MINARI
A tender family drama worth seeing with middle schoolers and up.
Should You Watch It?
Minari is a warm, beautifully acted celebration of family. Its first half is slow and meandering, but the movie gradually sneaks up on you with touching and funny moments. The family’s hardships feel personal, and the story’s moral center rests on loyalty, endurance, and the ties that hold people together.
The film also includes positive Christian references, but it is not an overtly Christian story. Some characters express skepticism toward religious behavior, and one superstition is both rejected and validated. Foul language and crude humor make this better suited to teenagers and adults than young children. The conflict between the parents also is not resolved, which makes the ending less satisfying.
If your family is ready for a realistic, sometimes difficult story about family perseverance, Minari is worth seeing with middle schoolers and up.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESIn the 1980s, Korean immigrant Jacob Yi moves his wife, Monica, and their two children from California to rural Arkansas. He hopes to become a farmer, but the family’s new home is only an elongated mobile home on the farmland he bought.
Jacob and Monica work at a chicken hatchery while trying to build a new life. They bring in Monica’s mother, Soonja, to babysit the children, but her arrival does not go as David, the young boy, expected. As Jacob’s farming plans face obstacles, the family must decide what they are willing to sacrifice for one another.
Is It Any Good?
Four stars means this is a highly effective film, even though its slow opening requires patience. The second half gathers momentum as happy and sad events begin to affect the Yi family. Touching and funny moments, including the stick-punishment scene, land with unusual force.
The performances are the film’s great strength. Steven Yeun and Yeri Han are outstanding as the parents. Youn Yuh Jung and Alan Kim are exceptional as the grandmother and little boy, while Will Patton gives an outstanding performance as Paul. The daughter’s character is shortchanged, however, and the unresolved conflict between the parents keeps the ending from being totally satisfying.
The Worldview
Minari is an autobiographical celebration of family with a morally uplifting, pro-family worldview. It includes multiple Christian references presented realistically: a sincere Pentecostal Christian man offers prayers, there are a few church scenes, a Christian pastor gives a brief presentation of the Gospel, and some prayers seem to be answered. At the same time, Jacob is skeptical of Paul’s Pentecostal faith, and the grandmother objects to another person’s story about seeing Heaven in dreams.
The film also treats some religious ideas skeptically. One scene rejects the pagan superstition of using a divining rod to locate water, while another validates it. The movie’s central image suggests that the Yi family, like the minari growing by the creek, can survive and prosper despite obstacles because of the strength of family ties and the roots that sustain them. That emphasis on family endurance aligns with biblical concern for faithfulness and steadfast love, even though the film’s worldview is not overtly Christian.
“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil” (Ecclesiastes 4:9).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements
Strong moral worldview celebrating family, with some positive Christian references (a quirky but sincere older Christian man considers himself an exorcist and offers prayers for the family in the movie, a few church scenes, Christian pastor makes a brief presentation of the Gospel, some prayers seem to be answered but not totally), but also some father in movie is skeptical of his farmhand’s Pentecostal Christian faith, grandma objects to other’s story to son about seeing Heaven in his dreams, and one Korean woman says Koreans are moving to the country to get away from Korean churches in the city, and one scene with a man using a divining rod to locate water rejects the pagan superstition, but another scene validates it
Foul Language
Eight obscenities (one “s” word, three or four “bastards,” some “d” words) and one light profanity, plus two teenage boys give an obscene gesture to a man walking with a large wood cross along the road, grandma jokes about boy’s bedwetting problem, saying he has “broken penis,” and the talk switches to “ding dong” when the boy mentions that slang word for penis, and boy gets into trouble when he dumps the Korean herbal concoction his grandma and mother force him to drink and urinates in the cup and gives it to grandma, pretending to her that it’s the Mountain Dew soda drink the family likes (grandma spits it out as soon as she takes a sip and yells at the boy as he runs out the door laughing)
Violence
A fire consumes a storage shed, two people fight the fire to save some property but have to leave when the smoke gets to be too much, a dresser drawer falls on boy and cuts his leg slightly, father kicks some crates in anger, grandmother watches a couple wrestling matches on TV, little boy has a heart murmur, and grandmother has a stroke but returns home to recover and has to walk with a cane
Sex
No sex
Nudity
Upper male nudity in a couple scenes
Alcohol Use
No alcohol use
Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse
Brief smoking and two boys take a piece of chewing tobacco;
Miscellaneous Immorality
Grandmother secretly takes back a hundred dollar bill her daughter put into a church collection plate, married couple fights about the husband’s dream about being a farmer, wife gives husband an ultimatum, wife tells husband she’s lost faith in him, and their conflict isn’t overtly resolved.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
Jacob’s dream of farming affects the whole family. How should a husband and wife weigh personal dreams against responsibilities to one another?
Philippians 2:3–4 · Ephesians 5:25The family faces repeated setbacks but continues trying to care for one another. What does faithful perseverance look like when circumstances do not change quickly?
Romans 5:3–5 · James 1:2–4Jacob is skeptical of Paul’s offers of prayer, even though Paul is sincere. How can Christians practice discernment while still treating sincere believers with respect?
1 Thessalonians 5:21 · Romans 12:10The film compares the family to minari, which grows despite obstacles. Where do you see roots, growth, and endurance in your own family?
Psalm 1:3 · Colossians 2:6–7The Final Word
Minari is a deeply felt, superbly acted family drama with positive Christian references and a strong moral center. Its language, crude humor, religious skepticism, and unresolved marital conflict call for discernment with younger viewers. For teenagers and adults—and families with middle schoolers—it is WORTH THE TRIP — MIDDLE SCHOOL AND UP.
