Minari:7 Things To Know About This Korean Comedy-Drama

Minari: 2020 Korean comedy-drama Minari is the story of a Korean American family set up in the background of the 1980s who move to an Arkansas farm in search of their own American dream.

The film takes us on the journey of a tender, immigrant American family who discover the undeniable resilience of family and what really makes a home. Released in the U.S. movie theatres, Minari will arrive in South Korea in March 2021. The film is produced and filmed in the United States.

Here are seven things to know about Minari:

1. Directed and written by filmmaker Lee Issac Chung, Minari is produced by Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, and Christina Oh.
2. Produced by A24 and Plan B Entertainment, the film stars Steven Yeun, Han Ye-ri, Alan Kim, Noel Kate Cho, Youn Yuh-Jung, and Will Patton.
3. Yeun, who is best known for his TV role in The Walking Dead, is joined by Korean actors Yeri Han as his stressed wife and Yuh-Jung Youn as his idiosyncratic mother-in-law, who live together in a remote and unforgiving field.
4. Yeun, who plays the role of a father, said that he was terrified at taking on the role because it's scary to approach his fathers generation on a level that isn’t just caricatured but trying to get into their humanity. "It opened my own eyes into the ways in which I might misunderstand my own father and that generation as well,” said the 37-year-old actor.
5. Minari had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 26, 2020, followed by a release in the United States on February 12, 2021. The film is all set to release in South Korea on March 3, 2021. 
6. The film has already won multiple awards nominations, including the Golden Globes, the U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize as well as the U.S. Dramatic Audience Award. However, nominations for the Oscars have not yet been announced.
7. Minari comes out as an intensely personal story, based on filmmaker Chung's own life as a boy growing up in Arkansas, but there is no satire and barely any mention of racism.

Image Credits: Entertainment Weekly