A tender and sweeping story about what roots us, Minari follows a Korean-American family that moves to an Arkansas farm in search of their own American Dream. The family home changes completely with the arrival of their sly, foul-mouthed, but incredibly loving grandmother. Amidst the instability and challenges of this new life in the rugged Ozarks, Minari shows the undeniable resilience of family and what really makes a home.
“Minari,” Lee Isaac Chung’s semi-autobiographical story about a Korean-American family seeking the American dream in rural Arkansas during the 1980s, was the favorite for the best foreign-language film Golden Globe, and on Sunday night, it secured the trophy.
“This one here, she’s the reason I made this film,” Chung said in his acceptance speech, while tightly hugging his young daughter. “Minari is about a family. It’s a family trying to learn how to speak a language of its own,” he said. “It goes deeper than any American language and any foreign language; it’s a language of the heart.”
Korean Minari – Known also as Oenanthe javanica, water dropwort, Chinese celery (not kintsai), or Japanese parsley (not mitsuba), Korean Minari is a favorite garden green among Korean cooks when it is in season. From the Apiaceae family, the upright, crunchy green stems and leafy tops of this flavorful vegetable are delicious.
Korean Minari is rich in vitamins and minerals. It contains high amounts of beta-carotene, iron and vitamin E. It also contains riboflavin, calcium, and protein. Its chlorophyll-rich leaves have antigenotoxic and antioxidative properties, and thus can be highly beneficial for overall health.In Korea, it is commonly used as a flavoring for kimchi, and as a vegetable in the hot-stone dish bibimbap and in the fish soup, Maeuntang.
