The critically acclaimed Minari followed the Korean American Yi family, who try to live out the American dream through farming in rural Arkansas in the 1980s. The drama was based on director Lee Isaac Chung's real-life upbringing and debuted with high remarks at Sundance in 2020, winning both the Audience Award and the Grand Jury Prize.
It was up for six Oscars in 2021, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress (for Youn Yuh-jung), Best Director, Best Original Score, Best Original Screenplay and Best Actor for Yeun. Yeun wasthe first Asian American actor nominated for Best Actor while Yuh-jung, who won a Screen Actors Guild Award for her work, was the first South Korean actress to be nominated for and win Best Supporting Actress.
The film took home best motion picture in a foreign language at the Golden Globes. Although the Globes received backlash for placing the film in the foreign language category even though it was an American film, with an American lead and director, Yeun simply directed his attention to the release of the film, posting the movie poster on Instagram and writing the caption, "this one is for everybody."
Yeun opened up about the intention behind the story in an interview with the Washington Post this month, saying, "We weren't seeking to define this family's existence through their oppression by the majority, but rather the confidence to speak from their own point of view, intrinsically."
"Their existence is valid, and they can just be," he continued. "In some ways, what that is, is just an exercise in humanity."