Nomadland's' Chloe Zhao and Lee Isaac Chung's 'Minari' win Golden Globe awards

Chloe Zhao, right, directs actress Frances McDormand in 'Nomadland.'

OPINION

Chloe Zhao made history Sunday night when she won the Best Director Golden Globe for her work on the movie, Nomadland, which was also named Best Dramatic Movie by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

Zhao became the first Asian woman to win the director's award and only the second woman, overall. She was able to capture the lifestyle of nomadic American workers who move from job to job. Living in their trailers and vans, they form communities, a part of Americana that has received scant attention until Jessica Bruder's novel of the same name came out.

Minari, the movie which tells the tale of a Korean American immigrants trying to fit into a new country, won the Best Foreign Language Globe. 

The American-made movie, written and directed by Lee Isaac Chung and filmed in Arkansas, was at the center of a controversy because it was placed in the Foreign Language category which kept it from being placed in the Best Picture category. 

When the HFPA placed Minari in the foreign language category, it stung Steven Yuen, who plays the father of the Korean American family in the film.

"When you call Minari a foreign film," says Yuen, "it doesn't help the kind of general anti-Asian sentiment, the perpetual foreigner stereotype that Asian Americans are dealing with, not just in an abstract representational way, but in a lived experience, under attack by our government and individuals."

Chung and Zhao, like the other award recipients, received their awards virtually in the unusual Golden Globe Awards show hosted by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler with Fey in New York City and Poehler in Los Angeles.

'Minari' won the Best Foreign Language film for the Golden Globe award.

The two directors and their films could possibly be pitted against each other in other award shows, including the Academy Awards. If that were to occur, having two Asians in the same category would be an unprecedented benchmark in the history of Asian American movie-making.

Zhao called her film, a “pilgrimage through grief and healing.” Upon receiving the award for Best Movie Drama, she said the reason she fell in love with movies. “It’s a chance to laugh and cry together and learn from each other.”

Diversity and inclusion of people of color were the underlying themes of the evening, from Fey's and Poehler's opening monologue to the acceptance speech of most of the awardees after the Los Angeles Times revealed that the 87-member HFPA has no black members. 

Jane Fonda, who accepted the Cecil B. Mayer lifetime achievement award, talked about the power of the movies to break down walls and give people new  perspectives.

"But there's a story we've been afraid to see and hear about ourselves in this industry," said Fonda. "A story about which voices we respect and elevate and which we tune out. A story about who's offered a seat at the table and who is kept out of the rooms where decisions are made. So let's all of us -- including all the groups that decide who gets hired and what gets made and who wins awards -- let's all of us make an effort to expand that tent so that everyone rises and everyone's story has a chance to be seen and heard."

Minari snubbed in Golden Globe nominations

AAPI watchers of the entertainment industry were up in arms early this morning when the Golden Globes announced its nominations for the awards because the Hollywood Foreign Press Association passed over Asian American film 'Minari in the acting,  directing and writing categories.

There was already a controversy when the film, which walked away with a best picture in the Sundance Film Festival, about an Korean American immigrant family was classified as a Foreign Language film. Since the movie is predominantly in Korean, the language spoken at home of first-generation immigrants from Korea, HFPA rules made it ineligible for Best Picture.

When HPFA announced their decision about Minari last December, writer Lulu Wang tweeted her disappointment about the news that the film would be excluded from the Best Picture category. “I have not seen a more American film than #Minari this year,” Wang wrote. “It's a story about an immigrant family, IN America, pursuing the American dream. We really need to change these antiquated rules that characterize American as only English-speaking.”

Adding insult to injury, when Minari's lead actor, Steven Yeun (Walking Dead)  and presumed frontrunner Youn Yuh-Jung were passed over for best actor and best supporting actress, respectively, the criticism exploded on social media.

Minari director Lee Isaac Chung, who also wrote the screenplay partially based on his real-life experiences, also missed out when he wasn't among the nominees for best director, either.

Some of the sting of having Chung overlooked was eased by Chloe Zhao's nomination in the Best Director's category. She is the first woman of Asian descent to be included in that classification. She was nominated for her work for Nomadland, a moody piece of contemporary Americana starring Frances McDormand, who was also nominated for Best Actress in a Drama.

Nomadland is in the running for Best Motion Picture Drama. Zhao also nabbed a nomination for her screenplay.

The Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama includes Riz Ahmed for his performance in The Sound of Metal, in which he plays a metal band drummer who is losing his hearing.

(For the curious, Tahar Rahim who received a Best Actor nomination for The Mauritanian, although Muslim, is from Algeria and so we could not list him as an Asian.)

Joining Ahmed is Dev Patel, who in a case of color-blind casting, was nominated in the category of Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy, for  playing the lead role in The Personal History of David Copperfield.

Filipino American H.E.R. (Gabriella Sarmiento Wilson) was nominated in the Best Song category for "Fight For You" (cowritten by Dernst “D’Mile” Emile II and Tiara Thomas) for Judas and the Black Messiah, the story of Black Panther Fred Hampton who was killed in the infamous shootout with Chicago police.

Over the Moon, the animated feature of an Asian American girl and her friends seeking the moon goddess, based on a Chinese fable, was nominated for Best Animated Movie. It featured AAPI actors giving voice to the characters.

The HFPA, made up of about 90 members who are based in Southern California and write for a wide-ranging list of foreign media, are the voters of the Golden Globes. The group are not exclusively movie critics but also include feature writers or gossip writers, have been criticized for their subjectivity and for their susceptibility to celebrity glamor and influence. In other words, if an actor or studio caters to the HFPA, he or she would likely be better received by the HFPA than someone who doesn't cater to them.

It's no small comfort to know that a lot of really outstanding products got overlooked  by the Golden Globes, and perhaps its just coincidence that the majority of the snubs were films that featured POC. I mean, Emily in Paris? Really? Certainly  Netflix's Da Five Bloods, HBO's groundbreaking Insecure, the actors of Lovecraft Country and PEN15, the Good Place deserved some mention.

The 78th Golden Globe Awards will take place 8 p.m. ET, on Feb. 28 on NBC. Comedians Tina Fey and Amy Poehler will split co-hosting duties for the ceremony, (or should I say "ceremonies?) being held simultaneously in New York City and Los Angeles.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is my opinion. Readers are urged to read several sources to form your own opinion.

Thanks to 'Minari,' 'Nomadland' & 'Sound of Metal,' Oscars and AAPI could have a historic convergence

The Americanization of a Korean American immigrant family is told in 'Minari.'

OPINION

More and more, it looks like it could be a history-making year for Hollywood, AAPI movies and filmmakers when the Oscar nominees are announced March 15.

It looks like Minari could be up against Nomadland for best picture and best director with Sound of Metal starring Riz Ahmed as a darkhorse.

Minari, written and directed by Lee Isaac Chung, won the best picture award by the New York Film Critics Online last week. This is the third straight year the critics  picked a foreign language film as best picture. Minari, the story of a Korean American family and set in Alabama is mostly in Korean.

Last year, the film critics picked the Korean film, Parasite and the year before that, Roma, the Spanish-speaking Argentinian movie. Both films were named in the Best Picture by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts in their respective years with Parasite winning Best Picture last year and Roma winning best foreign feature the year before. 

If history is a predictor, it bodes well for Minari, to win Hollywood's coveted Oscar.

Director Chloe Zhao on location for 'Nomadland.'

Although the film Minari won the NY film critics' Best Picture accolades and Best Supporting Actress went to Yuh-Jung Youn as the grandmother in Minari, the Best Director award went to Chloé Zhao for her work on Nomadland, which she can add to the three dozen other awards she received for directing the Frances McDormand starrer.

The NY critics gave the best actor award to another Asian American, Riz Ahmed for his performance in Sound of Metal. Ahmed is also in contention to be nominated for the Oscar's best actor award along with Minari's Steven Yeun.

The exclusive club of studio heads who give the green light to most Hollywood production is still overwhelmingly white and despite China overtaking the U.S. as the No. 1 moviegoing market, they are hesitant to venture beyond the Eurocentric paradigm when deciding which movies get made.

Riz Ahmad delivers an Oscar-worthy performance in "Sound of Metal."

There is also an outside chance that no Asian or Asian American will win an Oscar nomination, in which case, we should skip the Oscars altogether. If nothing else, this year demonstrates the depth of Asian and Asian American talent to Hollywood decision-makers. 

EDITOR'S NOTE: The nominations for the 93rd Academy Awards will be announced March 15 and the in-person awards show will held on April 25, 2021.

While the awards -- Golden Globes, SAG, Critics' Choice, People's Choice -- are nice to have, just as important is that there are so many choices to pick from. There are still not enough movies by and about Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders but this year, there is at least more than one film under consideration. That's a sign of progress, I guess. It is too early to say whether this year is an anomaly, a temporary trend or the birth of a permanent genre.

For members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts who vote in the several categories, especially the newly inducted members who were "invited" to join in order to diversify its membership, we refer you to the list compiled by Gold Open in partnership with the Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment (CAPE) for their first-ever Gold List of outstanding work by AAPI artists. 

The full list of Gold List selections are below:

Best Picture
Minari and Sound of Metal
Honorable Mentions: The Half of It, The White Tiger, Yellow Rose

Best Director
Lee Isaac Chung (Minari) and Chloe Zhao (Nomadland)
Honorable Mentions: Ramin Bahrani (The White Tiger), Diane Paragas (Yellow Rose), Alice Wu (The Half of It), Alan Yang (Tigertail)

Best Actor
Riz Ahmed (Sound of Metal) and Steven Yeun (Minari)
Honorable Mentions: Adarsh Gourav (The White Tiger), Dev Patel (The Personal History of David Copperfield), Harry Shum Jr. (All My Life) 

Best Actress
Yeri Han (Minari) and Leah Lewis (The Half of It)
Honorable Mentions: Hong Chau (Driveways), Tsai Chin (Lucky Grandma), Eva Noblezada (Yellow Rose)

Best Supporting Actor
Alan Kim (Minari) and Orion Lee (First Cow)
Honorable Mentions: Lucas Jaye (Driveways), Tzi Ma (Mulan), Rajkummar Rao (The White Tiger)

Best Supporting Actress
Phillipa Soo (Hamilton) and Yuh-Jung Youn (Minari)
Honorable Mentions: Priyanka Chopra Jonas (The White Tiger), Gong Li (Mulan), Lea Salonga (Yellow Rose)

Best Original Screenplay
Lee Isaac Chung (Minari) and Alice Wu (The Half of it)
Honorable Mentions: Mong-Hong Chung and Yao-Sheng Chang (A Sun), Diane Paragas (Yellow Rose), Isabel Sandoval (Lingua Franca), Alan Yang (Tigertail) 

Best Adapted Screenplay
Ramin Bahrani (The White Tiger) and Chloe Zhao (Nomadland)

Best Documentary Feature
Be Water and A Thousand Cuts
Honorable Mentions: 76 Days, The Donut King, The Social Dilemma

Best Animated Feature
Bombay Rose and Over the Moon
Honorable Mentions: Demon Slayer: Mugen Train, On-Gaku: Our Sound, A Whisker Away

A WORD OF CAUTION: This is an opinion piece. Readers should research multiple sources to form their own opinion.

CORRECTION Feb. 3, 12:30 p.m. to clarify Roma winning an Oscar for Best Foreign Motion Picture in 2019.

The movie, 'Minari,' tells a uniquely quintessential American story but the Golden Globes call it 'foreign'

Minari director Lee Isaac Chung, left, and the cast of his Asian American film.

OPINION

The Golden Globes stirred up a hornets' nest when it decided the movie Minari should be placed in a foreign-language film category instead of the more prestigious "Best Picture" category.

Critics of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which awards the Golden Globe Awards every year, blast the decision to judge what is essentially an American story in the foreign category.

Minari is written and directed by an American, stars mostly an American cast, with a story located in rural Arkansas and tells the uniquely American story of immigrants adjusting to America. Although Minari is about a Korean family, it could just well have been about an Italian family, or an Irish family, or an Ethiopian family or a Central American family. The universal appeal of the story speaks volumns about America, a nation built by immigrants, 

However, because the Korean American immigrants spoke Korean throughout the majority of the movie, the HFPA placed Minari in the foreign language category.

The HFPA made a similar decision last year with The Farewell, the story of a Chinese American's visit with her grandmother who lived in China. 

With Minari being mentioned as possible contenders for film industry awards, for directing (Lee Isaac Chung), screenplay (Chung), best picture and acting (Steven Yeun for Best Actor and Youn Yuh-jung, who plays the grandmother, for best supporting actress).

Asian American celebrities strongly objected to the HPFA decision that minimizes the film's accomplishments. About the categorization of Minari, "The film equivalent of being told to go back to your country when that country is America," actor Daniel Dae Kim wrote in a tweet. 

Maybe because they are the "foreign" press, the HFPA members don't know America as I know it even though most of them have lived in Southern California for years.

I certainly don't want to tell them to "Go back where you came from," (heavens no) but I also don't want them defining to the rest of the world what is American.

What began as a controversy within movie industry bubble has grown to ask the larger existential question, "What is American?"

 One of the racist barbs I've had to endure in my life is, "You speak really good English." 

Exc-u-use me? I was raised in this country and -- in fact, and rather regretfully -- English is the only language I speak fluently (most of the time.) 

In fact, I even have a picture of myself remarkably similar to the publicity photo (below) of Dale Kim as David in the movie, wearing a cowboy hat, a Roy Rogers vest and toy pistols in my holster.

Alan Kim as David in 'Minari.'

Over 70 years in the U.S. and people still view me as a foreigner.

Being seen as a foreigner, -- an outsider, an "other" -- because of the color of our skin and hair and the slant of our eyes is one of the racist slights Asian Americans have endured since the first Filipinos set foot on the continent's western shore in 1587.

Mass media and a stilted education system are big parts of why people have that perception. In the culture we grew up in -- by school textbooks and pop culture, the dolls favored by children, the beauty we seek to attain, the heroes we are supposed to emulate and even the Christian images we see in or churches -- being American meant being white, Anglo-Saxon and being blond and blue-eyed was an extra added bonus.

Minari is not a Korean story. Its the story of all immigrants who come to our country having to learn the customs, the laws and the way of American life. Yes, that includes learning the language too -- no matter how long. 

For those fearful of the balkanization of the U.S. and want to make a law mandating that English the official language of the U.S., recent studies have shown that by the third-generation of an immigrant family, English becomes the language most spoken in the home.

What the Hollywood foreign press doesn't realize and the recently outspoken celebrities are saying, is something that poets, creators, sociologists and mental health experts have known all along: 

Being American is not the color of your skin or the slant of your eyes, or even, the language you speak. Being American is not the singular act of raising your right hand reciting a pledge. Being American -- like the country itself -- is always seeking a better way, a better idea, a better life and a better self. An American is not just "being" an American, but a shared process; a continuous state of evolving not only as individuals (which is only part of the American mythology) but also as a family, a community and as a society. 

The questions surrounding Minari comes as the definition of "American" is being debated today, when immigration from Asia is higher than from any other part of the world; Asian Americans impacted the choosing of Joe Biden; and an Asian American is the Vice President-elect.

It is no coincidence that the debate is occurring today, when immigration from Asia is higher than from any other part of the world; Asian Americans impactin the Presidential election, an Asian American is the Vice President-elect, hate acts against Asian Americans are spiking and the country ever-so slowly is realizing that its future lies in the nations of Asia; a revolutionary 180-degree shift from the Eurocentric mindset that has ruled the economy and culture of this country for centuries. 

The debate over Minari is just one step in the evolution of our country. It requires a cultural shift in the minds of the 80-plus HFPA members -- not an easy task, but one that should start with the HFPA members working for Asian publications and networks.

Minari is in limited release now but will have a general release in February, 2021,

EDITOR'S NOTE: A word of caution, this is news sprinkled with opinion. Readers are encouraged to seek multiple news sources to formulate their own positions.

Serious Oscar talk for Steven Yeun, 'Minari'

Movie director Lee Isaac Chung, left, and the cast for his film "Minari," let by Steven Yeun are being touted as possible Oscar nominees.

It's winter and the U.S. is in the middle of a pandemic, but that is not stopping Hollywood from launching it's campaigns for the Academy Awards. For the first time, there is serious buzz about an Asian American film that could have a huge impact on the Oscars.

Actor Steven Yeun's sensitive and deep role in the motion picture Minari has been hailed as an Oscar-worthy performance. 

If nominated, Yeun would be the first Asian American nominee for Best Actor. Two other actors of Asian descent have been nominated in that category: Yul Brynner, who was born in Russia and citizen of Switzerland, in The King and I and Ben Kingsley of Great Britain in Gandhi and House of Sand and Fog.

For Yeun, whose breakthrough role was in the popular TV series The Walking Dead, he told Deadline that the script that “captured a feeling of what an immigrant experience is like.”

The movie, he says, captured the feeling of what a family is like, of what marriage feels like, what growing up in a religious household feels like … there are so many things that I could relate to with Isaac,” Yeun said in a Deadline interview. “I hadn’t seen many tellings of stories of the other done in a way that wasn’t idealizing them or romanticizing them or needing them to be afflicted by some external force that validates their existence.”

The critically acclaimed movie Minari, depicting the cultural adjustment of a Korean  American family that moves from Los Angeles to rural Alabama in the 1980s, is also making critics' lists for a potential nominee for Best Picture. 

In addition, Yeun's costars are also being praised for their work. Yeri Han might get a  a Best Actress nod while Alan S. Kim, Will Patton and Yuh-Jung Youn are potential nominees for the supporting acting categories.

With all the praise being lavished on the film, it is not surprising that its director, Lee Isaac Chung, is also being recognized for his directing and original screenplay.

The Oscars, the awards given by the Academy for Motion Pictures, Arts and sciences has been criticized for favoring big-name studios over indepdent produced films and being swayed by the studios-driven campaigns for their products and actors.

Independent distributor A24 is willing to go to bat for Minari as its next big Oscar contender. The movie has set the release date for Minari for an awards-qualifying run in New York and Los Angeles this December before a wider release beginning in February 2021. 

With over 80 titles under it's belt and its commitment to underserved audiences, A24 has received 25 Academy Award nominations, several prestigious industry wins, and their films have landed at the top of countless year-end lists. Its top films include another Asian American movie, The Farewell, which was snubbed in the Oscar's acting and directing categories despite critical and box office success.

Contrary to popular belief, not every actor in Hollywood is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, which awards the Oscars, Actors have to be invited to join the Academy, which is still overwhelmingly older and white males despite recent efforts to diversify its ranks.

The bias built into the voting has tilted the Oscar winners to white movies and performances by familiar white actors.

Last year's Best Picture award and Best Director Oscar went to the Korean movie Parasite. Those awares were the exceptions, not the rule. Minari is an American-made film about a uniquely American topic.

EDITOR'S NOTE: A word of caution, this is news sprinkled with opinion. Readers are encouraged to seek multiple news sources to formulate their own positions.

Sundance Film Fest: Korean American coming-of-age film Minari wins Grand Jury and Audience Favorite awards

Steven Yeun was praised for his performance in 'Minari.'

The most talked-about film out of Sundance this year is Minari, a coming-of-age story about growing up as an Asian American in rural Nebraska.

The dramatic feature won the both Grand Jury prize and the Audience Award, winning favorable reviews from the judges and the audience.

The film starring The Walking Dead's Steven Yeun is a movie written and directed by Lee Isaac Chung and inspired by his own childhood in the 1980s. 

After the controversy surrounding The Farewell: critics and producers should note that this is an American film telling an American story about Americans.

It's a quiet film that slowly envelopes the audience as they get deeply involved with the family. By the time tragedy strikes, it hits the audience hard as if it struck is their own family.

Since leaving the hit TV drama The Walking Dead, Yeun, 36, has built a solid career and is a star in South Korea as well as in the US. It was his support for Chung's script that convinced Brad Pitt's Plan B to back the film.

“Isaac’s script spoke to me on a deeply human level,” says Yeun, whose father moved from Seoul to Canada when Yeun was a young child. “I think he painted a portrait of a family that is so honest and truthful, so when you get to read things like that you jump at those opportunities. Jacob (portrayed by Yeun) is at once his own individual but encapsulates moments and bits of immigrant Korean men of that time. It was something I wanted to explore.”

No date has been set for Minari's general release.

Besides Steven Yeun, center, 'Minari' also stars Han Ye Ri, left, and Yoon Yeo Jung.