Print this article
Every once in a while, a very special film comes around that expands the range of your sympathies and makes you feel a greater sense of oneness with your fellow man without in any way being emotionally manipulative or maudlin. In what has otherwise been a very weak year for movies, we have been blessed with three such films:
Sound of Metal, Nomadland, and now,
Minari.
Minari, nominated for six Oscars, including best picture (the winners will be announced between the writing and the publishing of this piece),
tells the story of Jacob (Steven Yeun) and Monica Yi (Yeri Han), a hard-pressed Korean couple who come to America in the 1980s in the hopes of escaping poverty and achieving their own version of the American dream. Jacob and Monica have a daughter, Anne (Noel Cho), and a young son, David (Alan Kim), who has a taste for Mountain Dew and a heart condition that adds to the family’s worries.