11 The Arts Issue 9 - October 2023 'Minari': Reevaluating Masculinity From right to left, Steven Yeun as Jacob, Noel Cho as Anne, Alan S. Kim as David, and Han Yeri as Monica Max Littlewood (Year 13) writes about his take on 'Minari', an AmericanKorean drama. Amid my endless search for new media to indulge in, I stumbled across a small American drama released in 2020, one which received relatively little attention due to the hectic year it found itself in the middle of. Rated 98% on Rotten Tomatoes, 'surely this has to be good?' I thought to myself, completely unaware of what awaited. I should have turned back as soon as I saw the A24 Production logo. What followed was 115 minutes of heart-rending and intimate family drama, underscored with a quietly devastating soundtrack. Upon finishing the movie, I found myself in a near-vegetative state, as I do when finishing most A24 films, intensely struck by the story that had just unfolded before me. ‘Minari’ follows a Korean family of four in the 1980s, recently moved into rural Arkansas, seduced by the American dream and the father, Jacob’s, dream of starting a farm. Naturally, the pursuit of their dreams places the family of four amidst a whirlwind of personal and inter-personal struggles: a mother and a father on the verge of collapse, two children desperate for fulfilment but caught in the humdrum tempo of isolated life. The story sees the four learn to navigate this new and unpredictable environment, using each other as lighthouses rather than wandering into the unknown unaccompanied. Yet, amidst the immediate themes of family and the difficulties of adjusting to a vastly new lifestyle comes another, deeply personal theme that I found myself drawn to the most, best exemplified in a small exchange between father and son outside of a chicken-sexing facility (of all places): Image of the cast of Minari
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy ODA2Njk=