Review: 'Minari' and the American dream of reaping what you sow

You can't help but be raised. Doesn't matter who does the raising or how well they do it. You'll wake up one day as a person, the fruit of what everyone you've ever met left behind. Thank them, or blame them.

That's a truth playing out in Lee Isaac Chung's graceful, patient American dream, "Minari," via the film's pint-size protagonist, David. The fictional character (played by the magnetic young actor Alan S. Kim) stands in for Chung in a tale inspired by the writer-director's own boyhood growing up on an Arkansas farm with his Korean immigrant family.  

In the 1980s-set "Minari," the Yi family — father Jacob (Steven Yeun of "Burning" and "The Walking Dead" in a heartrending performance), mother Monica (Yeri Han), daughter Anne (Noel Cho) and son David — roll into countryside that feels sticky and hot just from looking at it. "This isn’t what you promised," Monica worriedly tells her husband in front of their dilapidated mobile home. Jacob, who dreams of turning the humid plot of land into a functioning farm, is unflaggingly optimistic. Childlike, even — he excitedly proposes to his family that they sleep on the floor the first night.

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Stability in their new home will not so easily be won — water's hard to come by, and David has a weak heart. It's all the more upended by the arrival of Monica's spark plug of a mother, Soonja (played by Yuh-jung Youn, walking off with the film under her arm), who comes bearing chestnuts, card games, piss and vinegar straight from Korea. The Yi family's story isn't about assimilating; it's about putting down roots so that the family can blossom. 

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So much of that plays out through David and how the characters of "Minari" raise him. I think the film's depiction of fatherhood has wrapped the tightest vine around my brain. Jacob and Monica get work at a chicken sorting plant, where the male chicks are discarded since they don’t lay eggs. There's a burning desire in the ambitious Jacob to be useful. He performs for the benefit of his daughter and fragile son, the very picture of a purposeful life. “They need to see me succeed at something for once,” he tells Monica. Jacob also politely rejects the faith of a Pentecostal neighbor (played by Will Patton), preferring reason, and he teaches David how to find water by looking at the land. No divining rods for him. 

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For each thrust of reliance and risk Jacob takes, it's parried by Monica's doting and caution. Her father died in the Korean War, we learn — she teaches David to pray to see heaven, in case the boy dies in the middle of the night. Monica keeps her son from running into the tall grass, out of fear his heart won't keep up with his feet. For all of Jacob's reason, his wife does nothing without faith, including emigrating to America to "save each other." 

It's wise and rascally Soonja, though, who most successfully molds David, and "Minari," in her image. She thinks the house on wheels is fun. She's curious to try Mountain Dew, and thinks it's a gas when her grandson gives her urine to drink as a prank instead. She brings seeds from her birthplace — minari, a Korean herb — and knows they take root best in an ever-shifting stream off the beaten path.

"Things that hide are more dangerous and scary," she tells David. Best to be yourself bravely, you might read between the lines.

Nature is one of "Minari's" chief concerns, in fact. The land, the rain, the wind, the water and even fire knock on the Yi family's door and come barging in. Illness and death loom, too, threatening to cut them off at the stem. They just have to adapt.

But as Soonja tells David, who's nervous that a burst of fun could be fatal: "Let's go slowly." 

Chung created "Minari" out of a desire to leave one story for his daughter, as a gift. We're all leaving things behind, even if they're not gorgeous, witty slices of coming-of-age cinema. Jacob wants David to have strength and stability after his father is gone. Monica wants to give her son salvation, in case she survives him. Soonja just wants to leave him with love and a good laugh. 

The seeds you plant will grow if you're patient, "Minari" says. They'll even outlast you. 

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'Minari'

In Korean and English, with subtitles

Grade: A

Starring: Steven Yeun, Alan S. Kim, Yeri Han, Yuh-jung Youn, Noel Cho

Director: Lee Isaac Chung

Rated: PG-13 for some thematic elements and a rude gesture

Running time: 1 hour, 55 minutes

Watch: Now in theaters and available on demand Feb. 26