'Minari'

“We didn’t want it to just be about being Korean or expressing our identity, but really just digging into what’s it mean in our reality; what’s it like in our day to day; what’s it like for these human beings,” said writer/director Lee Isaac Chung during a Zoom screening and panel discussion of Minari moderated by comedian, actor, writer & director Ramy Youssef. “That was a real focus and bringing it out and seeing people relate to it who are from all different walks of life, that’s honestly been the sweetest thing about this whole project for me just to see that if we put it out there as something that’s human and people are connecting to it in that way, then yeah, we’re all human and there’s something much deeper that connects us, you know. It’s been really fascinating and grateful. I did try to just keep trusting in that voice of like what I know and my own experiences. I think in the past, as a filmmaker, I never trusted that instinct. I was often thinking more about the way something would be received, if that makes sense, or the way I would be looked at or judged. But this one, I thought a lot more about just being true to myself, my views and my experiences and just feeling like if I’m honest about those things, that’s going to ultimately say something and that’s kind of where I was going with many different things.”