Pachinko is yet another proof of the sheer amount of talent in the Korean series and film industry

Held a few times with the book in my hands, attracted by the need to disappear into a family history with the full 20th century as a background. It didn’t work out (must also have something to do with the size of Min Jin Lee’s novel). And now the series pachinko there. Is it a disadvantage if you have not read the novel (yet)? So you will never find out again: the characters are filled in and in some cases unforgettable by the actors.

pachinko tells the story of a Korean family, from Japanese-occupied Korea in the 1920s to Japan’s financial world in the 1980s. You see the progression from abject poverty to a level of prosperity that was not possible for this family or Koreans in general four generations before. We follow Kim Sunja’s family from birth to old age. It is the center of a turbulent history. Everything happens that could affect the identity of the family: the colonial era, the Second World War, the occupation of Japan, the Korean War.

The common thread through history is the difficult position of Koreans under the aggression of the Japanese, who regarded Koreans as second-class citizens. The term pachinko refers to the popular Japanese gambling halls. Running these places was one of the few opportunities for Koreans to escape poverty. So that future generations could take a step forward.

The series has found a nice way to emphasize the importance of language in this situation. After all, a western audience with an untrained ear cannot tell Korean and Japanese apart. In the series, Japanese will have blue subtitles and Korean will have yellow subtitles. This visual support makes it possible to follow how characters use different registers and how an old generation sticks to the mother tongue.

Although the series is an American production, directors and actors are from the region. We can pachinko as yet another proof of the endless amount of talent that the Korean series and film industry produces. The budget was apparently considerable, because the series is at its most classic eye-catching, in all periods in which the story takes place. Perhaps that abject poverty could have used a little less brilliant floodlight. Readers of the book, which is told chronologically, will have to get used to the way the timelines are intertwined here. A perhaps opportunistic move, so as not to give viewers the impression that they are watching a costume drama for the first few episodes. In terms of content, it works out well, as we are constantly receiving image rhymes in which we see how the burden of the past continues to affect the family for generations later.

The main reason to watch Pachinko is the two amazing actresses who play the part of Sunja. The older Sunja is played by Oscar winner Youn Yuh-jung for her role in the migration drama Minaric (2020)† Kim Min-ha plays her first major role as the young Sunja, an unforgettable combination of vulnerability and intransigence. And now read the book.