After debuting and picking up major accolades at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival in January (remember January?), A24’s new drama Minari is finally on the horizon. At the time, we said the film “swells with life-affirming observations and deep performances.” The first trailer captures every bit of that grandeur.
Directed by Lee Isaac Chung (Abigail Harm), Minari picks up with a Korean-American family as they relocate from California to a small Arkansas farm in hopes of making a sustainable life for themselves. With a glimmer of the American Dream in his eyes, the patriarch Jacob (Steven Yeun) begins treating the land, while his wife and children figure out what the heck to do in the middle of nowhere in the 1980s. The young son is at the center of this new cosmos, as he struggles to consider his Korean heritage while acclimating to life in the Ozarks. Yeun and newcomer Alan Kim give two mesmerizing, complex, and often hilarious performances, but it’s also an ensemble piece, with Han Ye-ri, Noel Kate Cho, and veteran actress Youn Yuh-jung all rising to the occasion of this small, tender film.
Since wowing audiences at Sundance, Chung snagged a follow-up project: a live-action remake of Your Name, produced by J.J. Abrams. Once you see Minari, the choice will make absolute sense.
Minari does not have a set release date, though sources tell Polygon it’s due out by February 2021, in time for the new Oscar eligibility window. A24 clearly sees the movie as a contender, and the trailer makes it obvious why.
