The trailer for Steven Yeun's latest film, Minari, just dropped and it managed to make my eyes water in just under two minutes, which is impressive.
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The film, which was written and directed by Lee Isaac Chung, tells the story of a Korean American family in the '80s who move to a rural Arkansas town in search of the American dream.
The film's title refers to minari, a plant used often in Korean cuisine. When speaking about the plant, Chung told the Wrap, "The interesting thing about it is that it’s a plant that will grow very strongly in its second season after it has died and come back. So there’s an element of that in the film, so it grows very expansively without doing much to it. It’s a poetic plant in a way for me.”
Yeun, who plays patriarch Jacob, is also an executive producer on the film. He told the South China Morning Post, "Isaac’s script spoke to me on a deeply human level. I think he painted a portrait of a family that is so honest and truthful, so when you get to read things like that you jump at those opportunities. Jacob is at once his own individual but encapsulates moments and bits of immigrant Korean men of that time. It was something I wanted to explore.”
The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival back in January and managed to win both the US Dramatic Grand Jury Prize and the US Dramatic Audience Award. Now, it's got Oscar buzz written all over it.
Yeun is, of course, not the only one giving this films its life. The film also provides moving performances from actors Han Ye-ri, Youn Yuh-jung, Alan S. Kim, and Noel Kate Cho.
Since the trailer's premiere, Twitter has already been ablaze with praise for it.
to see someone in a movie (@SteveYeun!!) speaking English w a Korean accent and that making me feel bigger rather than smaller??? wow!!!!!!!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ somebody inject Minari into my eyeballs please I wanna watch the whole thing
we've got to get steven yeun his oscar for minari
@A24 already knew that steven yeun was going to bring a powerhouse performance but i am not prepared for this boy to break my heart into a million pieces #minari
minari oscar campaign starts now
Needless to say, we're all pretty excited to have this film in our lives. There is no release date as of yet, but it is coming soon!
