"Minari,"
written and directed by Lee Isaac Chung
(PG-13, 1 hour, 55 minutes)
Based on the memories of writer/director Lee Isaac Chung of growing up in rural Northwest Arkansas where his Korean immigrant parents struggle to start a small farm, this touching yet unsentimental story penetrates the emotions.
Our Philip Martin wrote: "It is just about a perfect film in that it never takes a false step or overplays for our indulgence. The family's poverty is neither romanticized nor exploited -- their clothes are cheap but clean and their struggle is matter-of-fact. Their immigrant experience isn't so different from the hardscrabble lives of their neighbors, they put their heads down and keep working.
"There is no shortage of comedy in the film, but it is natural, humane and rooted in character -- every shot, line and bit of actorly business in the film feels earned and inevitable ... this is not a film where anyone showboats or makes speeches."
Authentic and often callously honest, the low-budget production doesn't romanticize an idyllic American pastoral life. That doesn't detract from the gorgeous cinematography by Lachlan Milne, nor the performances of Steven Yeun as the family's desperately hard-working dad and of Yuh-jung Youn as his wife's loving, foul-mouthed mother, which won her a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award in April.
With Yeri Han, Alan Kim, Will Patton, Noel Kate Cho. In English and Korean with subtitles.
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