The name "Minari" is a literal translation from Korean, meaning water celery. Watercress can be seen everywhere in Korean home-cooked dishes. For example, in the film, the kimbap served to the church, and it was sandwiched with roasted pork belly when serving Paul, and the spicy celery that was brought to the factory to eat. As for the growing environment, cress is very adaptable, with shallow water, waterlogging and cold resistance, implying the protagonist's family who traveled thousands of miles from Korea to the United States and then migrated to the south. It is a tenacious seed from a different place, with the poetry of reclamation, it draws anointment from the barren, the season is over, and it is alive again.
The film received far higher acclaim in North America than in Asia.
Reasons for Empathy in American Audiences
On the story level, it constructs a Korean-American immigrant family; on the narrative level, it shows how aliens adapt to harsh and isolated environments from a larger and universal perspective; on the cultural level, the reason for this construction will be related to the later. Compare and discuss films of the same type related to cross-cultural identity. But from the story alone, many American farmers' families who have undergone the second population migration, and families who came to the United States to "chasing their dreams" in the 1970s, can find resonance and empathy at different levels.
This universal resonance is attributed to the fact that the director has always been very clear about the positioning of the film, and does not make value guidance and judgments. The film attempts to dig out the common emotions and feelings of farmers in this country, or families of landbreakers, to evoke memories of the past, and to generate the most extensive empathy from memories. Audiences of any nationality can feel the national spirit, the nation in a broad sense. For example, opening up in the western part of our country, or more recent poverty alleviation, such as the reclamation of wasteland in Victoria, Australia, the history of Chinese mining in the north, etc. The pioneers all carry "dream", which is the gold rush dream, the American dream, and the dream of creating a better life for the next generation with the family as a unit. There are bottom-up emergencies and top-down policies. The common point is people's tenacity and flexibility.
When showing dramatic conflicts, such as tornado crossing, water crisis, unsalable crops, warehouse fire, different from the genre films dominated by the plot, the narrative is firmly controlled, the scene is focused on the characters, and the environment such as nature and factories is abandoned to use The imagery objects are replaced, such as the chimney of the chicken factory and the lonely tin trash can; the character characteristics are not attached to the event, such as solving the water shortage, but only a few sets of close-ups are connected; Paul moved the goods from the warehouse to the car and back again. Jacob was annoyed with the background sound of the phone. The characters on the screen, the sound effects to the lines, were left blank in the rhythm.
When it comes to showing the differences between ethnic groups and cultures, it only makes a subtle and objective presentation, whether it is the arrangement of lines or the arrangement of props, they are all light details. Mother Monica has always created a strong image. When she saw the chili noodles and small whitebait (a must-have for Korean food) her mother brought, she cried and laughed for the first time and said, "Why do you still bring these". I also think that the most incisive sentence comes from David's sudden "invasion" of his grandmother and the native culture she brought in, "she smells like korea!" / "she smells like Korea". And, through the children's social interaction, they have a slight touch to the concept of cultural "slightly inclined". It does not extend the discussion of native culture, but more about accepting each other into life between generations, fighting wits and courage, and being extremely cheerful.
The soul role of the film's grandmother, Soonja, comes from this actor, who is played by the Korean hall-class actor Yoon Yoo-jung. Her arrival, the spark that collided with her grandson David and the family, dispelled the overly realistic pain in this tragicomedy, and it was she who brought the water celery seeds and intertextualized with the title. My grandmother is different from my grandmother in traditional Korean culture. She doesn't know how to cook, teaches children to play flower cards, loves to drink mountain spring water, and squatting in front of the TV to watch wba.
Another reason for the universal resonance is that the film's lens language combines the Asian audio-visual style with the regional colors of the American South. In showing the relationship between the family and the unfamiliar environment, the film handles it very beautifully through "slow images". One of the long shots of the grandmother walking into the woods with her grandchildren, starting from the wasteland ploughed by the father and moving towards the bushes, follows a gentle and comfortable trajectory. In terms of color matching, the control of the southern ultraviolet rays is very accurate. These clips are intentionally time-delayed in the actions of the body image, so that the "slowness" of rural life becomes visible, so that the audience has plenty of time to feel and think. Even better is the sound, this synthesizer of piano, guitar and electronic organ, combined with the sound of wind blowing through the woods, is full of earthy, but light atmosphere.
The local color of Arkansas is reflected by the character of Paul. Paul is a religious fundamentalist, so poor that he can't afford to go to church, and spends a day on Sunday carrying a cross and hobbling down local roads. The Jacob family drove home from the church, and asked him if they needed a ride. Paul declined. From the perspective of their children, Monica looked back in the rearview mirror with envy and approval. It was his pilgrimage, and he carried God on his back. Many fans will think of Taiwan New Wave movies in the 1990s. Behind the concise and lively style is full of humanistic care. This is the moving part of MINARI, the gentleness of the director.
Cross the Wall of Empathy
Even though MINARI has been well received since last year's Sundance Film Festival, there are still many voices of doubt. Some film critics will compare it to "Don't Tell Her", which was also hotly debated in 2019, arguing that MINARI's role in exploring cultural differences and identities is insufficient to form an Asian-American on-screen representation. npr said, we found a shadow of our father in Jacob instead. So in another dimension, MINARI breaks the paradigm of Asian-American films in telling immigrant stories, making the audience shift from thinking about who "they" is to thinking about whether it is also a story of "us".
The topic of immigrant identities evoked by films has always been one of the central concerns of various disciplines. Identity means the self-knowledge of a person or a group, it is the product of self-awareness of how I/we are different that makes me different from you/we are different from them. According to Lacan's Mirror Theory, the screen, as a mirror of the audience and the world, projects the self onto the characters on the screen, and obtains "alternative satisfaction" through the identification of the characters. What I/we think of as "who I/we are", self-knowledge and cultural identity are the basis for identifying with the mirror of the screen. However, today's society is more dimensional, and different identities and roles can converge on the same group of people at the same time, such as granddaughter Anne, who is Asian, female, and the eldest daughter, but she is also an American with citizenship. Margaret MacMillan believes that in today's volatile and uncertain times, having a sense of belonging to a group can be comforting. But identity can also be a trap, locking us in or separating us from others. In "The Use and Abuse of History," she writes that if you look at any group, you will find that their identities are evolving rather than static. Every group is constantly defining and redefining itself.
In the theory of social identity proposed by Tajfrl and Turner et al in the 1970s, individuals acquire specific social identity through the principles of social classification, social comparison and positive distinction, which is a framework from inside and outside the group to similarities and differences. However, in today’s era of widening geographical barriers and the popularity of identity politics, this framework is also easy to imprison people, causing people to be opposed to each other and causing inter-group opposition. For example, after completing the identification (classification, comparison) within the group, the enthusiasm within the group has not been affirmed, which may lead to competition between groups. This comes back to reality like the dissent between white Americans and Asian Americans over job opportunities. Of course, competition between groups does not necessarily lead to conflict, but the "Asian Hate" is indeed happening on the other side of the Pacific at this moment. Assuming that MINARI is positioned at the level of immigration and cultural identity, perhaps it can use characters, plots, props, etc. to form South Korean-Americans to classify themselves, form comparisons through conflicts between characters in the film, and finally complete the group with a constructive ending. Positive distinction, but for audiences unfamiliar with this group, helping to shape the identity of other groups in American society towards Asians may not have the same effect as imagined.
Magazine Gaurdian commentator Anthony Kao argues that if Asian Americans want to gain "full acceptance" in American society, they don't have to compromise, or be ashamed of their heritage. Well, films centered on culture clashes are necessary, but more films like MINARI are needed to tell universal American stories, and at the same time have Asian-American casts that allow audiences (including non-Asian American audience) to find a representation of the real image on the screen. This is because gaining recognition is not just about letting others know about the struggles of the group, but understanding the struggles creates a common space to connect with the group and stop seeing the topic as an individual struggle. Striving for representation can address the former, (not having to feel negative about tradition), but not necessarily the latter, (acquiring a universal social identity).
In her new book, The Native Stranger, Arleigh Russell Hawkschild, professor emeritus of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, mentions that we have to cross the "empathy wall"/empathy wall. In the environment of global isolation, the visible wall has increased, but fiber optics and social media have simultaneously deepened the invisible wall, which may become a barrier for mutual understanding between groups. We find the deeper narrative/deep stories self, which is the receptive narrative. It calls for empathy among different groups, instead of reciting the facts, but more describing the individual's experience and feelings of the facts.
This is like the reflection of southern Christian culture, climate and sunshine, and church life in MINARI, including Jacob's final decision to use local methods to find water sources. Isn't it a way to break empathy and isolation.
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