Starring: Stephen Yuen, Yeri Han, Alan S Kim, Yuh-jung Youn, Noel Cho, Will Patton
Distributor: Madman Films
Runtime: 115 mins. Reviewed in Mar 2021
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Arkansas. The 1980s. It’s the Reagan era and there are hopes for prosperity.
We meet a Korean migrant family, who have been living and working in California. The father Jacob (Yeun) has bought an Arkansas property and is determined to support his family and live the American dream. The mother, Monica (Han) is sceptical, especially when she sees the trailer-like dwelling. They have a daughter, Anne (Cho), and a little boy, David (Kim), who has a heart condition that requires him to be near a hospital. Jacob is single-minded. Monica is argumentative. The children are upset by the fights.
We know that this is going to be a struggle for survival. Jacob is independent, not wanting to pay for a water diviner, digging a well which may not supply sufficient water for his crops, Korean vegetables that he hopes to sell to Korean-Americans. Monica works full-time with chickens, while Jacob works part-time off the farm. He becomes friends with a local character, Paul (Patton), a hard-working, religious, eccentric who carries a large cross along the roads every Sunday. The family are welcomed into the local church.
One solution for coping with problems is for the family to enable Monica’s mother to come from Korea to join them. Audiences may have been expecting a sweet old lady, but no. She is tough, not against rough language, is unable to cook, snores, and David is forced to share his room with her. He is not pleased.
The strange thing about the drama is that while there is a great deal about the work on the farm, the work with the chickens, so much of the drama, with comic touches, is devoted to the relationship between the grandmother and David. In some ways this makes the screenplay lopsided, many audiences much more interested in the story of grandmother and grandson rather than the problems on the farm.
As might be expected, in real life as well is in this drama, disaster looms. And there are complications with Monica thinking about leaving, Jacob becoming more determined, evaluating his choices about family and farm. There is bad news with grandmother’s health. There is better news with David’s health. And, then, fiercely shown in the trailer, perhaps unfortunately, a fire.
And the title? It’s named for a peppery Korean herb the grandmother has brought with her. She has planted it near a water hole where it thrives – a symbol for the future of the family perhaps/
Audiences have been moved by this story and its characters, the struggle for survival, the hopes for success. Golden Globe 2021 winner for Best Foreign Language Film.
Peter Malone MSC
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