As the North American awards season arrives on schedule, various awards events as Oscar outposts and weather vanes have been launched one after another, and the Oscars this year have become more and more clear. "Nowhere", "Voice of Metal", "Mank", "Spiritual Journey", etc. represent the main public relations films of major Hollywood film companies, and constitute the most important points of this year's 93rd Oscar Awards.
Directly affected by the epidemic, a large number of Hollywood movie projects were delayed last year. Therefore, compared with previous years when the North American awards season mainly revolved around the productions of mainstream Hollywood film companies, this year's awards orientation appeared to be "independent" and "young". The works of a new generation of North American filmmakers such as "Nowhere", "Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Always" and "The First Cow" have joined the battle.
The film "Minari" is not to be underestimated in this batch of new filmmakers, and it can even be said to be a dark horse. This film produced by Brad Pitt won the Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival last year. It was the most watched film on Sundance. The audience and the media applauded in unison. The Rotten Tomatoes website still maintains a 100% media praise rate so far, and MTC has also scored 87 media reviews.
The movie "Minari" is written and directed by Korean director Lee Isak Jung, and starring Steven Won, Han Yeli, and Yoon Yoo Jung. The film tells the story of a Korean immigrant family starting a new life in Arkansas in the 1980s, and combines cultural collisions, immigrant identity, family issues, and the American dream.
It can be said that this is a work of great social significance for Korean Americans and even collective minority Americans.
The long drive left the Jacob family feeling exhausted physically and mentally. They moved from the West Coast to Arkansas, ready to start a new life. But after arriving at the destination, his wife Monica couldn't be happy. The barren land and the simple board house without a foundation made her very depressed. It was not what Jacob had promised.
The protagonist Jacob bought this land because he saw new hope here. He plans to grow agricultural products on this undeveloped soil; if the harvest is good, his family will soon be out of poverty. .
In Monica's view, her husband Jacob was somewhat unrealistic. But anyway, Monica was finally persuaded, after all, they are a family, and there are two unskilled children to raise.
After moving, the couple worked in a local chicken farm, responsible for distinguishing male and female chicks; Jacob was very familiar with this job, but his wife's work efficiency could not be improved. On the way home, Monica argued with Jacob again over the issue of her new home. The most worrying thing for Monica was her son who was suffering from heart disease. If something went wrong, it would take more than an hour to drive from home to the hospital.
There was a heavy rain that night, the house was leaking, and even the circuit was unstable. The tornado warning on the TV made Monica even more anxious. Finally, Monica's grievance and anger broke out, and the couple fell into a dispute. The children threw paper airplanes with words at their parents, but it didn't work. Their quarrel continued.
The next day, Monica's attitude began to ease. She persuaded herself to settle here, and in a few days her mother will move in to live with them and take care of the children.
The first step in planning a farm is to find a source of water. In order to save up to 300 US dollars in budget costs, Jacob chose to dig the well himself, even if it was harder, but at least he is working hard for his dream. In the long run, everything is worth it. .
The children looked forward to the grandmother's arrival, but this grandmother was not what they wanted. The strange smell, indecent behavior and words on her made David very resistant. Once, when grandma's words angered David, he took advantage of grandma's watching TV and replaced her strange drink with his own urine. Because of this incident, David was scolded by his father.
But grandma and David also get along well. When grandma took David to play by the pond far away from the farm, grandma planted "Minari", which is the native Korean cress.
Grandma told David about the hometown stories and songs of "Minari" and David listened to it; when David was about to throw stones at the snake on the trunk, grandma stopped him in time, and David also listened to it. David became accustomed to this strange grandmother, even when he was afraid of death, he was willing to let her hold him to sleep.
Until one day, when the siblings were at home, they suddenly found that their grandma was unable to move, and even spoke very vaguely. It was obvious that grandma had a stroke. Although the situation has improved later, it is still very inconvenient to move and speak. She can no longer take care of the children, and even needs to be taken care of by the children. Grandma feels very sad.
Dramatically, with the grandmother’s stroke, good things followed: Jacob and his family went to the city to review David’s heart disease. Regarding the results of the test, the couple was just beginning to be frightened; but what is gratifying is that David’s The illness actually started to get better. At the same time, Jacob's agricultural products have also been successfully marketed, and cooperation has been reached with local vendors.
While Jacob was immersed in the joy of the double happy event, Monica called Jacob aside and said that she could no longer bear it because the conflict between the two of them had increased day by day since they moved here, and their marriage came to an end. Even if next they will be free from poverty.
It is destined that even money cannot save their out-of-control marriage, just because the crux of the problem lies in the inability to communicate with each other's values. However, something more desperate was discovered at the same time: a fire broke out in the storage room of the farm, which contained agricultural products...
The cultural identity of second-generation immigrants
The issue of cultural identity is the most obvious expression in "Minari", which is reflected in every individual of this Korean family in the film. But regarding cultural identity, the director mainly focused on the two roles of boy David and grandmother and the interaction between the two.
David is a second-generation immigrant born and raised in the United States. His understanding of Korean culture comes from family education. As he speaks fluent English and is accustomed to American life, he has no traces of Koreans except for his racial characteristics that cannot be changed. This is precisely in conflict with the grandmother who has just immigrated from South Korea and is still new to American culture.
So we can see that David looks forward to grandma's arrival, and after grandma's arrival, he appears extremely resistant. This is because the image of the grandmother does not match the "American grandmother" expected by this "American kid".
The role of David is the core of the film in a sense. It is the self-projection of Lee Issak Zheng, a Korean director who is also a second-generation immigrant. How to define the identity of this child has become the focus of the film: Father always emphasized that David is a "Korean child", but David has no concept of the so-called "Korean child". His behavior and demeanor always prove his identity as an "American". .
It is Shishan. The identity dilemma of all second-generation minority immigrants in the United States lies in the fact that they are caught in the pressure of two cultures. They are American, but their ethnic characteristics, native family, and community make it impossible to get rid of the original The effectiveness of ethnic culture.
Marital conflicts caused by gender parallax
In addition to the explicit expression of the cultural identity of Korean immigrants, the marriage relationship between Jacob and Monica in the film is also quite discussive. Director Lee Isak Zheng has a unique display of this marriage relationship.
The most heartbreaking scene in the film is the conversation between Jacob and Monica in the corner after a family comes out of the store. In my opinion, this may be the best male and female rivalry in many films last year. It reminds people of the reunion of the ex-wife and Lee in "Manchester by the Sea", but the couple in "Minari", at this moment It is not to try to reconcile, but to break.
The reason why this scene is heartbreaking is because it allows the audience to understand that Jacob and Monica are in love, but their break is not changed by love.
When Monica burst into tears and complained that Jacob’s focus on career surpassed his family, the contradiction between the two became clear: Jacob’s happiness was to allow his family to live a carefree material life, while Monica’s happiness was based on Emotional care.
The roles of Jacob and Monica are universal in response to reality. From the perspectives of men and women, there is actually nothing wrong with the way they look at and deal with problems. The problem is that they lack the awareness of empathy, cannot communicate, cannot achieve the unity of values, and cannot respond to the needs of the counterparty.
The struggle history of Asians
At the same time, "Minari" is still a movie about ethnic minorities chasing the American dream. This chase is not only in the movie where Jacob leads his family to explore the wasteland and seek material life opportunities; the film’s competition in the current award season also has the same symbolic meaning.
For a long time in the past, the voices of minorities in the United States were usually embraced and represented by African Americans. Because of the tragic encounters of blacks in American history and the intensity of their resistance, the struggle for racial equality is simply summarized by the public as a contest between "blacks and whites", while Asians are often silent in the mainstream American cultural environment.
However, the struggle of Asians has not stagnated because of this, which can be reflected in the changes in the roles of Asians in Hollywood film and television productions.
Korean actors have gone from being absent in the early Hollywood film and television dramas to gradually being present, from small roles to resident roles in popular dramas such as "Lost" and "The Walking Dead", and then in recent years Steven Won, Wu Shanzhuo, and John. Korean actors such as Zhao starred in film and television dramas as the first leading actors, and there were even outstanding works of self-ethnic narratives by Korean creators such as "In Columbus" and "Korean". In the entire Asian circle, the momentum of Asian struggle is also obvious.
The film "Minari" may not be the top prize in the awards season, and the chance of hitting the Oscars is not great; but after the exposure during the awards season, it is bound to allow more audiences to see that it belongs to Koreans and Asians. s story.
Author | Donidak; Official Account | Seeing Death in Movies
Edit | Riding a Rooftop Boy; Please indicate the source for reprinting
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