Jonesboro, AR – (JonesboroRightNow.com) – Aug 1, 2024 – The sequel of the beloved movie Twisters (1996, 2024) is out and with stars such as Glen Powell, Daisy Edgar-Jones, and Anthony Ramos, it was an anticipated release. While this movie takes place in Oklahoma, there is more than just tornadoes that connects Arkansans with the story, director, Lee Isaac Chung, has Arkansas ties.
Director Lee Isaac Chung was born to South Korean immigrant parents in Denver, Colorado. When he was two, his family moved to Russellville, Arkansas, and by the time he was five his family settled in Lincoln, Arkansas, where he spent most of his time growing up. He went to Lincoln High School.
Chung’s first film is titled Munyurangabo, and is set in Rwanda. He collaborated with students at an international relief base in Kigali while he taught a film making class at a relief base. In 2015 Chung helped to co-direct another film, I Have Seen My Last Born , a documentary focusing of the family relations and history of a genocide survivor in modern day Rwanda.
Chung’s fourth film takes him back to Arkansas. Minari (2020) is a semi-autobiographical film he wrote in the summer of 2018. At this time he was considering retiring from film making, but thought he would give film making one last go.
In an interview with The Arkansas Times, Chung explained, “Everyone always talks about the immigrant stuff. To me, this is an Arkansas story or a farming story.” He continues, “It always felt like that part of Arkansas, the hill country, everybody’s kind of like my family in that they’re all trying to make it on their own. There are a lot of loners. So my family fit right in.”
Chung hopes to reframe how people view places such as Arkansas. He gives the example of how his Korean immigrant father still found community in rural Arkansas, “When he goes now, he hangs out with our neighbor, and they get together and drink. And they just talk. It’s not what you’d expect when you think politically, the way immigrants are put into one camp and farmers are put in another. That’s what I felt I grew up with, even the friends I had in Lincoln.” While Arkansas may be seen as a cruel place for minorities, Chung shows that isn’t the case among everyday folks.