The ‘Minari’ Golden Globe controversy isn’t just about Hollywood

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So when the Golden Globes air on Sunday, this American film written and directed by an American about the struggles of a family on their American farm will be competing in a surprising category: Best Foreign Language Film.

“It seems personal to me. … It’s like where are you from?” question that Asian Americans always get, ”says Nancy Wang Yuen, sociologist and author of“ Reel Inequality: Hollywood Actors and Racism ”. “The assumption is that if you have an Asian face, you don’t have to be from here.”

‘Minari’ is an American story in more ways than one

Lee Isaac Chung, the Colorado-born writer and director of “Minari,” says he based many details in the screenplay on his own experiences growing up as a child of Korean immigrants on a farm in England. ‘Arkansas.

Writer-director Lee Isaac Chung (right) with actors Steven Yeun (left) and Will Patton (center) on the set of 'Minari'.

The film takes its title from the Korean name of a resilient grass. But there’s no doubt that the film’s vivid, richly textured scenes tell a decidedly American story – from the pastoral landscapes of Ozark to country church benches to the Yi family home.

“Minari” won the top awards at Sundance last year. It also wins rave reviews from people whose communities it represents – immigrants and non-immigrants. An Arkansas Times reporter recently called it “the most authentic coming-of-age story I’ve seen reflected on screen in our part of the world.”
Chung says he credits Pulitzer-winning novelist Willa Cather – who recounted life on the American plains over a century ago – for inspiring him to tell it.

About his books “O Pioneers!” and “My Antonia,” Cather once said that she wrote stories inspired by her own upbringing after years of imitating cosmopolitan writers in New York City.

“She wrote that her work really took off when she stopped admiring and started to remember,” Chung told CNN. “And that’s what got me to finally sit down and write down my memories. And it became the core of a movie.”

Why the film’s Golden Globe nomination struck a nerve

The memories Chung weaves together in “Minari” are something many Americans who grew up in immigrant families can relate to: the joy of a visiting family member bringing spices from home, the struggles of different generations to connect, the repressed emotions of parents risking everything to provide for their family, the faces of children trying to fit in.

Grandson David (Alan S. Kim) and grandmother Soonja (Yuh-Jung Youn) have a difficult relationship in

For Yuen, this seems crucial.

“Many of us are seeing our stories onscreen for the first time,” she says.

So when news first broke that Golden Globes eligibility rules would force “Minari” to compete in the “best foreign language film” category, it stung.

Actor Daniel Dae Kim and other Asian celebrities quickly took to social media to share their dismay. Kim described it as “the film equivalent of being told to return to your country when that country is in fact America.”

For some, this was already seen from the year before, when Lulu Wang’s film “The Farewell” was excluded from the competition for best comedy at the awards ceremony because a big part of the film was in Mandarin Chinese.

“It’s great that these films are made, but it’s terrible that they are categorized as foreign languages,” Yuen says. “We should not be punished for telling different American stories that have never been told before.”

And it’s especially troubling, Yuen says, at a time when Asian Americans increasingly face verbal and physical attacks.
“When you call a foreign film ‘Minari’ it doesn’t help the kind of general anti-Asian sentiment, the perpetual stereotype of the foreigner that Asian Americans deal with, not only in the abstract, but in a lived experience, attacked by our government and individuals. “

What the rewards rules say

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s rules for the Golden Globes state that only films with 50% or more of their dialogue in English are eligible to compete in the best film categories.
Other awards use different criteria. The Oscars, for example, allow films of any language to compete for the best picture. And last year, “Parasite,” a Korean-language film set in Seoul, became the first non-English film to win the award.

The rules of the Golden Globes are not new. But some say it is high time for the association to reassess the criteria it uses for its prestigious awards.

FYI: English is not the official language of the United States
Charlene Jimenez, director of entertainment partnerships and advocacy for the nonprofit Define American, described this year’s Golden Globe nominations as part of a ‘model of erasure’ by recently calling for a review language requirements.

“Over 350 languages ​​are spoken in American homes today. So what does a ‘foreign’ language mean?” Jimenez told CNN. “This is a really important time for us as an American society to investigate our own biases on movies like this, on stories like this, on immigrant stories – which resonates and doesn’t sound like “American” to people. “

The United States does not have an official language. And more than 20% of the US population aged 5 and over speaks a language other than English at home, according to census data.
If the rules of the Golden Globes don’t change over time, there could be consequences beyond the big screen, says William Yu, a screenwriter and activist who has been a vocal critic of whitewashing in Hollywood.

“This has implications for the industry shifting about who is recognized and who is not,” he says. “It can have a disproportionate impact on their career trajectory.”

And important stories could go unrecognized – and invisible.

“The HFPA is probably erasing a lot of the stories of immigrants coming from marginalized communities. As these communities mature and seek to tell their own stories, it won’t always be in English, ”he says. “And to be told that if your film is not 50% in English to be considered the best picture, then you will never be enough – there is a certain kind of implicit inferiority when you can be considered the best foreign language film but not the best film. “

Director feared he would have to do ‘Minari’ in English

For his part, the writer and director of “Minari” says he does not think that competing in the category of films in a foreign language dishonours the film or its work. But Chung says he understands the frustrations many have expressed.

“I feel really torn by everything that’s happened. It’s just the rules they have in this category,” he says. “These conversations are good. … We’re starting to see that being an American, being somebody in this country – the picture of that is more complex than we often might assume. And I feel like films should reflect that. Rules and institutions should reflect that. And it’s good that we can have this conversation. ”

Steven Yeun plays the patriarch of the Jacob Yi family in `` Minari ''. Allen S. Kim plays his son, David.

When Chung thinks of the language and his movie, however, something comes to his mind.

“My grandmother, if she was still alive, she would be very proud,” he said, “that I held on and made a film in Korean and didn’t compromise. and that I started to use this foreign language, English.

Long before this controversy began to develop, Chung knew he would need to find funding to make “Minari” – and he was worried.

He wanted to tell the story in Korean. But he feared it was going to be a tough sell – not for the public, who he said would connect with a good story when they saw one – but for future supporters.

So he also wrote a version of the script with more English, just in case.

Fortunately, says Chung, producer Christina Oh, also Korean American, supported his vision.

“She was very adamant from the start that we had to do this in Korean, the way we grew up. … She said as a producer, she’s going to come out and be up for this cause, and do this fight. “

This meant that Chung was able to show the world a story that mirrors the way so many American families live.



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