'Outdated' Golden Globes rules cause stir again over 'Minari'

An official poster for the film “Minari” / Courtesy of Pan Cinema

By Park Han-sol

With ethnic Korean American director Lee Isaac Chung's critically acclaimed immigrant drama “Minari” landing a nod for Best Foreign Language Film at this year's Golden Globe Awards, the long-standing controversy surrounding certain rules set by the organizer, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), has emerged once again.

The nominees for the 78th Golden Globes were announced by HFPA, Wednesday (local time) and “Minari” was nominated alongside Thomas Vinterberg's "Another Round” (Denmark), Jayro Bustamante's "La Llorona” (France, Guatemala), Filippo Menghetti's "Two of Us” (U.S., France) and Edoardo Ponti's "The Life Ahead” (Italy).

The biggest surprise took place in the best supporting actress category in which Korean actress Youn Yuh-jung, who has so far nabbed 20 trophies from international film awards, wasn't nominated. The same treatment was given to Steven Yeun in the best drama actor category and Chung in the best director and best screenplay categories.

As soon as the announcement came, a debate was reignited over the HFPA rule regarding language eligibility, which barred “Minari” from competing in higher-profile categories ― such as best motion picture.

“Minari has to compete as a foreign-language nominee ― even though Mr. Chung is an American director, the movie was filmed in the United States, it was financed by American companies and it focuses on an immigrant family pursuing the American dream,” New York Times reported.

The rules drawn up by the organizers stipulate that at least 50 percent of a contending film's dialogue must be in English for it to be eligible for the best picture categories. Even though the movie is set in the United States, because the characters predominantly speak in Korean, it was out of consideration from the start.

Lulu Wang's “The Farewell” was in a similar situation with the foreign language film category at the 2020 Golden Globes as its dialogue was largely in Mandarin.

“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,” the Chinese-American director tweeted in December last year about the ineligibility of “Minari” to compete for best picture.

Daniel Dae Kim, who formerly starred in the TV series “Hawaii Five-0,” added that the guideline made it seem as “the film equivalent of being told to go back to your country when that country is actually America.”

"Minari" is the story of a Korean immigrant family moving and adjusting to life on a farm in Arkansas in the 1980s in the hope of chasing the “American Dream.” Its title refers to a Korean herb that "comes in the pockets of immigrants, dies in the first year, thrives in the second and purifies the water and the soil around it."

“I think it's time to stop taking the Golden Globes seriously as an awards ceremony. This is not the first time that their selections have been widely criticized as being out of touch with all the important trends in contemporary cinema,” Darcy Paquet, a Korean cinema expert and translator who created the English subtitles for the Oscar-winning "Parasite,” told The Korea Times.

“By restricting their recognition of the critically praised and quintessentially American film 'Minari' to the Best Foreign Language Film category, and overlooking the achievements of its great cast, they have only demonstrated their own biases.”

Jeon Chan-il, a film critic and head of the Korean Cultural Contents Critic Association (KOCCCA), expressed caution at resorting to outright criticism of the organizers' guidelines even though he also did not necessarily agree with their decision.

“Setting guidelines is ultimately up to the organizers. The Golden Globes isn't the only award show that imposes that particular rule on its contenders. Of course, we can challenge and question it but the issue is, in the end, in the hands of the HFPA.”

He added that the awards show may head toward the direction of making an exception to the guideline if the contender is overwhelmingly acclaimed in the future.