Award-winner ‘Minari’ to be shown
AMPHITHEATER MOVIE AUG. 6
The GRF will screen the Academy Award-winning 2020 drama “Minari” on Friday, Aug. 6, at 8:30 p.m. in the Amphitheater. The show is co-sponsored by the Korean American Association. A very special personal greeting to LWSB, graciously provided by the film’s prestigious editor, Harry Yoon, will precede the film that night.
“Minari” was produced by Brad Pitt, and written and directed by Lee Isaac Chung. It is a semi-autographical expression of the latter’s family of South Korean immigrants trying to make a new life in rural Arkansas in the 1980s.
Jacob Li moves his young family from California to start over on a 50-acre farm, where he dreams of finding success in raising Korean fruits and vegetables for the 30,000 immigrants who come to the U.S. every year from his homeland. Struggling with a skeptical wife, cultural adjustments, the constant threat of financial ruin and a young son with a heart condition, he must now adjust to his mother-in-law arriving from Korea to live with them in their tiny trailer. Among the vignettes of tears and humor, the metaphor of minari, a tough Asian vegetable that survives under difficult circumstances almost anywhere, permeates the film through the actions of the wise but iconoclastic grandma, Soonja, portrayed by veteran Korean actress Youn Yuh-jung.
Among its many accolades, “Minari” earned six nominations at the 93rd Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Score, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actor (Steven Yeun) and Best Supporting Actress (Youn), with Youn winning for her performance, making her the first Korean to win an Academy Award for acting. It also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film, was nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, and earned six nominations at the 74th British Academy Film Awards, including Best Film Not in the English Language.
This film transcends cultural lines and will touch all those who see it regardless of their ethnic background. Don’t miss this special open-air screening of one of the best movies of 2020.
