A family affair
‘‘ Nominated for six Oscars, it’s a very different beast to last year’s Parasite
Cert 12 ★★★★★ On digital now, drive-ins from April 12, cinemas from May 17
South Korea’s assault on the Oscars continues with Lee Isaac Chung’s drama nominated six times. But while most of the dialogue is in Korean, it’s a very different beast to Parasite, last year’s surprise Best Picture winner.
Unlike Bong Joon-ho’s high-concept satire, Chung’s touching and wryly amusing immigrant story is deceptively straightforward.
South Korea-born Jacob Yi (Steven Yeun) and his wife Monica (Yeri Han) have just left California where they spent 10 long years “sexing chickens” – separating useless male balls of fluff from their future egg-laying sisters. Now they have moved to God-fearing rural Arkansas with their two American-born children, serious Anne (Noel Kate Cho) and her adorable kid brother David (Alan S Kim).
Jacob and Monica plan to combine shifts at a local hatchery with work on their new 50-acre farm, growing Korean vegetables for the expanding immigrant communities in the cities.
To help with childcare, they fly Monica’s mother (Yuh-jung Youn) over from South Korea. The wrestling-obsessed “Grandma” and the initially terrified David form a touching double act which won’t come as a surprise. But you can tell Chung has mined his own memories for this 1980s-set drama.
The performances feel natural, the details are specific and the characters refreshingly complex.
Even minor figures are crafted with care. In another film, hired hand Paul (Will Patton) would be the comic relief as he has a quirky habit of suddenly speaking in tongues. But he’s also a decent individual. And little David encounters racism when he meets a local boy but in the next breath the lad invites him to a sleepover.
In many ways, the self-reliant, baseball-cap-wearing Jacob is more of an American archetype than the surprisingly welcoming Arkies.