LaaF…Culture!

3 SENTENCE REVIEW

With powerful acting, beautiful cinematography, and a nuanced script – Minari is a slower paced film but each scene is filled with meaning not only in what is said but what remains unsaid, true to Asian aesthetics. The film follows the story of a Korean immigrant in America who moves his young family to start a farm in Arkansas, much to the shock of his wife, the added responsibility of his eldest daughter, and the wonder of his young son who must also learn to live with his quirky Korean grandmother who moves in with them. In turns touching, laughter-inducing, and heart-breaking, what sticks with me the most is the way it captured so honestly the struggle between pursuing ones dreams and keeping a family together.

REFLECTIONS ON THE ASIAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE

As a child of Asian-American immigrants there was so much in this film that resonated with me (and it’s not just because their son was named David! Haha!). The struggle of immigrants to make it in a world that is not made for them. The children of immigrants who must honor their cultural upbringing but also must negotiate living in the only country they have ever known. The savoring of special foods others may not understand. The ignorant, unintended as it may be, slights one must endure as the cultural outsider. But the film does not languish in Asian-American stereotypes and tired immigrant story troupes but subverts them by taking seriously the perspective of the immigrants portraying them in the center of their adulthood, not as aging or irrelevant but as fleshed out three dimensional characters with hopes, joys, fears, flaws, and deep disappointments. The film as a whole is not focused on race but rather on telling the story of one family of immigrants trying to make it in one corner of America. It is worth noting that the director, whose story the film is loosely based on, as well as the actor playing the father, both were entering into the story of their own immigrant fathers. As a young father myself it helped me to understand more and step into the shoes of my father who I recently lost – the struggles he likely had to endure and the fights I remember he had with my mom. Although even the film industry may still not view it so, this too is a very American story, especially as a nation that is made up of immigrants.

REFLECTIONS ON THE BIBLICAL ALLUSIONS IN THE FILM

There are a number of biblical allusions, if not explicitly Christian images, in Minari. In the beginning of the film the father refers to the farm as a “garden” and the grandmother points out the importance of the greater danger of a hidden “serpent”. All of this recalls the Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden as well as the threat of hidden things in the beginning of the biblical story. Indeed much of the film is situated in the struggle to live off the land and ward off that which would seek to destroy life. The names of the characters have a lot of interesting Christian parallels (WARNING: Spoilers Ahead):
– Jacob: like Jacob of the bible, is the patriarch of the family who schemes to make a way for himself struggling with the earth that will not readily bear fruit and finds himself running from and (indirectly) wrestling with God.
– Monica: (though not a name found in the bible, a name tied to Christian tradition as the mother of St. Augustine) like Monica she is the long suffering mother who holds onto faith in God and faithfully cares for the family.
– Anne: like Anna the prophetess, who long awaits the Messiah, she too is long suffering, responsible early on, and able to see what others do not.
– David: like David who becomes king, he is the rascally runt of the litter but is dearly loved.

Two other characters in the story function as sort of flawed Christ-like figures
– Paul: like the biblical apostle Paul, he is an insider that is an outsider, a little intense in zeal but sincere, coming alongside Jacob in his struggles.
– Soon-ja: though referred to primarily as “grandmother” in the story, Soon-ja can mean “to obey, go along with.” She is an unconventional grandmother to say the least, who does not really go along with what is expected of her, but she is gracious to David and loves him in her own special way, and in one of the most touching scenes of the film holds David close to protect him from any badness he feels.

In Minari, like the minari plant that manages to grow in different places, we may not see everything redeemed, but we see the bonds of love that endure through the struggles.

Tags: America, asian, asian-american, fathers, immigrant experience, Minari, representation