In 2020, Hollywood fell under the spell of “Parasite”, crowned at the Oscars. Another award-winning Korean-language film hits screens on Wednesday, “Minari”, a loving chronicle of the daily life of an immigrant family taking root in rural America.
“Minari” is inspired by the childhood of South Korean-American director Lee Isaac Chung and tells the story of a modest family of South Korean immigrants, who are trying to build their lives in the United States of America. 1980s.
Under the impulse of the father (Steven Yeun, figure of the series “Walking Dead”), who wants to “start all over again”, the family turns its back on odd jobs which generally allow these immigrants to integrate, and left to found his own farm, on virgin land, in a plain of Arkansas.
In her mobile home, placed in the middle of a field, the family weaves their cocoon, oscillating between the traditional Korean way of life and their adopted country, where they attend church.
Leaving in the background the questions of integration or racism that these Asian immigrants face, the camera captures the moments of everyday life, the obstinacy of the father, which threatens to lead them to ruin, the frustration of the mother, or the innocence of their young boy.
To these characters is added a colorful grandmother, parachuted from Korea, and interpreted by Yuh-Jung Youn. It is she who brings back in her pockets the seeds of “Minari”, a watercress which has the particularity of taking root only after two successive years in the ground.
She is the first South Korean to receive the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, for this film, which thus became the second South Korean-language film to win an Oscar, after the triumph the previous year of “Parasite”, notably crowned best film.
“Minari” draws its charm from its authenticity: it is the result of a very personal project by the director, who was about to give up the cinema to become a teacher when he shot it as a last stroke of poker, including recounting many memories of his childhood: the arguments between his parents, the fire on the farm by his grandmother, life in a mobile home …
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