Minari ("C", which I equate here to 6/10 stars)
Nice gutsy concept for portraying Asians moving to rural USA, after apparently immigrating from South Korea to the West coast a handful of years before. And the boy is cute. But otherwise, a thoroughly underwhelming movie and a "D" the rest of the way around. Just a thoroughly underwhelming film for way too many reasons. I personally don't think it deserves to win any major awards at the Oscars.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Basically, I felt very little for any of the characters. The wife seems spoiled, the husband seems self-absorbed in his mission, the kids are also fairly spoiled, the grandma is a pushover.
The characters are all a bit sedated, aside from a slightly fiery argument between mother and father.
Some of the scenes are useless -- i.e. the scene where Will Patton's character is carrying the cross, or the scene where David is staying at his friend's house.
I don't know any Asian family that would leave their stroke-stricken grandma at home alone by herself, in order to take a multi-hour road trip to the hospital.
The conflict between the wife and husband at the end of the movie is a bit overdramatic, in the sense that both characters have little ability to empathize with the other.
I'm Asian-American, born and raised in the midwest USA (1977), and although I'm not Korean, I felt very little emotional commitment to the film's characters. (I imagine that Koreans may feel a bit more sentimental about the movie.) Somehow it's two hours of my life that I wish I could take back.
Nice gutsy concept for portraying Asians moving to rural USA, after apparently immigrating from South Korea to the West coast a handful of years before. And the boy is cute. But otherwise, a thoroughly underwhelming movie and a "D" the rest of the way around. Just a thoroughly underwhelming film for way too many reasons. I personally don't think it deserves to win any major awards at the Oscars.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Basically, I felt very little for any of the characters. The wife seems spoiled, the husband seems self-absorbed in his mission, the kids are also fairly spoiled, the grandma is a pushover.
The characters are all a bit sedated, aside from a slightly fiery argument between mother and father.
Some of the scenes are useless -- i.e. the scene where Will Patton's character is carrying the cross, or the scene where David is staying at his friend's house.
I don't know any Asian family that would leave their stroke-stricken grandma at home alone by herself, in order to take a multi-hour road trip to the hospital.
The conflict between the wife and husband at the end of the movie is a bit overdramatic, in the sense that both characters have little ability to empathize with the other.
I'm Asian-American, born and raised in the midwest USA (1977), and although I'm not Korean, I felt very little emotional commitment to the film's characters. (I imagine that Koreans may feel a bit more sentimental about the movie.) Somehow it's two hours of my life that I wish I could take back.