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Golden Globes 2021 'Minari': Meet Steven Yeun, Han Ye-ri and rest of the cast who star in film with nod in best foreign language category

‘Minari’ will not be competing in the best picture category but will instead be considered for the best foreign language film because it is primarily in Korean

The award season is around the corner. Many movies were released digitally this year thanks to the coronavirus pandemic. Among the many great films that were released was ‘Minari’. As mentioned in The Wrap, Lee Isaac Chung’s ‘Minari’ is a story of tradition and family set in 1980s Arkansas about a Korean-American family moving to a rural region. The title refers to a vegetable or plant very common in Korean culture.

As the director explained to 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." At Sundance Film Festival, the movie won both the US Dramatic Grand Jury Prize and the US Dramatic Audience Award.

Recently, according to Variety, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association has completed its annual review of film submissions for the Golden Globe awards and it has learned exclusively that many films and performances have been switched from the studios’ planned submissions. According to the report, ‘Minari’, produced by Plan B Entertainment and distributed by A24, will not be competing in the best picture categories and will instead be considered in foreign language film because it is primarily in Korean.

‘Minari’ has mostly earned favorable reviews from critics. Glenn Whipp of Los Angeles Times reviewed the film and opined, “‘Minari’ in its entirety feels like a balm right now, a gentle, truthful and tender story of family filled with kind people trying to love one another the best they can. It’s filled with the specifics of Chung’s Korean American upbringing, but it’s also universal in its insights into the resiliency of the human spirit."

The best picture snub at the Golden Globes wasn’t met with much kindness on social media. A user opined, "Minari is the most/best American movie I saw this year. This is complete b******t.” Another reasoned, "Minari was written and directed by an American and produced by American production companies. It is an American immigration story. The lead is American. English is spoken in the film. And not every American household speaks only English." Film producer Aditya Sood wrote: "Considering #Minari a 'foreign language' film is literally not understanding what that entire movie was about." A user stated, "Minari is an american film produced in the united states and that shouldn’t be minimized because it highlights immigrants’ experiences and isn’t primarily in english... do better golden globes."

Who are the stars of Minari?

The movie features Steven Yeun as Jacob Yi, Han Ye-ri as Monica Yi, Alan Kim as David, Noel Kate Cho as Anne, Youn Yuh-jung as Soon-ja, Will Patton as Paul, Scott Haze as Billy, Darryl Cox as Mr Harlan and Esther Moon as Mrs O.

Steven Yeun

Steven Yeun is a South Korean-American actor and is known for his roles as Glenn Rhee in the TV series ‘The Walking Dead’ and Ben in the film ‘Burning’. The latter earned him critical acclaim and several accolades, including the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor. He has also starred in films such as ‘I Origins’, ‘Okja’, ‘Mayhem’ and ‘Sorry to Bother You’.

Han Ye-ri

The South Korean actress Ye-ri has featured in films such as ‘As One’, ‘Commitment’ and ‘Haemoo’, ‘A Dramatic Night’ and ‘Worst Woman’. Even though the film will compete in the foreign language film category, Variety mentioned that Yeun and Ye-ri will still be eligible in the lead acting categories in drama.

Youn Yuh-jung

IndieWire notes Youn has more than 40 credits to her name dating back to 1971 with Kim Ki-young’s ‘Woman of Fire’. Her other credits include ‘The Housemaid’, ‘The Taste of Money’ and ‘The Bacchus Lady’. In the LA Times review, Whipp said, “Youn, a star in Korea making her American feature film debut, is marvelous, as is the rest of the cast.”

These remarks were made by the internet and individual organizations, MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and nor does it support these claims being made on the Internet.