Minari: Oscar favourite sees Korean family chase the American Dream

Parasite, last year's Oscar winner from South Korea, dented assumptions that English-speaking audiences are wary of any film with subtitles. Now another Korean-language film is making waves. Minari is a very different story set in rural America. But there's buzz about its chances in April's Academy Awards.

Minari is Lee Isaac Chung's fourth feature film. For the first time, he's tried to capture on screen the lives of South Koreans in the US.

Chung is 42 and was born into a Korean family in Denver, Colorado. While he was editing his film, he says he was very aware of the acclaim building around the dark comedy Parasite. Bong Joon-ho's film went on to win four Oscars last year, including best picture. It's taken more than $250m (£177m) at the box office.

"Obviously I wanted to see this subtitled South Korean movie everyone was talking about," he remembers. "But I decided I'd resist until Minari was edited: I didn't want it to influence me at all.

"When I finally watched Parasite, I asked myself how I could ever make anything so good. So it was both encouraging and discouraging at the same time."