tell by what MINARI is like that Lee isn‘t a very young director (he's over 40). He has the life experience that enables him to show the behaviors and decisions of all parties with a lot of authenticity. With equanimity that is often reminiscent of Asian cinema, he shows the problems and the conflicts that don‘t prove to be huge obstacles, despite everything. MINARI isn‘t a huge drama, it‘s a warm-hearted, keenly observed film that shows how a Korean family slowly adjusts to the American mentality – creating something all of their own in the process.

Michael Meyns (INDIEKINO MAGAZIN)

Translation: Elinor Lewy