04 Oct 2020

Minari

I hate to fan girl out every time a new film is released that tells another Asian American story, but having a childhood where that didn’t exist does something to a person. I now feel like I have some sort of special privilege to be able to witness this. Because it isn’t just about an Asian story. It is an Asian story that is being backed by an American studio with actors and actresses that I now recognize on mainstream television and film. It wasn’t a quick change. I recognize that this has been a long time in the making, but the space in between each release now gets shorter and shorter. One day, it won’t amaze me in quite the same way, but I’ll be so proud that I’ve gotten to see the change as it happened.

Steve Yuen’s latest film, Minari, tells the story of a man and his family immigrating to America to start their new life. It’s a story that many Asian Americans know of too well from their own parents and families, but with an agriculture backstory. The end of the trailer just says “Coming Soon” but we hope we’ll have a chance to see it sooner rather than later and not just in theaters.