In my defense, I haven't viewed Minari because I have thus far refused to pay to do so. COVID has changed the entire way that films are rolled out to the public. The norm now, since theaters have been closed, is to charge 'movie-goers' to stream movies on various services, like Apple TV +, Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc. The going rate seems to be $20 for a 48 hour rental. This primarily applies to new releases, especially those that are expected to garner Oscar nominations, which was the case for Minari. The price will go down eventually, although after reading this review written by a contributor to The Gospel Coalition, I am beginning to weaken my resolve to be patient. I want to watch it NOW.
Here are some snippets of the review written by Eugene Park to pique your interest:
Chung (the Director and Screenwriter for Minari) wanted viewers to resonate with a desire to return to Eden. “Of all texts, Scripture was most likely the biggest reference for the script,” he told me. “The Bible includes many stories about gardens and farming, and the entire arc of its narrative seems to place key moments of betrayal and redemption within gardens. Minari is a story of immigrants, but at its heart, it’s about a family trying to find a new life. They’ve left one garden and are in search of another.”
Minari reminds us of the truths of Hebrews 11: 13-14, that we are “strangers and exiles on [this] earth . . . seeking a homeland.”
I’ve experienced various expressions of faith and faithlessness myself, and I wanted to try working the way Dostoevsky approached faith in his books, by allowing different characters to express or wrestle with a facet of the author’s own internal life. He gives his characters free rein to do this and lets them find grace and redemption in surprising, unorthodox ways.
Every human is a gardener at heart, haunted by a longing for Eden, as Minari masterfully shows. Yet no earthly place we’ve settled in—or migrated from—will ever satisfy our desire for a better country, the “heavenly one” where God’s people will dwell forever with Christ (Hebrews 11:16). That’s where we’ll find Eden again. Every human is ultimately a migrant farmer, always restlessly seeking for that place. Let’s help each other on that journey—pointed in the right direction and rooted in soil fed by living water.
These quotes are just a small portion of this great review. If anyone has seen the movie already, please let me know your thoughts. And maybe I'll write again too - if I give in and watch it soon!
For a synopsis of the plot and further commentary on the entirety of the film, Read here!
