What is ‘Minari’, the plant that gave the film its name?

What is ‘Minari? It is something that you have surely asked yourself if you have already seen the film of the same name that is nominated in the Best Picture category at the 2021 Oscars.

Even if you haven’t seen it, and believe me you should, you’re probably curious what Minari means.

Minari is a plant that is widely consumed in Asian countries and that also changes its name depending on the country where it is located.

Minari is the Korean name for the Oenanthe javanicaalso known as: Japanese parsley, Chinese celery, cistern parsley and water celery.

How to use the ‘Minari’?

Minari is cultivated in China, India, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, and Vietnam, but also in Italy.

In all these countries it is used as food, where it is used as a base for various dishes and also as part of the decoration, just like parsley or cilantro in Latin America, although they say that the flavor is similar to that of watercress.

According to Oscar-nominated actress Youn Yuh Jung, who plays the Korean grandmother of a migrant family in the United States, in Minari, the plant is tasty, but “smelly.”

What meaning does the plant have in the movie Minari?

The Minari plant plays a vital role for the Minari family, who seek to harvest Korean vegetables and continue their traditions in a new country.

This plant has a “second season”, after it dies it is reborn, and grows even stronger than before.

Minari director Lee Isaac Chung said in an interview: “There’s an element of that in the movie, because it grows very expansively without doing much to it. It is a poetic plant in a way for me.”