Polgon's entertainment team is on the ground e Sundance Film Museum 2020, bringing you first a look at what are some of the best blockbuster offerings of the year. Here's what you need to know before these indie films make their theater, streaming services, and cinematic zeitgeist.
Logline: In the 1980s, a Korean man relocates his family from California to Arkansas, determined to find prosperity, no matter the cost.
Longerline: A small one-storey home made up of wheels, an overgrown garden with no obvious water source, high debt, total absence – this is the life of Monica Yi (Han Yeri), but not the American dream her husband Jacob (Steven Yeun) painted when they were a young couple in Korea. The couple did, juggling their life's work as poultry breeders with a comeback to work new fields. Their children, Anne and David (Noel Cho and Alan S. Kim), are antsy to hang out. Everyone in the family has different strengths, and their love for each other has gone far beyond their difficulties.
Somehow unexpectedly, the South is a welcome home for the Yis. A God-fearing warrior who runs into exorcism (Will Patton) becomes Jacob's ally in growing Korean vegetables to meet the coldest of people. A nearby church welcomes this family into the congregation, despite cultural differences. The family obstacle is Jacobs, who is willing to waste anything – including the provision of natural water – to grow crops and to make a profitable farm on the ground. For Monica, it would all be possible if she were to be the father of her children, especially David, who travels as a seven-year-old with plenty of free time.
The family finally flees to my grandmother soon, (Yuh-Jung Youn) to look at David, who may be as stubborn as her father. But all of Jacob's short-term solutions face many problems. The water well will dry up. The physically demanding days spent his career in chicken cheeks. Medical emergencies build up an already existing fund. The beauty of herding Arkansas cannot add a bank account of family blood, or a divorce.
Average rating: “Even if I fail, I have to finish what I started.”
What is it trying to do? Min, produced by A24, Brad Pitt & # 39; s Plan B Entertainment, and Yeun himself, throw in the kind of family drama imagined to have nearly vanished since the rise of modern movies. Sundance Interpretation compares this latest feature from Lee Isaac Chung (Abigail Harm) to the lowly family drama of Japanese mythology Yasujirō Ozu, though John Irving's novels may be appropriate. The world is great, the hopes are great, the characters find humor in times of deep darkness, and misery can happen at any time. It's a beautiful American piece of intimate size.
There is another version of this story, probably more Hollywood, where the Yis swim up against a culture they do not understand. However Min, inheritance is fundamental, and human inclusion is a challenge to overcome. When David visits his church home, he learns of a man who lived in his father's land. The man committed suicide after he failed to grow crops and lost everything. Yis are out in the Deep South, but with Chung's sympathetic image, they are another family that has taken control. Anyone should see it on this trip.
Does it get there? While the film may be very hairy Min sweating with a life-sustaining view and deep work. Chung lets the film breathe, leaving the room for each character to focus. (Kind of like seminary plant, ya dig?) David, Kim who plays the perfect balance of "sweet" and "little shit," handles the beds, doubts grandmother and sighs of heart. His grandmother, in a violent altercation by Yuh-Jung, does not tolerate any immorality, forcing David to be a part of his life. In Monica's corner of the microcosm, she imagines life at home, fighting for her organization when her husband's dreams threaten her children. Hannah introduces a sad task as the world's greatest protector of all time.
Then there is Steven Yeun, in a streak after 2018 & # 39; s Heat. Every time this little boy smokes cigarettes in a sun-drenched field is a beautiful poem. But there is a sense of dread to fill in under Jacob's face, in contradiction to the confidence the patriarch has to offer – or even seem to think. Chung spends most of his time hanging just in the face of Yeun and Han as they carry the souls of others, and the result is similar to the visual prose.
What does that mean for us? It's a film about how we spend our days. The family's financial comment clock is a devastating threat, but it is rarely melodramatic. There is time to follow David and his grandmother as they stroll through the woods and soak up nature. There is time to see how the chicken works, and how the adorable basket sentence for the warm things is done on the human body on a daily basis. There’s time for kimchi and beef, time to play cards, time to sit on the couch and look out the window. Chung is in complete control of every moment, and yet it all sounds like perfection. If we can show enough to see these moments in our lives, maybe we can get better.
The most memorable moment: Granny screams “Her ding-dong is broken!” By David. (Don't worry, David's ding dong isn't really broken.)
When can we see it? Although the A24 has distribution rights for Min, there is no word on whether the film will be released directly or initially broadcast through a company agreement, but reports indicate that it will affect theaters later this year.
