Plants and Problems
Plants and Problems
The Good Earth
July 15, 2021
An American Portrait
Minari (2020)
A Korean-American family moving to Arkansas in the 1980s to start a farm is likely not high on the list of plots of spec scripts floating around Hollywood, but maybe it should be.
Think of it. The danger, the sex, the explosions, the costumes, the rocket-powered soundtrack! God, it could write itself. Get ready to haul in the Box Office gold.
Minari has none of these things. But it does have a soul. A beating heart of pride. It is an almost tactile, soulful story of a family looking to start anew in a time and a place that might not be on their side, and competing against traditions and elements that have little sympathy for the new and the brave.
Minari has a mischievous little boy with a weak heart but a mighty spirit who tricks his grandmother into drinking urine. This is what more movies need, grandmothers who laugh and love even while drinking pee.
Minari takes its name from an edible plant that is native to east Asia. It is described as being like celery or parsley with a grassy, peppery aftertaste. Can it grow here? If it struggles do you pour more water on it? Give it more sun? Or just plough up the soil and try again with something else?
Or do you turn your back on the farm and go back to what you already know? What does a family torn apart by the harsh earth decide?
Minari has Will Patton and any movie that does is worth your time. But Lee Isaac Chung’s soft-spoken masterpiece belongs to Alan S. Kim, Noel Cho, Yeri Han, Steven Yeun, and Yuh-Jung Youn as the family that reminds us what it means to be American. What it should mean.
How your garden grows depends on the soil, the sky, and the bank. It also depends on the seed. What you sprinkle into the land. And, sometimes, maybe more than anything else, it depends on how deep you’re willing to dig. --TK
Thursday, July 15, 2021