Minari was nominated for six Oscars Minari, 11.10pm, Film4, Tuesday, September 19
Lee Isaac Chung's semi-autobiographical film pulled off the double at Sundance, winning both the Grand Jury and Audience Awards in the US Dramatic Competition and went on to be nominated for six Oscars, although it lost out for Best Picture to Nomadland. It tells the tale of a Korean family who move to start a new life in rural Arkansas - a move that sees the shine come off the patriarch Jacob's "American dream" quite quickly as things prove tougher than he imagined. The film hits its stride when grandma comes to help look after seven-year-old David, who has a heart condition, and his sister Anne (Noel Cho). Chung explores the family microcosm through details, to paint a vibrant, emotional picture of both the family...
Lee Isaac Chung's semi-autobiographical film pulled off the double at Sundance, winning both the Grand Jury and Audience Awards in the US Dramatic Competition and went on to be nominated for six Oscars, although it lost out for Best Picture to Nomadland. It tells the tale of a Korean family who move to start a new life in rural Arkansas - a move that sees the shine come off the patriarch Jacob's "American dream" quite quickly as things prove tougher than he imagined. The film hits its stride when grandma comes to help look after seven-year-old David, who has a heart condition, and his sister Anne (Noel Cho). Chung explores the family microcosm through details, to paint a vibrant, emotional picture of both the family...
- 9/18/2023
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The biography and the filmmaking career path of the American auteur Lee Isaac Chung is a bit peculiar. Born to first-generation Korean immigrant parents, he grew up in rural Arkansas, studied ecology at Yale and planned to go to a medical school before giving it up for his filmmaking dream. After a number of shorts realized during his studies at the University of Utah, his shot his first feature “Munyurangabo” (2007) in Rwanda and in Kinyarwanda language (as the first ever narrative feature film). It premiered at Cannes to a great critical reception, signalling a significant talent on the rise. His next two features, “Lucky Life” (2010) and “Abigail Harm” (2012) were more to the typical American indie side, while he went back to Rwanda to co-direct a documentary called “I Have Seen My Last Born” (2015).
“Minari” is screening at Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema
For his last one, “Minari”, premiering...
“Minari” is screening at Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema
For his last one, “Minari”, premiering...
- 3/4/2023
- by Marko Stojiljković
- AsianMoviePulse
"Minari" is one of those movies that feel like both a punch to the gut and a warm hug at the same time. Lee Isaac Chung's story of a Korean American family trying to achieve the quintessential American Dream is one that many can relate to, in one way or another. Perhaps it was because of the Yi family's continued resilience and faith that the film garnered so much critical acclaim, earning six Oscar nominations and one win for Youn Yuh-jung as Best Supporting Actress.
We see this resilience come full circle at the end of the film, with the family's produce barn gone in a fire but the family themselves being closer than ever. However, this wasn't originally supposed to be the film's definitive ending, according to the screenplay book for the film. The book, published by "Minari" distributor A24, revealed that the movie could have instead ended...
We see this resilience come full circle at the end of the film, with the family's produce barn gone in a fire but the family themselves being closer than ever. However, this wasn't originally supposed to be the film's definitive ending, according to the screenplay book for the film. The book, published by "Minari" distributor A24, revealed that the movie could have instead ended...
- 9/23/2022
- by Erin Brady
- Slash Film
Everybody loves an underdog. During this year's awards season, that honor was given to Lee Isaac Chung's "Minari." The film follows the Yis, a Korean American family migrating to Arkansas from California. Patriarch Jacob (Steven Yeun) dreams of starting a farm, despite protests from his wife Monica (Yeri Han), and at the risk of uprooting his children (Alan Kim and Noel Cho). When Monica's mother (Yuh-Jung Youn) arrives from Korea, it adds a layer of dysfunction to an already-tenebrous family dynamic.
"Minari" made history as a tender, unusual portrayal of the American Dream, winning big at Sundance, the Golden Globes, and the Academy Awards in various categories. It's...
The post The Fascinating True Story Behind Minari appeared first on /Film.
"Minari" made history as a tender, unusual portrayal of the American Dream, winning big at Sundance, the Golden Globes, and the Academy Awards in various categories. It's...
The post The Fascinating True Story Behind Minari appeared first on /Film.
- 11/13/2021
- by Lyvie Scott
- Slash Film
Infused with a wonderful sentimentality, Lee Isaac Chung’s fictionalised account of his rural US childhood explores the growing pains of a family farm
Minari is an east Asian herb, sometimes called water dropwort or water celery, grown in the wild and treasured by connoisseurs, a little like samphire grass in England. Its appearance in this movie is a sign of something mysterious and providential, an indication of good things coming from the soil.
This is a wonderfully absorbing and moving family drama with a buttery, sunlit streak of sentimentality. Writer-director Lee Isaac Chung based it on his childhood growing up on a farm in Arkansas in the 1980s. Minari already has the look of a well-loved classic, whose every scene feels familiar and loved, and it has an amazing way of recreating childhood. Watching it, I remembered for the first time in decades what it was like as a...
Minari is an east Asian herb, sometimes called water dropwort or water celery, grown in the wild and treasured by connoisseurs, a little like samphire grass in England. Its appearance in this movie is a sign of something mysterious and providential, an indication of good things coming from the soil.
This is a wonderfully absorbing and moving family drama with a buttery, sunlit streak of sentimentality. Writer-director Lee Isaac Chung based it on his childhood growing up on a farm in Arkansas in the 1980s. Minari already has the look of a well-loved classic, whose every scene feels familiar and loved, and it has an amazing way of recreating childhood. Watching it, I remembered for the first time in decades what it was like as a...
- 4/1/2021
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Oscar nominees Riz Ahmed, Leslie Odom Jr and Carey Mulligan are among the actors set to present during American Cinema Editors’ 71st Eddie Awards, which will be handed out in a virtual ceremony on April 17 at 11 a.m. Pt.
Jodie Foster, Seth Meyers, Catherine O’Hara, Charles Dance, Jon Huertas, Brendan Hunt, Brett Goldstein, Jeremy Lee Stone and young Minari actors Noel Cho and Alan S. Kim have also joined the lineup of presenters.
Cast members from Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, including Jane Levy, Mary Steenburgen, Skylar Astin, Alex Newell and John Clarence Stewart will host the event.
During the ceremony, Spike Lee will receive ...
Jodie Foster, Seth Meyers, Catherine O’Hara, Charles Dance, Jon Huertas, Brendan Hunt, Brett Goldstein, Jeremy Lee Stone and young Minari actors Noel Cho and Alan S. Kim have also joined the lineup of presenters.
Cast members from Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, including Jane Levy, Mary Steenburgen, Skylar Astin, Alex Newell and John Clarence Stewart will host the event.
During the ceremony, Spike Lee will receive ...
- 3/31/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Oscar nominees Riz Ahmed, Leslie Odom Jr and Carey Mulligan are among the actors set to present during American Cinema Editors’ 71st Eddie Awards, which will be handed out in a virtual ceremony on April 17 at 11 a.m. Pt.
Jodie Foster, Seth Meyers, Catherine O’Hara, Charles Dance, Jon Huertas, Brendan Hunt, Brett Goldstein, Jeremy Lee Stone and young Minari actors Noel Cho and Alan S. Kim have also joined the lineup of presenters.
Cast members from Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, including Jane Levy, Mary Steenburgen, Skylar Astin, Alex Newell and John Clarence Stewart will host the event.
During the ceremony, Spike Lee will receive ...
Jodie Foster, Seth Meyers, Catherine O’Hara, Charles Dance, Jon Huertas, Brendan Hunt, Brett Goldstein, Jeremy Lee Stone and young Minari actors Noel Cho and Alan S. Kim have also joined the lineup of presenters.
Cast members from Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, including Jane Levy, Mary Steenburgen, Skylar Astin, Alex Newell and John Clarence Stewart will host the event.
During the ceremony, Spike Lee will receive ...
- 3/31/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
“Minari” star Alan S. Kim has already captured audiences and critics’ hearts, and now the young star has landed new agents.
The eight-year-old has signed with CAA for representation in all areas.
Kim earned rave reviews for his breakout performance as David Yi in Lee Isaac Chung’s “Minari,” which has been nominated for six Academy Awards, including best picture. The heartfelt and intimate family drama recently won the Golden Globe Award for best foreign language film, in addition to earning the grand jury prize and audience award at Sundance, where it premiered in 2020.
In a ridiculously cute (and now-viral) video interview, Kim opened up to Variety’s Matt Donnelly about why he auditioned for the role.
“I wanted to get a chance to just be famous and just be on video and be on a big screen,” Kim said, adding that the best advice he’s received was from...
The eight-year-old has signed with CAA for representation in all areas.
Kim earned rave reviews for his breakout performance as David Yi in Lee Isaac Chung’s “Minari,” which has been nominated for six Academy Awards, including best picture. The heartfelt and intimate family drama recently won the Golden Globe Award for best foreign language film, in addition to earning the grand jury prize and audience award at Sundance, where it premiered in 2020.
In a ridiculously cute (and now-viral) video interview, Kim opened up to Variety’s Matt Donnelly about why he auditioned for the role.
“I wanted to get a chance to just be famous and just be on video and be on a big screen,” Kim said, adding that the best advice he’s received was from...
- 3/29/2021
- by Angelique Jackson
- Variety Film + TV
Alan Kim, Steven Yeun, Noel Cho and Yeri Han in Minari
This year’s Glasgow Film Festival opens with Lee Isaac Chung’s Minari, a film based on his own childhood experiences as a young Korean American boy whose father decided to move the family out into the sticks to try and make a living off the land. Shortly before Christmas I intended a press conference with Isaac at which he talked about the background to the film. Star Steven Yeun, who plays his father, was also present, along with child stars Noel Cho and Alan Kim.
“In the past, I started off my career thinking that I wanted to make films that aren't about my life, like the first film I made was in Rwanda,” said Isaac as the conversation began. “Something shifted around 2014 or 2013, around the time my daughter was born, in which I just wanted to tell...
This year’s Glasgow Film Festival opens with Lee Isaac Chung’s Minari, a film based on his own childhood experiences as a young Korean American boy whose father decided to move the family out into the sticks to try and make a living off the land. Shortly before Christmas I intended a press conference with Isaac at which he talked about the background to the film. Star Steven Yeun, who plays his father, was also present, along with child stars Noel Cho and Alan Kim.
“In the past, I started off my career thinking that I wanted to make films that aren't about my life, like the first film I made was in Rwanda,” said Isaac as the conversation began. “Something shifted around 2014 or 2013, around the time my daughter was born, in which I just wanted to tell...
- 2/23/2021
- by Jennie Kermode
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Over the last couple of national election cycles, a topic of much discussion and often heated debate has been immigration. In light of the impassionate rhetoric, many have neglected the human, personal side of the issue. it’s sometimes called the “immigrant experience”, the old “planting roots in rich new soil” idea that’s been around since our country (and a big reason the USA began in the first place) started. The movies have mined this topic many times during its century or so, from America America to Moscow On The Hudson. Now audiences will be treated to another family’s fable, told from an often neglected culture’s perspective, and set in the fairly recent past for just a seasoning of nostalgia. And it’s mainly told from a child’s perspective as he adjusts to his new home while trying to cling to his own land, part of which is another arrival,...
- 2/12/2021
- by Jim Batts
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Minari, which opens today, is the most autobiographical film of this award season — a distinction that only highlights how painstakingly, yet disarmingly, the multigenerational drama was made. Writer-director Lee Isaac Chung mined his unusual Korean-American childhood in rural Arkansas, where his father took his family for a chance at a homesteading dream, to tell an intimate yet visually sweeping tale about an immigrant couple, Jacob and Monica (played by Steven Yeun, Chung’s cousin-by-marriage, and Yeri Han), with two young children (newcomers Noel Cho and Alan Kim) whose aspirations will make or break their fragile marriage. Things get further complicated ...
- 2/12/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Minari, which opens today, is the most autobiographical film of this award season — a distinction that only highlights how painstakingly, yet disarmingly, the multigenerational drama was made. Writer-director Lee Isaac Chung mined his unusual Korean-American childhood in rural Arkansas, where his father took his family for a chance at a homesteading dream, to tell an intimate yet visually sweeping tale about an immigrant couple, Jacob and Monica (played by Steven Yeun, Chung’s cousin-by-marriage, and Yeri Han), with two young children (newcomers Noel Cho and Alan Kim) whose aspirations will make or break their fragile marriage. Things get further complicated ...
- 2/12/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
The warmth of autobiography walks hand in hand with gentle cautionary observations on the nature of "the American dream" in Lee Isaac Chung's film based on his own childhood experiences in rural Arkansas. It's the place where seven-year-old David (Alan S Kim) arrives with his sister Anne (Noel Cho), mum Monica (Yeri Han) along with Dad Jacob (Steven Yeun), whose enterprising idea this is. After years sexing chickens in California, Jacob sees this as an opportunity to own some land of his own and build a 'better', farming life for his family.
"Don't run, David," is the mantra the seven-year-old has permanently ringing in his ears, forced to mute his natural energy because of a heart murmur that his mum ensures he prays about each night - an energy that recalls the sort of junior juice that hops and skips through a Hirokazu Kore-eda film. And, from the off,...
"Don't run, David," is the mantra the seven-year-old has permanently ringing in his ears, forced to mute his natural energy because of a heart murmur that his mum ensures he prays about each night - an energy that recalls the sort of junior juice that hops and skips through a Hirokazu Kore-eda film. And, from the off,...
- 1/6/2021
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Lee Isaac Chung’s “Minari” may be an ensemble drama at heart, but it does feature one inarguable breakout performance by its young star: Alan S. Kim.
The 7-year-old firecracker won over crowds in Park City in January at the film’s Sundance premiere with his portrayal of David, the youngest son of actor Steven Yeun’s character and his on-screen mom, Yeri Han.
Uprooted to a remote plot of farmland in Arkansas, David must play in empty fields under the watchful eye of his sister, Anne (Noel Cho), as his parents attempt to build a business and understand life in the Bible Belt. Fluent in English and Korean, David becomes a vessel for his father’s Korean pride and his American ambitions. He’s also ridiculously cute.
Kim conveys childlike wonder, hilarious mischief, staggering boredom and palpable fear with an ease well beyond his years — especially when paired with Yuh-Jung Youn,...
The 7-year-old firecracker won over crowds in Park City in January at the film’s Sundance premiere with his portrayal of David, the youngest son of actor Steven Yeun’s character and his on-screen mom, Yeri Han.
Uprooted to a remote plot of farmland in Arkansas, David must play in empty fields under the watchful eye of his sister, Anne (Noel Cho), as his parents attempt to build a business and understand life in the Bible Belt. Fluent in English and Korean, David becomes a vessel for his father’s Korean pride and his American ambitions. He’s also ridiculously cute.
Kim conveys childlike wonder, hilarious mischief, staggering boredom and palpable fear with an ease well beyond his years — especially when paired with Yuh-Jung Youn,...
- 12/23/2020
- by Matt Donnelly
- Variety Film + TV
Many actors dread comparisons to James Dean, the movie icon who helped define a new type of on-screen masculinity. But Steven Yeun, the 36-year-old who rose to global recognition on the TV megahit “The Walking Dead,” is comfortable with the juxtaposition to Hollywood’s most famous rebel.
When Yeun was talking to director Lee Isaac Chung about starring in “Minari,” the winner of this year’s grand jury and audience prizes at Sundance, Dean’s brooding persona served as a useful template.
The men discussed their immigrant fathers and the way they left their homes to travel across the world, lured by the promise of the United States and the potential for reinvention. In the mid-1960s, Chung’s dad was living in South Korea and working in a factory. After watching two iconic Dean films, “Giant” and “East of Eden,” Chung says his father’s fate was sealed, and...
When Yeun was talking to director Lee Isaac Chung about starring in “Minari,” the winner of this year’s grand jury and audience prizes at Sundance, Dean’s brooding persona served as a useful template.
The men discussed their immigrant fathers and the way they left their homes to travel across the world, lured by the promise of the United States and the potential for reinvention. In the mid-1960s, Chung’s dad was living in South Korea and working in a factory. After watching two iconic Dean films, “Giant” and “East of Eden,” Chung says his father’s fate was sealed, and...
- 12/23/2020
- by Matt Donnelly
- Variety Film + TV
The elegiac family drama “Minari” captivated critics and audiences at the Sundance Film Festival this past January, winning not only the Grand Jury Prize for drama, but also the Audience Award. A24 opens this red-hot Oscar contender in limited release on December 11. Inspired by the hardscrabble childhood of writer/director Lee Isaac Chung, “Minari” revolves around the South Korean couple Jacob (Steven Yeun) and Monica (Yeri Han) who had left their country in the early 1970s for a better life in California. But after several years, they are still working as a chicken sexers.
So, Jacob uproots the family, which also consists of a pre-teenage girl (Noel Cho) and the uber-adorable little boy named David (Alan Kim) who suffers from a heart murmur and moves to them a ramshackle trailer on a five-acre farm in the Ozarks. Jacob hopes to find the American success story he so craves as a farmer,...
So, Jacob uproots the family, which also consists of a pre-teenage girl (Noel Cho) and the uber-adorable little boy named David (Alan Kim) who suffers from a heart murmur and moves to them a ramshackle trailer on a five-acre farm in the Ozarks. Jacob hopes to find the American success story he so craves as a farmer,...
- 11/25/2020
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
"American kids don't want to room with their grandmas." A24 has finally revealed an official trailer for Minari, the outstanding Sundance double-winner of both the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at the festival earlier this year. A new film from Korean-American filmmaker Lee Isaac Chung, who grew up in rural Arkansas, Minari is about a Korean family that moves to rural Arkansas to start a farm. Steven Yeun stars as the father, but the film's big breakout is Alan S. Kim, who plays their young boy named David. The cast includes Yari Han as his wife Monica, Yuh-Jung Youn as grandma, plus Will Patton, Noel Cho, Scott Haze, Eric Starkey, and Esther Moon. One of the best films from Sundance this year, I wrote in my fest recap that it's a "heartwarming, lovely film" and is worthy of our attention and all the accolades it has received so far.
- 9/30/2020
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Lee Isaac Chung’s “Minari” is a personal story of tradition and family set in 1980s Arkansas about a Korean American family moving to a rural region. But it gets its title from a vegetable or plant very common in Korean culture.
When Chung and the whole cast of “Minari” visited TheWrap Studio at Sundance — where the movie won both the top prize from the U.S. jury and the audience award — he accidentally called it a “weed,” but his co-stars were quick to correct him.
“I will not dishonor this vegetable,” Chung told TheWrap. “The interesting thing about it is that it’s a plant that will grow very strongly in its second season after it has died and come back. So there’s an element of that in the film, so it grows very expansively without doing much to it. It’s a poetic plant in a way for me.
When Chung and the whole cast of “Minari” visited TheWrap Studio at Sundance — where the movie won both the top prize from the U.S. jury and the audience award — he accidentally called it a “weed,” but his co-stars were quick to correct him.
“I will not dishonor this vegetable,” Chung told TheWrap. “The interesting thing about it is that it’s a plant that will grow very strongly in its second season after it has died and come back. So there’s an element of that in the film, so it grows very expansively without doing much to it. It’s a poetic plant in a way for me.
- 2/12/2020
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
There is no shortage of films that depict the pains of assimilation and the pursuit of the American Dream for a more promising future. It’s been customary for these stories to tell of journeys from another country to a metropolis somewhere across the land of the free. When it comes to the family of Minari, however, they’ve already been living the United States for some time, carving out a life for themselves on the West Coast. Yet Jacob (Steven Yeun) has dreams beyond separating chickens into male and female bins as a cog in industrialized farming and so he moves his Korean-American family to the rural outskirts of Arkansas where he and his wife Monica (Yeri Han) continue the same job, all while attempting to build a more fruitful living with their own farm featuring Korean produce. All the joys and struggles of this journey are captured with a keen,...
- 2/1/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
It took four movies before Lee Isaac Chung was ready to tell the kind of story first-timers so often rush to share straight out of the gate. Not a coming-of-age movie so much as a deeply personal and lovingly poetic rendering of his Korean American childhood — specifically, how it felt for his immigrant family to adjust to life in small-town Arkansas — “Minari” benefits from the maturity and perspective Chung brings to the project. Waiting until his early 40s to make sense of memories from when he was 6, the year his grandmother came to live with them in the U.S., Chung transforms the specificity of his upbringing into something warm, tender and universal.
Debuting in competition at Sundance, “Minari” quickly emerged as one of the strongest films of the 2020 edition, inspiring laughter and tears from predominantly white audiences. That’s significant because the Asian American experience remains vastly underrepresented in Hollywood,...
Debuting in competition at Sundance, “Minari” quickly emerged as one of the strongest films of the 2020 edition, inspiring laughter and tears from predominantly white audiences. That’s significant because the Asian American experience remains vastly underrepresented in Hollywood,...
- 1/30/2020
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Cowboy boots on American grass worn by the child of Korean immigrants make for a loving cross-cultural statement in Lee Isaac Chung’s disarmingly heartwarming and unassumingly poetic “Minari.” Similar to last year’s “The Farewell,” this gentle miracle of a movie is centered on distinct impressions ripe with universality.
Greener pastures entice the Yi family to move from California to rural Arkansas during Ronald Reagan’s 1980s. Father Jacob (Steven Yeun) and mother Monica (Han Yeri) earn an honest living by chicken sexing (separating poultry by gender), but he aspires to build something of his own, to farm his land and grow Korean vegetables on the best American dirt. She misses city life and is displeased with their humble trailer home. Compromise ensues for the sake of their U.S-born kids.
Chung’s slice of life drama is on par with Hirokazu Kore-eda’s intimate portrayals of family life...
Greener pastures entice the Yi family to move from California to rural Arkansas during Ronald Reagan’s 1980s. Father Jacob (Steven Yeun) and mother Monica (Han Yeri) earn an honest living by chicken sexing (separating poultry by gender), but he aspires to build something of his own, to farm his land and grow Korean vegetables on the best American dirt. She misses city life and is displeased with their humble trailer home. Compromise ensues for the sake of their U.S-born kids.
Chung’s slice of life drama is on par with Hirokazu Kore-eda’s intimate portrayals of family life...
- 1/28/2020
- by Carlos Aguilar
- The Wrap
Told with the rugged tenderness of a Flannery O’Connor novel but aptly named for a resilient Korean herb that can grow wherever it’s planted, Lee Isaac Chung’s semi-autobiographical ; it’s the story of a family assimilating into a country, but also the story of a man assimilating into his family.
Jacob Yi (Steven Yeun) and his wife Monica (“Sea Fog” star Yeri Han) emigrated from Korea together in the early ’70s, but — after nearly a decade of scraping by as chicken sexers in California — they arrive at the Arkansas trailer home he bought for their family in separate cars. Monica drives the kids: A stoic pre-teen girl named Anne (the natural and grounded Noel Cho), and a precocious seven-year-old boy named David. Jacob drives the truck, which is full of its own precious cargo.
As he pulls up to the five-acre plot of disheveled Ozark farmland, stridently unaware...
Jacob Yi (Steven Yeun) and his wife Monica (“Sea Fog” star Yeri Han) emigrated from Korea together in the early ’70s, but — after nearly a decade of scraping by as chicken sexers in California — they arrive at the Arkansas trailer home he bought for their family in separate cars. Monica drives the kids: A stoic pre-teen girl named Anne (the natural and grounded Noel Cho), and a precocious seven-year-old boy named David. Jacob drives the truck, which is full of its own precious cargo.
As he pulls up to the five-acre plot of disheveled Ozark farmland, stridently unaware...
- 1/27/2020
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
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