You don't need shouting matches and dramatic hysterics to elicit emotion from an audience. Oftentimes, the most affecting films are the more serene ones where the filmmaker earns audience engagement subtly and gradually, rather than by hitting them over the heads with emotional fireworks. A perfect example of this is Lee Isaac Chung's Minari (2020), a quiet family drama of elemental force that recalls the masterworks of Yasujiro Ozu with its understated power.
Set in the 1980s, Minari is the story of a Korean family who move from California to Arkansas in order to improve their economic prospects. In Arkansas, Jacob Yi (Steven Yeun), the father of the family, sets out to build a farm so that he can support his wife Monica (Han Ye-ri), and his two children Anne (Noel Kate Cho) and David (Alan Yi). Later, Monica's mother Soon-ja (Youn Yuh-jung) joins the family from South Korea, and the film explores the complex family dynamics of the Yi family as Jacob struggles to build his farming business.
However, unlike these filmmakers, Chung explores his Asian characters in Minari through the lens of living in the United States. Indeed, Minari is very much a film in the classic Hollywood tradition of films about immigrants pursuing the American dream, like Elia Kazan's America, America and Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather trilogy. Like the protagonists in those films, Jacob is an immigrant driven by his desire to build his own empire of sorts, but on a more intimate scale. While the characters in other American films about the immigration experience oftentimes are motivated by self-interest and greed, Chung instead shows how his protagonist is more interested in providing for the safety and security of his family.
While the main story of Minari is about Jacob's pursuit of his farming business, Chung also carefully explores the lives of the other Yi family members, especially that of the son David and his relationship with his grandmother. Much of Minari is filtered through the eyes of David, with many scenes being from his point of view, lending a sense of child-like wonder to the adult world of Monica and Jacob. This lends the film a gentle aura, as David learns to adjsut to living in his small Arkansas town. Chung also explores Soon-ja's efforts to bond with David, as well as Monica's struggles to raise her children, while at the same time questioning Jacob's loyalty to the family. The character of the daughter Anne serves as a sort of junior matriach of the family, as she takes care of her brother David when their parents are off on their own pursuits.
Chung could have gone the predictable route of making a film about the Yi family encountering prejudice and racism in their largely White small town. Instead, everyone the Yi's come into contact with, from Jacob's religiously obsessed business partner Paul (Will Patton), to the church members Monica and her children befriend, show a geniune goodwill and deep sense of humility towards them. This may just be a reflection of David's innocence as a child, but it's a refershing change of pace from the usual immigrant experience film, as Minari is bathed in a soothing, sun-drenched glow from the opening frame to the last.
By the end of the film, Chung's careful artisty accumulates in a scene of almost overwhelming emotional force, as a single family act can either destroy the family, or bring it closer together. Ultimately, Chung emphasizes the importance of the family as a domestic unit, one which all of us can rely on from the troubles of the wider world. From viewing the actions of his father as he struggled to build his farming business, the character of David has grown himself throughout the film. His child-like innocence has matured to an acceptance of the importance of the family, and he is the sole character at the end who can redeem the pivotal actions of another family member. With Minari, Chung has created an enormously moving family drama that both questions and celebrates the pursuit of the American dream.
