[Review] Minari (7.5/10)

 

Title - Minari
Studio - A24, Plan B Entertainment
Starring - Steven Yuen, Yeri Han, Alan S. Kim, Noel Cho, Youn Yuh-Jung, Will Patton
Writer - Lee Isaac Chung
Director - Lee Isaac Chung
Release - 12 February 2021

I argue that even with limited movies released for the Oscar year of 2021, all the Oscar contenders got their releases because they are all smaller movies that need not come out in the cinema - just for this argument sake because I believe all movies made for cinemas should be seen in the cinemas.

So when others are saying that the Oscars shouldn't happen this year because there isn't going to be a fair competition, I am against that argument because we are not missing out.

But then seeing Minari here up for multiple awards including Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress, I can't help but think, maybe there really wasn't enough of a pool to choose from. Or it's just political.

This is not to say Minari doesn't deserve the accolades. Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Music - I can see why the Oscars would like these. It's a beautifully directed picture with real characters that have real struggles. It showed the hardship of an immigrant trying to make it for himself, and leaving the audience constantly questioning whether his decisions were the right ones, or even if we would make the same decisions had this been ourselves.

This was a great acting achievement for Steven Yuen as I haven't seen him in anything else other than The Walking Dead series. And Youn Yuh-Jung playing the grandmother also gave a very good performance. I'm just not as impressed as to give them Oscar nods. But I'm sure this also stemmed from being sour about the Best Supporting Actress snub last year for Zhao Shu Zhen in The Farewell.

The story of Minari will leave you with a broken heart. It was effective, there was a good buildup, with mostly great performances all around. The director knows how to let you in into the lives of this famiy. And that in itself, is already a win for the movie.

But the message in the end left me baffled and disappointed. We see from the very beginning that Yuen's character wanted to do things on his own, to be independent by being smart. He even taught his son. But by the end, we see him conforming to normal practices. And the worst part was, he was almost successful by doing things his way. By working hard, by sacrificing, he finally got a buyer. So why then do we not see that as being a success, instead we saw him giving up and then succumbing to the "American way". That's so contradictory to what the character was about.