Lee Isaac Chung Quotes

Lee Isaac Chung

Profession : Director

Birth : October 19, 1978

I had my daughter in 2013, we moved to L.A. and there's just lots of things that were happening that were feeding into the desire to tell a story that's more personal and to talk about what it's like to be a father.

Lee Isaac Chung

I was an art house guy, making little, not-much-happening films.

Lee Isaac Chung

Film shoots generally don't smell good.

Lee Isaac Chung

I just feel so damn proud for the entire family behind 'Minari.'

Lee Isaac Chung

I didn't set out to win an Oscar, of course, but to be in this conversation, it's somehow an honour and a strange life experience as well.

Lee Isaac Chung

I want people to know that I am not an overnight success, if only to encourage the people who don't feel that they are being successful.

Lee Isaac Chung

When I was thinking of giving up, I was very dissatisfied with the idea that the films that I've made are the ones my daughter might see in the future and would represent what was very personal to me.

Lee Isaac Chung

I wonder what things will be like for my daughter; she seems so comfortable growing up with an international identity.

Lee Isaac Chung

I just hope that in some ways, 'Minari' can pave the way for other filmmakers, other actors, other projects that maybe don't fit within traditional boxes - if it helps those films get made in the future, I'd be so thrilled.

Lee Isaac Chung

I just want to say that 'Minari' is about a family. It's a family trying to learn how to speak a language of its own. It goes deeper than any American language and any foreign language.

Lee Isaac Chung

There's something about just connecting with people in their specific place and also finding that they're human just like me.

Lee Isaac Chung

A lot of people have had good discussions about what it means to be American, and we need to broaden our definition.

Lee Isaac Chung

My sister and I thought my grandmother was not very grandmotherly compared to all of the church ladies that we knew. She was making sure we learned all the Korean swear words, just in case we needed them. Now I see what an awesome lady she was.

Lee Isaac Chung

There was never a point where I thought, 'I'm going to do something Asian American.'

Lee Isaac Chung

I just feel like the garden is a place where you can explore humanity quite deeply.

Lee Isaac Chung

The films that excite me most tend to be the films that seem like voices that we haven't heard of before.

Lee Isaac Chung

My parents, they grew up in a time when there was war in Korea. And my grandmother, her husband, my grandfather, was a soldier and he died in the war. A lot of people in that generation, they didn't go to schools. My grandmother couldn't read; she didn't finish beyond elementary school.

Lee Isaac Chung

I hope that anyone facing or experiencing discrimination will, first of all, take to heart that this is not their fault, and they are not alone in this. Secondly, I hope they find ways to plug into communities to help prevent negative feelings of discrimination from festering.

Lee Isaac Chung

I try not to be someone who's preaching a message with my films or anything like that.

Lee Isaac Chung

My grandmother, if she were still alive, she'd be very proud that I held through and did a film in Korean and didn't compromise and then start using that foreign language of English.

Lee Isaac Chung