Minari: A
Story of Resilience
Let's face it. Life is hard, and especially life as an immigrant is even harder. But immigrants leave their country and settle in a new home, in the hopes of having a better, happier, and wealthier life than the one they leave behind. It certainly was the same case with the Lee family, who left Korea because, as he has said in the film, "life was too hard back there." But the life of an immigrant, without a particularly striking and specialized skill, goes down to a common path that is characterized by routinary, simple, and low labors that the locals and natives would hardly apply for. In the case of the Lee family, it was inspecting the sex of the chicks and separating the male and female into different boxes. Even after 10 years of work in California, Jacob Lee (played by Steven Yeun) and Monica (played by Yeri Han) still hold onto the same job, and their progress and exceptional skill hardly improve their family's life. No matter how impeccable and skilled you are in spotting the male from the female chicks, the job remains the same - the low, basic, and common job that anybody can replace their vacancy. Making things worse, their son David (played by Alan Kim) suffers from a heart condition that puts his life in danger. Regardless of the difficulties and challenges they face throughout the movie, the spirit of resilience that they show in the movie stunningly reflects the lifestyle and tenacity of immigrants in a foreign land during the 1980s and teaches the audience of the spirit that they should own in their own journey in life.
The film symbolizes the spirit of resilience with "Minari," the Korean plant known as the "water dropwort" in English. This is actually a common edible plant in Korea, and it is cooked and used in a myriad of ways. The most common recipe would actually be putting it in a hot pot or stew and eating it by dipping in chojang (the Korean spicy chili red pepper sauce made out of gochujang - red pepper sauce - vinegar and sugar). Easily found and cooked, it is one of the staple edible plants found in Korean cuisine. Soonja (played by Oscar-winning supporting actress Yuhjung Yoon) summarizes the plant very well in the movie, "Minari is truly the best. It grows anywhere, like weeds. So anyone can pick and eat it. Rich or poor, anyone can enjoy it and be healthy. Minari can be put in kimchi, put in stew, put in soup. It can be medicine if you are sick. Minari is wonderful, wonderful!" This versatile and indiscriminating plant became a symbol in the movie that portrays the mindset and tenacity of the Lee family amid increasing challenges and hardships in starting a new life in Arkansas. Just as the plant has the capacity to grow and thrive in any circumstance, the family of Lee never falls apart and breaks into pieces, totally withered of all strength to start anew. They merely keep going, sticking as one, despite the battles that arise within and without.
This heartwarming (and at times heart-wrenching) story of an immigrant family reminded me of the common term in Korea used these days - "존버" which roughly translates to "endure your heart out," or the more explicit translation would go like, "Endure, for fuck's sake." First used in the stock and bitcoin market among the people, the term came to be used in extensive ways. It's an equivalent term with "HODL" which means "Hold On for Dear Life," used widely in bitcoin forums. These terms simply mean, no matter how the stock or bitcoin price fluctuates, one has to endure and keep holding it until the price goes up, without selling it away at a loss. The minari in the movie and the above terms reflect the same spirit. Things may be sour and painful at the present moment, with little availability for improvement and betterment. And there might be only a little prospect of things getting better. But even if that is the case, the mind must not be broken, the spirit should not be shattered, and the will must not be bent. For it is the broken mind, spirit, and will that truly put a period in a situation, not the circumstance itself. And it is this edible, common plant called minari the film uses to tell the world that life is filled with challenges but can be overcome with an unwavering spirit of resilience.
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