[Person人] 'Minari' Created at the Boundary of Dream and Reality Is Grandmother's Blessing

Director Jeong I-sak of 'Minari' wrote the script after becoming a father to understand his father's emotions
Oscar 6-category nominee "Hope 'Minari' brings unity"

Director Lee Isaac Chung

Director Lee Isaac Chung (Chung Isaac, 43) considers Minari as love. It was the Korean vegetable that grew best among those his grandmother cultivated during his childhood. It became a symbol of hope for his family, who went through hardships such as a farm fire. He believed it was thanks to his grandmother's love imbued in it.

The faint green memories are faithfully recreated in the film Minari. A representative scene is when David (Alan Kim) and his grandmother Soonja (Youn Yuh-jung) joyfully admire the well-grown minari.

"David, you were born in America, so you’ve never tried minari, right? Minari is so wonderful. It grows like a weed anywhere, so anyone can pick and eat it. Whether rich or poor, everyone can pick it and become healthy. (...) Minari is wonderful! It’s wonderful!" "Minari~ Minari~ Minari~ Wonderful~ Wonderful~ Minari." "Yes, wonderful~ wonderful~ minari."

Movie 'Minari' Still Cut

Director Chung said, "It is a family story I wanted to tell my seven-year-old daughter, Livia." "It portrays a language of deep sincerity beyond any foreign language. I hope many people learn to speak in this language of love."

He emphasizes universality in his scripts. This idea arose from his identity confusion while living in a rural town in Arkansas, USA, without traffic lights. Chung is a second-generation Korean American. Being the only Korean in the village, he could not fully identify as American. Yet, when he went to Korea, he felt unfamiliar with many things and could not fully feel Korean either. A life close to that of an outsider. Questions about this led him to become a film director.

Chung first gained attention with Munyurangabo (2007). Munyurangabo tells the story of boys suffering from the Rwandan tribal genocide. Orphan Munyurangabo sets out on a journey with his friend Sangre, seeking to avenge their parents. When Sangre stays at his hometown to reunite with his long-separated parents, Munyurangabo hastens alone on the path of revenge.

Movie 'Mun Yulanga Bo' Still Cut

Director Chung cast local amateur actors and completed filming in just eleven days. The production budget was only $30,000. It would have been impossible without the help of his wife Valerie Chu, who was doing art therapy in Rwanda as part of Youth With A Mission (YWAM).

Munyurangabo was invited to the Cannes Film Festival’s "Un Certain Regard" section and won the grand prize at the American Film Institute (AFI) Festival. It was highly praised for quietly asking viewers to watch over the future of the Tutsi and Hutu people rather than dramatically recreating their conflict. In a 2007 interview with a Korean film magazine, he said, "I did not want to recreate the genocide."

"I heard many Rwandans suffered psychological trauma after watching Hollywood films about the Rwandan genocide. I wanted to make a film that could help Rwandans overcome their trauma. Especially, when I heard orphans in Rwanda say, ‘I know where the person who killed my parents is. Please tell me why I shouldn’t take revenge on them,’ I thought that was a good question to make a film about."

Movie 'Minari' Filming Set Still Cuts

Not all works filled with sincerity were successful. Director Chung once considered quitting directing after the box office failures of Lucky Life (2010) and Abigail (2012). Feeling responsibility as a family head, he worked as a professor in the Department of Film and Video at the University of Utah Asia Campus. The script he wrote at the boundary between dream and reality was Minari. Inspired by American author W. S. Cather’s representative work My Antonia, he approached his autobiographical experience with honesty.

Director Chung could have written Minari earlier but did not rush. He wanted to understand the emotions his father must have experienced. He wanted to see why his father tried to cultivate the farm, why he chased his dreams, and why it was important ? all from his father’s perspective. To do so, he had to grow older and, above all, become a father himself. He said, "Jacob (Steven Yeun) in the film can be a father, but he also reflects myself. It contains the emotions I experienced as a father."

Minari was nominated in six categories, including the highest honor of Best Picture, at the Academy Awards on the 15th (Korean time). Director Chung could not hide his joy not over winning but over the widespread discussion of Minari. He wants to share reflections on identity with more people. "What I wanted to convey with Minari was, above all, that we are human. Even people who are not Asian can accept this film as their own story. I hope Minari brings unity."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.