Steven Yeun gave an Oscar-worthy performance in Burning, Lee Chang-dong’s fantastic 2018 film where he plays a wealthy Gatsby-type who becomes entangled in the lives of… you know what? Just watch it. It’s on Netflix. Because if you only know Yeun as Glenn from The Walking Dead, you might be surprised how fantastic he is in Burning, and how equally great he looks (both in terms of his acting abilities and, y’know, he’s a handsome dude) in Minari. The A24 drama from director Lee Isaac Chung, described as a “sweeping American epic about a Korean family putting down roots in the rugged heartland,” won both the U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize and U.S. Dramatic Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. Much like Yeun, it looks great.
Here’s the official plot synopsis:
A tender and sweeping story about what roots us, Minari follows a Korean-American family that moves to a tiny Arkansas farm in search of their own American Dream. The family home changes completely with the arrival of their sly, foul-mouthed, but incredibly loving grandmother. Amidst the instability and challenges of this new life in the rugged Ozarks, Minari shows the undeniable resilience of family and what really makes a home.
Minari, which also stars Yeri Han, Alan Kim, Noel Kate Cho, Yuh-Jung Youn, and Will Patton, does not currently have a release date, only “coming soon.”