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 "Minari", directed by a
Korean-American and produced in the United
States, was nominated for six Academy Awards,
including best picture, best director and best
supporting actress for Youn Yuh-jung, a historic
first for a Korean actor.
Released in the midst of the pandemic, the
film's Korean elements and its Oscar nominations
helped make it a commercial success in South
Korea, where the film brought in $7 million of
its total $11 million global box office
receipts, compared with $2 million from showings
in the United States, according to IMDb.
In "Minari," the tale of a hard-luck immigrant
farming family in rural Arkansas in the 1980s
highlighted the heyday of immigration from South
Korea to the United States. Today, however, it's
a tale that is increasingly foreign to many
South Koreans, especially younger people.
"It is true that people are less interested in 'Minari'
because of its topic, as these days it's mostly
rich people who immigrate to America," said a
35-year-old teacher who only gave her surname,
Jeong.
About 350,000 Koreans were estimated to have
immigrated to the United States in the 1980s
after the liberalisation of overseas travel and
studies. The annual tally peaked in 1986, at
30,500, but it slowed to 8,000 a year in the
2000s, and then to about 4,000 after Washington
tightened border controls after the Sept. 11,
2001 attacks, according to South Korea's foreign
ministry.
Most new Korean immigrants to the United States
are there for jobs or satisfy an investment
requirement of nearly a million dollars, the
ministry data showed.
Racial tensions, highlighted by a recent Atlanta
shooting in which four Koreans were killed, and
the high numbers of coronavirus cases and deaths
in the United States, have also cast a darker
shadow on the idea of living there, said Park
Soo-hui, 69, who said she has relatives in the
United States.
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 Park said the film reminded of
the hardships her relatives suffered after
moving to the United States in the early 1990s.
But her teenage granddaughter had a different
thought.
"They left hoping for a better life as they were
not doing well here, and they went through a lot
in their early days, including racial
discrimination and family disputes," she said.
"But as we watched the film together, my
granddaughter was just envious, saying not
everyone could go there." "Minari"
is the second film in as many years to make
history at the Academy Awards with its Korean
connections, after the South Korea-produced
"Parasite" took the 2020 awards by storm,
snagging six nominations and four wins,
including "Best Picture."
It attracted more than 10 million viewers in
South Korean theatres within two months of its
release in 2019, becoming one of the most
watched films in Korean history.
"Minari," which opened in South Korea on March
3, has drawn about 925,000 viewers as of
Wednesday, Korean Film Council (KOFIC) data
showed.
More than "Minari" itself, South Koreans
expressed more interest in the nomination for
Youn, who plays a spunky grandmother who travels
to the United States to take care of her
grandchildren.
 Jung Duk-hyun, a culture critic, said the
domestic audience could be more focused on Youn
because she not only earned the Oscar nomination
but also embodied an "independent, mischievous
and cool grandma," an image of women
increasingly pursued in Korean society.
(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin; Editing by Josh
Smith and Gerry Doyle)
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