Pachinko is an American drama television series created by Soo Hugh based on the 2017 novel by Min Jin Lee. The series is directed by Kogonada and Justin Chon and premiered on Apple TV+ on March 25, 2022.[2] It received critical acclaim, particularly for its cinematography, writing, and the performances of the cast. In April 2022, the series was renewed for a second season.[3]
Soji Arai as Baek Mozasu (whose Japanese name is Bando Mozasu), a wealthy businessman who owns several pachinko parlors. He is Sunja's second son (the first and only child fathered by Isak) and Noa's half-brother.
Carter Jeong and Koren Lee as baby Mozasu
Jin Ha as Solomon Baek, the son of Baek Mozasu and grandson of Sunja. Educated at English-speaking schools and Yale University, he has always socialized with Americans and Westerners.
Han Jun-woo as Baek Yoseb,[5] Isak's second older brother who lives in Osaka, Japan. He is Kyunghee's husband and Sunja's brother-in-law.
Jeong In-ji as Yangjin,[2] Sunja's mother, who runs a boardinghouse in Yeongdo.
Jung Eun-chae as Kyunghee (whose Japanese name is Bando Kimiko), Yoseb's wife and Sunja's sister-in-law. She quickly becomes a best-friend figure for Sunja after they first meet in Japan.
Felice Choi as older Kyunghee
Lee Min-ho as Koh Hansu, a Zainichi Korean man who lives in Osaka, Japan. He is introduced as a merchant and fish broker who regularly visits Busan, South Korea. He is Noa's father.
Kaho Minami as Etsuko, Hana's mother and Mozasu's girlfriend.
Noh Sang-hyun as Baek Isak, a Protestant minister from Pyongyang, Korea. He marries Sunja despite his oscillating health condition to save her honour by giving her his surname. He is Yoseb's younger brother, Noa's legal father and Mozasu's father.
The narrative begins in 1915 Yeongdo, a small island of the second largest city Busan, in Japanese-occupied Korea with Yangjin, evidently in some anguish, visiting a female shaman's house, where Yangjin recounts that she is married to a kind man with a cleft-lip with whom she has born three sons, none of whom have lived beyond one year, and asks the shaman to "lift the curse" of her childbearing. The narrative jumps to 1989 in New York City, where it follows a young, sharply-dressed Korean-American business man, who we later learn is originally from Japan and is named Solomon, as he attends a performance-review meeting with two of his managers, who inform him that, despite his stellar performance, he has not been selected by executives for a promotion to Vice President, news that prompts Solomon to boldly propose in the meeting that he be sent to Japan in order to close a stalled business deal worth millions of dollars, since he is confident he can cajole a Korean woman who is holding up the deal, in order to secure for himself the promotion and pay raise he covets. Back in 1920s Korea, Yangjin and her husband give birth to Sunja, a daughter, who as a young girl is popular, bright and capable. Sunja's parents—unnamed in the first episode—house male lodgers, at least one of which is a drunken fisherman who, because of anti-Japanese sentiments, is a controversial figure. In 1989, Solomon travels to Japan, where, prior to his business projects, he visits his father's home, where he catches up, seemingly after a long time away, with his grandmother—the elderly Sunja—his father, and a woman who we are meant to infer is his stepmother. In the 1920s, Sunja's father falls ill and dies. Nine years after his death, she is depicted as a regular merchant in a more developed fish market, still popular, bright, and capable, where she locks impassioned eyes with Hansu, a young impeccably-dressed businessman, who evidently has only then become the market's broker.
2
"Chapter Two"
Kogonada
Soo Hugh & Matthew J. McCue
March 25, 2022 (2022-03-25)
A0005301002
In 1930s Yeongdo, tensions between Japanese emigrants and Korean natives evidently remain intense, as Sunja's mother, Yangjin, exhorts the teenage girl not to walk unaccompanied, fearing rumors spread among Korean women about targeted assaults upon them by Japanese men. Sunja, bright and capable, dismisses the exhortation, though is accosted shortly afterward on a solitary walk near the market by a group of young Japanese men, who are within moments of raping her before the dapper and commanding market broker apprehends the men and compels their apology to Sunja. In 1989 Tokyo, Solomon attends a wedding reception of the daughter of a prominent Japanese financier with two colleagues from his multinational corporation based in New York City, Shiffley. Solomon begins to immerse himself in the business culture of the Tokyo offices beneath and beside Tom Andrews and Naomi. Contemporaneously, the elderly Sunja nurses her sister-in-law, Kyunghee, as she reminisces about her past. In the 1930s, Sunja and Hansu become closer, as they share details about their dreams, history, and opinions about the world. Eventually, they make love in the woods at the peak of their romance. In 1989 Japan, Solomon's father, the owner of a pachinko arcade, secures a massive loan to expand his operations, while he and his partner take steps to discover the whereabouts of Hana. Solomon's bid to the Korean woman in pursuit of his business deal is refused, and Hana, who we infer is his childhood friend and/or stepsister, erstwhile missing inexplicably, calls him at work and evidently knows more than is imaginable about his personal and professional life.
In 1923, a young Hansu lives in Yokohama with his single father Jong-yul, who works as a bookkeeper at an underground boxing ring owned by Ryoichi, a yakuza. Hansu earns money tutoring the dim-witted son of the wealthy Holmes family of American industrialists, whose matriarch suggests sending Hansu to Yale alongside their son. Jong-yul is discovered embezzling money from the yakuza, and is about to be executed by Ryoichi's men when the city is suddenly struck by the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake, which kills Jong-yul and his would-be executioners. In the aftermath of the earthquake, Hansu finds the bodies of the Holmes family, from whom he takes the pocketwatch he later gifts to Sunja, and encounters Ryoichi, who helps to hide Hansu from a group of vigilantes attacking Koreans. When he finally encounters his family, Ryoichi vows that they will take in Hansu, who still has his "father's debt to pay."
The eight episodes of season 2 are written by Soo Hugh, Soo Hugh & Christina Yoon and Melissa Park, Melissa Park, Ethan Kuperberg and Soo Hugh, David Mitchell, Karen Chee and Chang-rae Lee, Haruna Lee and Soo Hugh, and Chang-rae Lee, respectively.[11]
Production
In August 2018, Apple Inc. obtained the rights to the series, which was given a series order in April 2019.[12] The reports also included that Soo Hugh would act as showrunner, writer, and executive producer for the series. The production company, Media Res, would also produce alongside Hugh. In October 2020, Lee Min-ho, Jin Ha, Anna Sawai, Minha Kim, Soji Arai, and Kaho Minami were announced to star, with South Korean filmmaker Kogonada and Justin Chon set to executive-produce and direct four episodes each.[13] Soo Hugh said it took six to seven months of worldwide search to cast the main actors and that she had asked all her actors to audition for their roles.[14] Filming was set to commence on October 26, 2020, in South Korea, Japan, and North America.[15] Lee Min-ho said he had finished filming in Busan, South Korea, in December 2020 and that he was preparing to film in Canada.[16] Filming in Vancouver was scheduled to take place between February 6 and April 9, 2021.[17]
The show's opening theme song is "Let's Live for Today" by The Grass Roots. Hugh said she originally thought about selecting "Out of Time" by The Rolling Stones but they were unable to secure the rights to that song. The title sequence was shot several times with different songs until "Let's Live for Today" was added during post-production.[18]
On April 29, 2022, Apple renewed the series for a second season.[3] Filming was scheduled to take place in Toronto from January 9 to March 27, 2023, and in Japan from March 27 to June 16, 2023.[19] Leanne Welham was to direct four episodes of the second season.[20]
Release
The series consisting of 8 episodes, produced in three languages, Korean, Japanese, and English premiered on March 25, 2022, on Apple TV+ with 3 episodes. One episode was released every Friday until April 29, 2022.[21][22]
Reception
Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the first season holds an approval rating of 97% based on 62 critic reviews, with an average rating of 9.1/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Intricate yet intimate, Pachinko is a sweeping epic that captures the arc of history as well as the enduring bonds of family."[23] On Metacritic, it has a score of 87 out of 100 based on 29 critics.[24]
^Kim So-yeon (August 3, 2021). "[단독] 이민호·윤여정 출연 애플TV '파친코', 신예 윤서호 발탁" [[Exclusive] Apple TV 'Pachinko' starring Lee Min-ho and Yoon Yeo-jeong, new rookie Seo-ho Yoon selected]. Korea Economic Daily (in Korean). Naver. Archived from the original on August 3, 2021. Retrieved August 3, 2021.
^Jung Ha-eun (July 23, 2021). "[단독]한준우, '파친코' 요셉 役 캐스팅…이민호X윤여정과 호흡" [[Exclusive] Jun-woo Han, cast as Joseph in 'Pachinko'... Breathing with Lee Min-ho X Yoon Yeo-jeong]. Sports Seoul (in Korean). Archived from the original on July 24, 2021. Retrieved July 23, 2021 – via Naver.
^Jo, Hyun-na (August 25, 2022). "[WHO ARE YOU] '카터' 배우 정소리" [[WHO ARE YOU] Actor Jung So-ri of 'Carter] (in Korean). Cine21. Archived from the original on August 28, 2022. Retrieved August 28, 2022 – via Naver.
^Jang Jin-ri (April 6, 2022). "'파친코' 이지혜, 각본가 수 휴도 극찬한 신스틸러…"립싱크 전혀 안해"" ['Pachinko' Lee Ji-hye, scriptwriter Su-Hyu also praised the scene stealer... "I don't lip sync at all] (in Korean). spoTV News. Archived from the original on April 6, 2022. Retrieved April 6, 2022 – via Naver.
^Yoo Byung-chul (April 26, 2022). "'파친코'에 등장한 정웅인, 이민호와 끈끈한 부자 지간 호흡 맞추며 진한 울림 선사" [Woong-in Jung, who appeared in 'Pachinko', and Lee Min-ho and Lee Min-ho are closely related to each other, giving a deep resonance] (in Korean). Korea Economy TV. Archived from the original on April 25, 2022. Retrieved April 26, 2022 – via Naver.
^Kim Kyung-hee (January 27, 2022). "이민호X윤여정 주연 '파친코' 3월 25일 공개!" ['Pachinko' starring Lee Min-ho and Yoon Yeo-jeong will be released on March 25th!]. iMBC (in Korean). Naver. Archived from the original on January 30, 2022. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
^Kim, Ji-hye (September 27, 2022). "김민하X판빙빙, 아시아콘텐츠어워즈서 라이징스타상·인기상 수상" [Kim Min-ha and Fan Bing-bing win the Rising Star Award and Popularity Award at the Asia Content Awards] (in Korean). SBS Entertainment News. Archived from the original on October 3, 2022. Retrieved October 3, 2022 – via Naver.
^Lee, Se-bin (October 10, 2022). "김민하, '비욘드 시네마상'→'라이징스타상' 2관왕 영예" [Kim Min-ha, 'Beyond Cinema Award' → 'Rising Star Award' 2 honors] (in Korean). Ilgan Sports. Archived from the original on October 10, 2022. Retrieved October 10, 2022 – via Naver.
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