It’s December 30th and there’s less than forty-eight hours left before this not-so-pleasant year ends. The sky is cloudy and a little bit gloomy–an indication that rain might occur in the next couple of hours. I’ve watched this film at four in the afternoon and it’s now eight at night; it’s now dark, it didn’t rain, but the wind persisted, and the remnants of the apple I was eating during the film is now brown. I stood up and contemplated,…

Since it’s the last day of 2020, I’ve been thinking of one film that will complete my year. I’ve thought that maybe rewatching Hamilton (2020) for the nth time would do it or The Shawshank Redemption (1994) to give me an inspiration for the next year to come, but instead I chose Minari (2020). Why, you may ask? I’ve been wondering why I chose this film too. Maybe it’s because I’ve been anticipating this Asian-directed 2020-released film for too long…

Trauma has been consistently depicted as a loud, imperceptible, and unyielding force that disrupts our day-to-day life—akin to Elisabeth Moss’ Cecilia Kass in the first half of Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man. But rarely is the consequence of trauma given equal weight: the inability to freely speak your mind, the guilt of not changing what has already happened, and the looming feeling of being constantly watched. These effects are particularly prevalent in Asian households, where issues are persistently swept under…