Minari (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack to the 2020 film of the same name released by Milan Records on December 11, 2020. The score, composed by Emile Mosseri, met with critical acclaim and has been nominated for numerous accolades including the Academy Award for Best Original Score and BAFTA Award for Best Original Music, among others.[1] The soundtrack was preceded by the single "Rain Song" released on November 20, 2020.

Minari (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Soundtrack album by
ReleasedDecember 11, 2020
Recorded2020
Length33:09
LanguageKorean
LabelMilan
Singles from Minari: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
  1. "Rain Song"
    Released: November 20, 2020

Development

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Mosseri read the film's script even before scoring the film hoping that it would resonate with Korean Americans and immigrant families.[2] He himself rooted for the characters due to the realness in the humanity of their characters. He gone with traditional film score in the first place instead of using temp tracks in the edit, crediting Harry Yoon (the film's editor) who put his demos and sketches and used in the film and assembled certain sequences in the film to his music and extended them to fit into the score, which was less restrictive. Chung insisted him to blend Korean and American music and not to go overt with it, making it pretty wide open.[3]

The Fames Macedonian Symphonic Orchestra performed the score with over 40 string players.[4][5] As with Mosseri's previous ventures, the film consisted of new ivories. Initially he wanted to use a new piano for each project traded from local Los Angeles company. However, due to the short duration he had scoring the film while finishing Kajillionaire (2020) he intended to use the same Yamaha piano, although he never felt the sounds necessary the same and was different from the 1940s guitar he had.[6] He detuned the guitar to as low so that it could hold intonation and then doubled it with the piano to give it a grounded quality and not exactly sound exactly like guitar and piano. Mosseri admitted that "when those two sounds are married, it creates a third sound".[3]

Mosseri sang, wrote and recorded "Rain Song" whom sent the demo vocals to Chung and suggested the lead actress Han Ye-ri to record the vocals.[7][8] He felt that the idea is to be a lullaby from Monica (Ye-ri) to her son David (Alan Kim), hence the suggestion to sing Ye-ri was appropriate for the film. Stephane Hong translated the English lyrics into Korean.[9]

Track listing

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Original track list[10]
No.TitleLength
1."Intro"1:39
2."Jacob and the Stone"1:39
3."Big Country"2:16
4."Garden of Eden"1:36
5."Rain Song" (performed by Han Ye-ri)2:13
6."Grandma Picked a Good Spot"3:30
7."Halmeoni"1:24
8."Jacob's Prayer"1:35
9."Wind Song" (performed by Han Ye-ri)2:42
10."Birdslingers"1:53
11."Oklahoma City"1:09
12."Minari Suite"3:49
13."You'll Be Happy"0:53
14."Paul's Antiphony"1:54
15."Find It Every Time"2:03
16."Outro"2:54
Total length:33:09

Reception

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Music critic Jonathan Broxton wrote "Minari is a surface level score; it sits on top of the narrative creating an overarching mood, a pervasive tone, but never actually gets into the meat of the storytelling craft that is at the heart of good cinema."[11] James Southall of Movie Wave called it as a "a distinctive score, one which achieves its emotional support in unusual and creative ways, and it makes for a really satisfying album."[12] Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair complimented Mosseri's score as "a woozy chorus, sounding like a lullaby".[13] Glenn Whipp of Los Angeles Times called the score as "sublime".[14] Benjamin Lee of The Guardian called it as a "hair-raising score" that only "increases in stature as the film progresses".[15] It has been listed by IndieWire as one of the "best film scores of 2020".[16]

Accolades

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Award Date of ceremony Category Recipient(s) Result Ref.
Academy Awards April 25, 2021 Best Original Score Emile Mosseri Nominated [17]
Austin Film Critics Association March 19, 2021 Best Original Score Emile Mosseri Won [18][19]
British Academy Film Awards April 11, 2021 Best Original Music Emile Mosseri Nominated [20]
Boston Society of Film Critics December 13, 2020 Best Original Score Emile Mosseri Won [21]
Critics' Choice Awards March 7, 2021 Best Score Emile Mosseri Nominated [22]
Hollywood Critics Association Awards March 5, 2021 Best Score Emile Mosseri Nominated [23][24]
Hollywood Music in Media Awards January 27, 2021 Best Original Score in an Independent Film Emile Mosseri Won [25]
Best Original Song in an Independent Film "Rain Song" – Emile Mosseri and Stefanie Hong Nominated
Online Film Critics Society January 25, 2021 Best Original Score Emile Mosseri Nominated [26]
Satellite Awards February 15, 2021 Best Original Score Emile Mosseri Nominated [27]
Seattle Film Critics Society February 15, 2021 Best Original Score Emile Mosseri Nominated [28]
Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association February 8, 2021 Best Original Score Emile Mosseri Nominated [29]

References

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  1. ^ Newman, Melinda (January 29, 2021). "How Rising Composer Emile Mosseri Landed His Biggest Film Yet". Billboard. Archived from the original on April 2, 2022. Retrieved July 15, 2023.
  2. ^ Burlingame, Jon (January 22, 2021). "How 'Minari' Composer Emile Mosseri's Score Evokes Childhood Memories". Variety. Archived from the original on January 26, 2021. Retrieved July 15, 2023.
  3. ^ a b "Emile Mosseri on Scoring Minari". Spitfire Audio. Archived from the original on February 12, 2021. Retrieved July 15, 2023.
  4. ^ Greiving, Tim (January 25, 2021). "Emile Mosseri gets to the heart of two films with his romantic and dreamlike scores". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on January 28, 2021. Retrieved July 15, 2023.
  5. ^ Sigur, Matt (February 26, 2021). "How Composer Emile Mosseri Scored 'Minari' Using Only Its Script". Observer. Archived from the original on May 17, 2021. Retrieved July 15, 2023.
  6. ^ Chagollan, Steve (April 12, 2021). "'News of the World,' 'Minari' Composers Break Down Their Approaches for Scoring Somber Dramas". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on July 4, 2022. Retrieved July 15, 2023.
  7. ^ Tangcay, Jazz (March 9, 2021). "'Minari' Star Yeri Han and Composer Emile Mosseri Perform 'Rain Song' (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Archived from the original on March 11, 2021. Retrieved July 15, 2023.
  8. ^ Blistein, Jon (March 9, 2021). "'Minari' Star Yeri Han and Composer Emile Mosseri Perform 'Rain Song'". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on March 10, 2021. Retrieved July 15, 2023.
  9. ^ "Emile Mosseri's Oscar-Nominated Score for Minari Evokes Dreamlike Memory". Berklee College of Music. Archived from the original on June 18, 2021. Retrieved July 15, 2023.
  10. ^ "Minari (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) / Emile Mosseri". United States: Tidal. Retrieved July 26, 2021.
  11. ^ "MINARI – Emile Mosseri". MOVIE MUSIC UK. March 12, 2021. Archived from the original on July 31, 2021. Retrieved July 15, 2023.
  12. ^ Southall, James (February 20, 2021). "Minari soundtrack review". Movie Wave. Archived from the original on February 22, 2021. Retrieved July 15, 2023.
  13. ^ "'Minari' Is a Beautiful Portrait of a Family in Flux". Vanity Fair. February 22, 2021. Archived from the original on April 14, 2021. Retrieved July 15, 2023.
  14. ^ Whipp, Glenn (December 10, 2020). "Review: After an exhausting 2020, the gentle 'Minari' is the movie we need right now". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on February 19, 2021. Retrieved July 15, 2023.
  15. ^ Lee, Benjamin (January 29, 2020). "Minari review – moving and modest coming-of-age Sundance hit". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on February 5, 2020. Retrieved July 15, 2023.
  16. ^ Ehrlich, David (December 23, 2020). "The 10 Best Film Scores of 2020". IndieWire. Archived from the original on July 15, 2023. Retrieved July 15, 2023.
  17. ^ "The full list of 2021 Oscar nominations". Guardian. March 15, 2021. Archived from the original on March 31, 2021. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
  18. ^ Partridge, Jon. "2020 Austin Film Critics Association Award Nominations". AFCA. Archived from the original on May 2, 2021. Retrieved March 14, 2021.
  19. ^ Partridge, Jon (March 19, 2021). "2020 Austin Film Critics Association Award Winners". Medium. Archived from the original on April 16, 2021. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
  20. ^ "BAFTA Nominations: 'Nomadland,' 'Rocks' Lead Charge in Most Diverse List in Awards' History". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on March 10, 2021. Retrieved March 9, 2021.
  21. ^ "'Nomadland' Named Best Picture at Boston Society of Film Critics Awards, Paul Raci and Yuh-jung Youn Among Winners". Variety. December 13, 2020. Archived from the original on December 16, 2020. Retrieved December 13, 2020.
  22. ^ "Critics' Choice Awards: 'Mank' Leads With 12 Nominations, Netflix Makes History With Four Best Picture Nominees". February 8, 2021. Archived from the original on February 8, 2021. Retrieved February 8, 2021.
  23. ^ Menzel, Scott (February 2, 2021). "The 4th Annual HCA Film Awards Nominations Have Been Announced". Hollywood Critics Association. Archived from the original on February 5, 2021. Retrieved May 11, 2021.
  24. ^ Bosselman, Haley (March 6, 2021). "'Promising Young Woman' Sweeps Hollywood Critics Association Awards". Variety. Archived from the original on March 7, 2021. Retrieved May 11, 2021.
  25. ^ Grein, Paul (January 27, 2021). "Diane Warren & James Newton Howard Among Top Winners at 2021 Hollywood Music in Media Awards". Billboard. Archived from the original on February 1, 2021. Retrieved January 28, 2021.
  26. ^ Ramos, Dino-Ray (January 25, 2021). "Online Films Critics Society Unveils Annual Film Awards Recipients, Names 'Nomadland' Best Picture". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on January 28, 2021. Retrieved May 16, 2021.
  27. ^ Van Blaricom, Mirjana (February 1, 2021). "25th Satellite Awards Nominees for Motion Pictures and Television Announced". International Press Academy. Archived from the original on July 11, 2021. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
  28. ^ ""Minari" Leads the 2020 Seattle Film Critics Society Nominations". SFCS. Archived from the original on August 1, 2021. Retrieved March 14, 2021.
  29. ^ "The 2020 WAFCA Awards". Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association. Archived from the original on January 31, 2016. Retrieved February 9, 2021.