[Drama 2022] Pachinko, 파친코 - Lee Min Ho, Youn Yuh Jung, Jin Ha, Anna Sawai, Minha Kim, Soji Arai, Kaho Minami - Streaming on Apple TV+ | Season 1 & 2

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Composer Nico Muhly Interviews For Apple TV+’s Pachinko | BGR Exclusive

 

Apple bet big on their new show, Pachinko, and that bet has paid off. It has been called “redefining,” and “extraordinary” in terms of both beauty and drama. The first season begins in 1910’s Korea and follows a family across generations and around the globe. 

 

While composer Nico Muhly (The Reader, Kill Your Darlings) admits tying these places and times together was a daunting assignment, he is more than equal to the task. Muhly deftly uses his love of Anglican choral music and American minimalism to craft an original and emotional score for the 8-hour saga.

 

Nico took time from his busy schedule to talk with me about his Grammy nominated work, Throughline, as well as Apple TV+’s Pachinko. We discussed everything from scoring and recording during the pandemic to grappling with the history of the Japanese occupation of Korea.

 

 

https://lrmonline.com/news/composer-nico-muhley-interviews-for-apple-tvs-pachinko-breaking-geek-radio-the-podcast/

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Lee Min Ho has his head in the clouds in NEW update; Will the actor shoot for Pachinko 2 soon?

... 

Lee Min Ho’s last role saw him taking up the character of Hansu which impressed the viewers in more ways than one. It was one of his best so far as Lee Min Ho’s depiction of various emotions and a subtle inclination towards being a villain figure in a story saw much praise. The actor himself spoke about his decision to take up the challenging role.

 

‘Pachinko’ was announced for a renewal by Apple TV+ in April. With the ending for season 1, fans are curious as to how Hansu will make a return to the story and are wondering if the actor will be filming for it anytime soon.

 

https://www.pinkvilla.com/entertainment/lee-min-ho-has-his-head-clouds-new-update-will-actor-shoot-pachinko-2-soon-1139897

 

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This episode 1 script is quite an interesting read!

 

 

 

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It Starts On The Page: Read The Script For ‘Pachinko’s Series-Premiere Episode

 

Only a year after Min Jin Lee’s original novel was published in 2017 and became a New York Times bestseller, Apple acquired rights to Pachinko to turn it into series. The bet paid off, as the eight-episode drama, with Soo Hugh as writer, showrunner and executive producer, became a worldwide hit, scoring big enough numbers that Apple announced a Season 2 renewal on the day the Season 1 finale premiered on the streamer.

 

Pachinko‘s pilot episode is the latest installment of It Starts On the Page, Deadline’s annual series that highlights the scripts that serve as the creative backbones of the buzzy shows that will define the now-underway TV awards season. The scripts in our series are all being submitted for Emmy Awards consideration this year and have been selected by Deadline using criteria that includes critical acclaim, selecting from a wide range of networks and platforms, and a mix of established and lesser-known shows.

 

Soo Hugh wrote and created this series based on the the novel, which chronicles the hopes and dreams of a Korean immigrant family over four generations as they leave their homeland to build a better life.

 

The pilot episode, “Chapter One,” written by Hugh and directed by Kogonada, begins with Solomon (Jin Ha) in 1989 New York City as he attempts to secure a promotion. The story then flashes back to the childhood of his mother in Japanese-occupied Korea, as a young Sunja (Yuna) living with her parents who house male lodgers.

 

Click below to read the full script:

https://deadline.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Pachinko-It-Starts-On-The-Page.pdf

 

 

ELEOS 

 

Episode 101

 

“Chapter One”

 

Written by Soo Hugh

 

Based on the novel by Min Jin Lee

 

...

 

BUPYEONG MARKET, BUSAN, KOREA – DAY (1931)

 

Tired of all this now, Hansu drops his cigarette and scans
the CROWD...
 

His eyes happen to fall upon a TEENAGE GIRL walking
purposefully from vendor to vendor, a no-nonsense energy to
her steps. And it’s our Sunja, now sixteen-years-old. No
longer a child but a woman on the cusp. We watch her from
Hansu’s point-of-view, trying to read her story in her body
language. In her eyes, we notice that spark of childhood
innocence has dimmed considerably. But it has not been
extinguished entirely.

Hansu starts to lose interest in her, his eyes flicking away
when (2) JAPANESE POLICE OFFICERS cross Sunja’s path.
Different faces from the Officers in the past, but the same
carriage, the same discipline. And while everyone around
Sunja stops to lower his/her head in deference, Sunja alone
stands with her head raised high. In her eyes, a defiance
holds steady. She will not yield. Hansu, catching this--
 

HANSU (CONT'D)
(switching to Korean)
That girl--who is she?
 

MARKET OFFICIAL
(in Korean)
Which girl?
 

HANSU
That one--
 

He nods his head towards Sunja, who is on her way again. The Japanese Officers have safely gone past. When the Market Official sees who Hansu is referring to--

 

MARKET OFFICIAL (O.S.)

She’s--she’s no one.

 

But Hansu finds himself unable to look away now, following Sunja as she stops at the EEL VENDOR. It’s not the same person from her youth.

 

EEL VENDOR 2 (faintly)

Sunja, look--I saved the biggest one for you!

 

Sunja responds back, but Hansu can’t hear her words. As Sunja continues on to the CABBAGE VENDOR, the Market Official shrugs:

 

MARKET OFFICIAL I believe her mother runs a boarding house in Yeongdo. A widow.

 

Hansu’s eyes continue to follow Sunja as she walks past the CANDY VENDOR, surrounded by a gaggle of CHILDREN. And then suddenly, she feels it...

 

Looking up, she stares directly at “us”--at Hansu--and their eyes grip for a charged, piercing moment. Unnerved by how openly he stares at her, with no shame, Sunja severs their connection and rushes towards the exit. She can no longer bear to be in the same space with him. She can’t breathe.

 

Hansu strains to keep her in his sight. He even shuffles to the edge of the dais, but she is soon lost to him altogether.

 

And as the Market Official bends down to wipe the cigarette ashes from Hansu’s shoe clean with a cloth, Hansu keeps his thoughts to her. He can’t explain why, not yet at least, but this “no one” girl intrigues him.

 

He wants her.

 

K-POP MUSIC blasts over the scrolling names of all those who worked tirelessly to make this show happen.

 

END OF PILOT EPISODE

 

 

 

 

https://deadline.com/2022/06/pachinko-pilot-script-premiere-soo-hugh-it-starts-on-the-page-1235041408/

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‘Pachinko’ Cast, Crew Take a Closer Look at Season One’s “Best Episode”

 

 

There are ambitious shows, and then there’s Pachinko — a multigenerational, trilingual family saga that juggles multiple timelines across the 20th century while centering the experience of Zainichi Koreans, an ethnic minority group in Japan that few Americans had heard of before Min Jin Lee’s 2017 novel on which the Apple TV+ drama is based. In a departure from the book, showrunner Soo Hugh tells the stories of matriarch Sunja (played by Minha Kim in the 1930s and Yuh-Jung Youn in the ’80s) and her grandson Solomon (Jin Ha) in tandem with one another. Hugh, Kim and Ha joined director Justin Chon — who helmed four of the season’s eight episodes (Kogonada handled the remainder) — and executive producers Michael Ellenberg and Theresa Kang-Lowe in a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter about “Chapter Four,” the climactic midpoint of the season and a favorite of several of the team.

 

In Pachinko‘s fourth episode, Sunja and her new husband depart her Korean fishing village for Osaka, a move that not only requires permanently leaving her mother, Yangjin (Inji Jeong), but also sets her descendants on a new course. Nearly 60 years later, Solomon faces the make-or-break deal of his career as his Japanese and American colleagues lean on him to convince a Korean landowner to sell her land, and Sunja, now a widowed grandmother, prepares to return to Korea for the first time.

 

Soo, you’ve told me that “Chapter Four” was your favorite. Why?

 

SOO HUGH You’re not supposed to choose one of your babies, but even from the writing, I texted Justin from the hair salon saying, “104 is the best episode.” I think specifically of the sequence when Yangjin makes the rice [a luxury for Sunja’s last meal]. The mandate from Justin and Kogonada was, this has to be iconic. And then what Justin did was extremely emotional.

 

THERESA KANG-LOWE The feedback that we’ve gotten on this episode is that it feels the most deeply Korean, and through that everyone who’s non-Korean relates to it as if it’s their own family. I’ve heard from so many people that it allowed them to talk about their own family experiences within their family.

Spoiler

Minha, you’ve said your proudest work in the whole season was also in 104. How did you access the emotion for those scenes, because Sunja is usually pretty stoic?

 

MINHA KIM In episode four, I have to say a lot of goodbyes: to Yangjin, my house, my country. How scary it is to leave home and never know when we’re going to meet again. Back then, we didn’t have iPhones or email, and Sunja and Yangjin couldn’t read, so they couldn’t send any messages. Right before I shot the goodbye scene, my mom sent me a message: “I miss my mom, too.” I never thought of my mom as my grandmother’s daughter. I don’t know how, but my mom always sent me a message at the right time.

 

She didn’t know you were about to shoot this scene?

 

KIM No. When I was shooting in a foreign country [Japan and Canada], she sent me a lot of messages because she missed me, and every time she did that, it motivated me so much. Right before the scene where Yangjin gave me the rice, Inji was adjusting my clothes and she was saying, “How can I let you go?” before the camera was on. It made me so crazy. So I think people around me helped me to be in that moment. It came from honesty, not from the head.

 

Solomon is like a chameleon who adapts to a variety of cultures. Jin, who is Solomon to himself?

 

JIN HA Oh boy. That’s the question he’s grappling with as the season goes on. When he’s in the conference room with the landlady and everyone’s gathered and he decides to essentially crash his own deal that he’s been working so hard to finalize, that is such a big turning point for Solomon. The ghosts of his past have come through the landlady in her speech, and it happens to connect with Solomon during the most pivotal moment of his life.

 

What’s the effect on Solomon when the landlady suddenly switches from speaking in Japanese to Korean, which only he can understand?

 

HA It’s a dagger. Even for me, having left Korea at a very young age, there is something innately emotional about the language. In grad school, one of the tools I would try to use was listening to Korean music. Hearing stories woven into emotional songs in Korean had a completely profound effect on me that was different from listening to music with English lyrics. I imagine that’s the same thing Solomon felt. In Shakespeare, when they switch from verse to prose, the moment of the change is sometimes the most significant. Similarly, when and why we switch from Japanese to Korean or vice versa are some of the most fascinating details that we have in our show.

 

MICHAEL ELLENBERG Jin really did not speak Japanese going into this. Part of the rigorous audition process was him demonstrating his facility to do it all, and he mastered it. As a viewer, you have no idea. Remember, plenty of our audience speaks none of these three languages, but his affect, his demeanor, that all changes as he moves between languages.

 

In the closing sequence of this episode, Solomon is at his most unrestrained, dancing in the rain, while his grandmother wades into the water on her home shores for the first time in 50 years. Justin, did the interweaving of these scenes affect how you shot them?

 

JUSTIN CHON The rain actually wasn’t scripted. I just wanted to visually find a way to connect people in two different countries and make it feel like they’re sharing the same experience. I got in a lot of trouble from Y.J. because that was one of her first days shooting. (Laughs.)

 

You drenched an Oscar winner?

 

CHON I drenched her and she called me afterward and was like, “I’m mad at you. You made me stand out in the water too long.” I bought her a nice bottle of white wine the next day. But I think it’s beautiful — on an emotional level, they’re both having this very cathartic experience together and it connects them. So who cares about the logistics? How does it make you feel?

 

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/video/pachinko-cast-crew-take-a-closer-look-at-season-ones-best-episode/

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/pachinko-cast-crew-interview-apple-tv-1235160169/

 

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How Oscar Winner Youn Yuh-jung Learned to Act for the Love of It

 

The following Career Dispatch essay was written by “Minari” Oscar winner Youn Yuh-jung, as told to Allie Volpe. It has been edited and condensed for clarity and brevity. Youn currently stars on Apple TV+’s “Pachinko.”

 

Spoiler

I am an actor from South Korea, and I’ve been in the business for more than 50 years. Back in 1967, television was very new in Korea. I was touring a TV station with a program for kids, and an employee asked if I could work on the show and hand the kids a gift. I’d never been in a studio in my life. When I got my first check, it was big money to me, so I kept going to the station. Then one day, someone asked if I could audition for a role, and I said, “I’m not trying to be an actor. I don’t want to do that.” But I did—and I got the job and started an acting career. It was an accident.

We were only filming in the studio, not on location like we do nowadays. We couldn’t make any mistakes at all, because shooting was live like a play during that time. You couldn’t make any mistakes during the 40-minute episode. If you did, you were a criminal, almost. We had to go back to the beginning. That was very hard training. 

 

I thought I was a good actor. Then, I met a genius director who’s well-known in Korea, Kim Ki-young. He gave me a role in 1971’s “Woman of Fire.” I was the leading role, and I really had a hard time with him. I hated him. Everyone said he was a genius, and I didn’t know if he was. He kept asking me to meet him two hours before shooting. Later, I realized he was researching me, studying me. When I started filming, he stood up and asked me, “The smile you gave me when we had a conversation—why don’t you smile like that?” That’s why he wanted to meet me beforehand. I learned a lot from him. 

 

After leaving acting to raise my kids, I didn’t think I’d act again. It was practically a new career at that point, because I had been away from it for nine years. People forgot about me, and my name had vanished. At that time, I appreciated all the small parts. I was 38 years old, and I was desperately looking for jobs. 

 

An actor is always insecure, because he’s not what you call a salary man. If you don’t get the job, you don’t get any bread. My two boys were security for me, because looking at them and seeing them looking at me for support was the security I had. 

 

After age 60, because I raised two boys and they were grown up, I promised myself I would be working for myself; I can choose who I get to work with. I’m not chasing money or fame. That’s why I chose “Minari,” because it was an independent movie.

 

Shooting “Pachinko,” I learned details about our history and about Korean Japanese people. I really hope to honor their story with this show. Sharing, I think, is very important. If you share a story, you can understand each other. Then we can embrace each other. 

 

https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/youn-yuh-jung-pachinko-career-advice-75221/

 

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BCM 2022 poised to raise Busan’s reputation as S. Korea’s cultural city

 

Sebastian Lee, co-executive producer of “Pachinko,” speaks at Bexco in Busan. (Lee Si-jin/The Korea Herald)

The home of Busan International Film Festival, Korea’s first international film festival, is hoping to cement its position as the country’s top cultural city with the opening of Busan Content Market 2022.

Returning as an offline event for the first time in three years, BCM 2022 showcases Korean content to the global market. The event will also explore the rising popularity of the metaverse, artificial reality, high-tech media-based convergence and many other things including films, animations, webtoons, games and music.

...

Sebastian Lee, the co-executive producer of Apple TV+’s period drama “Pachinko,” shared stories from the show’s set, emphasizing the importance of having a strong belief that your story can be well received by audiences.

“Stories about Korean immigrants are not a popular topic in dramas. To put it bluntly, it is usually a minor theme. But countless people around the world are really empathizing with the journey of Sunja. I think ‘Pachinko’ was able to gain global popularity because it did not simply follow the Korean drama trends,” Lee said.

 

https://m.koreaherald.com/amp/view.php?ud=20220609000836

 

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Best Apple Tv + Series: Shows and Movies to Watch Now in June 2022!

 

Pachinko

 

Apple TV+ has been on a roll, and with its new trilingual epic, Pachinko, it has struck gold. Through Sonja’s eyes, Pachinko spans three distinct periods in Korean history. The show depicts the hardships Koreans faced during Japanese rule through Sonja’s childhood (Jeon Yu-na).

 

Adolescence (Kim Min-ha), and senior years (Academy Award winner Youn Yuh-Jung). But, before you think this show is only about history, there’s an intriguing romance with a man linked to Japanese gangsters (Lee Min-ho) and an immigration story filled with heartbreak and longing.

 

Although the series focuses on a specific period in the lives of a Korean family, the themes are universal to anyone connected to a diaspora or who has experienced unfair treatment.

 

Pachinko has laid the groundwork for even more riveting stories from Sunja and her extended family by the end of the first season. —Maximal Covill

 

https://www.fedregsadvisor.com/apple-tv/17505/best-apple-tv-series/

 

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'Pachinko' Star Minha Kim Explains Rice's Significance in the Show

 

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Another FYC (For Your Consideration) campaign billboard ad for PACHINKO spotted in Koreatown, Los Angeles by @appletvplus.

cr: leeminka71920 IG

 

 

 

 

[msmy]

I loved this series and will keep watching for your updates on future episodes.  The season 1 was so open ended and begs for several more seasons.  Thanks for the discussion.

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The 100 Best Shows on TV Right Now

 

5. Pachinko (Apple TV+)

Where to watch: Apple TV+

For so long, television consumed in the U.S. has been compartmentalized into distinct categories: English shows and foreign-language shows, domestic shows and international shows. Pachinko refuses to be bound by these classifications. Based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Min Jin Lee, the series from creator Soo Hugh is told in three languages — Korean, Japanese, and English — filmed across three countries, and features actors from South Korea, Japan, and the U.S. It's a show that reimagines what TV created by American production companies can be. And what's special about the union of these elements is that it more accurately reflects the transnational experience of one Korean family whose journey from 1915 Busan to 1989 New York City is at the center of Pachinko.

 

Minha Kim plays teenage Sunja, who lives on the Korean island of Yeongdo and begins a dangerous romance with fish broker Koh Hansu (Lee Minho). Yuh-Jung Youn portrays her adult counterpart, who is grandmother to New York City-based bank executive Solomon (Jin Ha) and resides in Osaka. Because the four generations of her family inhabit different lands and engage with a range of languages and dialects, Pachinko's multilingual, multicultural approach to storytelling is not only apt but authentic. It also helps convey the emotions central to this show, which is heavily about belonging and othering.

 

Youn's performance is, as expected, dynamic, with every line penetrating the heart. But it's Kim who is the breakout star of Pachinko. Through the subtlest of movements in her facial expressions and body postures, she portrays a Sunja who is resolute and resilient. Kim packs her character with so much strength that even as the teenage Sunja is repeatedly knocked over by adversities, she never crumbles. And it's a privilege for viewers to join her as she gets back on her feet again

 

https://www.tvguide.com/news/features/100-best-tv-shows-right-now-2022/

 

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@msmy glad you enjoyed the series! Second season will be a treat after our long wait 

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'Pachinko' star to promote Korean culture

 

 

This photo, provided by the Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA) on June 14, 2022, shows South Korean actress Kim Min-ha, star of the Apple TV+ original series "Pachinko", in the scene of a video promoting tourism to Haein Temple, in Hapcheon, south of Seoul.Kim has been chosen as the promotional envoy for CHA's Korean culture

 

https://sp.yna.co.kr/view/PYH20220614139100883

 

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Youn Yuh-Jung on why the heart-wrenching story of ‘Pachinko’ hits close to home

 

Spoiler

 

The veteran actor and living legend chats about her journey with ‘Pachinko’, that special moment with 'CODA'’s Troy Kotsur at the 2022 Oscars, and what the future holds for her

 

When Youn Yuh-Jung first received the script for Pachinko, the story struck the veteran actor as achingly familiar. In the show, which was adapted from the best-selling novel of the same name, Youn plays protagonist Sunja, a Korean woman who immigrates to Japan in the early 1900s.

 

Quickly, Youn realised she didn’t need to do much research in preparation for the role. “My mother was born in 1924, and lived in Korea under Japanese rule. I overheard her, as a child, speaking of many different occasions of how they were treated by Japanese colonisers,” Youn shares.

 

Both versions of Pachinko—the 2017 book by Min Jin Lee and the newly-renewed Apple TV+ drama—have become critically acclaimed hits. While the book follows a chronological format, tracing 80 years and generation upon generation of Sunja’s family, the show jumps back and forth in time. Both iterations feature a laudably rich ensemble of characters and riveting arcs, and are united in the element of grim discovery resonating with readers and viewers alike. As the first story of its kind to trace the politically-scarred 20th century Korean experience in Japan, Pachinko unveils the heart-wrenching discrimination, poverty and pain Korean immigrants of the time went through.

 

As such, there was a lot that attracted Youn to the role. The gripping, historic plot was one factor, but even more electric was the instant connection she felt with Sunja. “I read both the script and the novel, of course, but I can’t quite recall which I did first,” she says. “But I do remember that Sunja gave me a very rare feeling. I had an immediate connection with her—her character, strength, honesty and resilience. I knew, right away, that I had to play her role.”

 

With an illustrious career spanning over 50 years, the 75-year-old Youn may only have recently come into the international spotlight for her Oscar-winning turn in Minari, but she has been a long-time legend in South Korea. Here, the distinguished actor chats to Vogue Singapore about what the future holds, her journey with Pachinko, and that special moment with CODA’s Troy Kotsur at this year’s Oscars.

 

How do you understand Sunja as a character? Do you relate to certain parts of her?
I admire Sunja, and am so inspired by her strength and honesty. She has an incredible determination to survive, even during the difficult time she was born in. And she could have chosen a different, more comfortable way with Hansu, who turned out to be married when she thought he was not. He would have given her everything if she agreed to be his concubine or mistress. But she didn’t want that, and she went with the generous pastor Isak instead. Because of her choice, she faced so much struggle being an immigrant in Japan—but ultimately, survived and lived an honest life. She worked so hard to raise her two boys and did everything for them. As a mother myself, of course I can relate to those feelings.

 

Did you spend much time during filming with your castmates like Lee Min Ho, Kim Minha and Jin Ha?
I worked mainly with Jin Ha, who played the role of my grandson. Before we met, I had already heard that he was a good actor through my younger son. We had dinner, talked about the script and had a great time together. Soji Arai, who plays my son, is actually Zainichi himself, so I got to learn his insider experience. Kim Minha plays the younger version of Sunja while Lee Min Ho plays Hansu. So, unfortunately, we were all playing characters in different times of history and I didn’t get to encounter them on set. But it was a very memorable experience with the younger generation of Korean actors.

 

In Pachinko, Sunja has to face many painful situations. What was the most emotionally complex and difficult scene for you to perform?
Definitely the scene when she came back to Korea after 50 years in Japan and visited her hometown of Busan, trying to locate her father’s graveyard. She felt the ocean she used to dive into when she was a child of nine or 10. It was an incredibly emotional scene. I remember clearly—with the rain and everything in the background, I had to focus on trying to express all the different emotions she was feeling.

 

What do you hope viewers will take away from watching Pachinko?
We have many documents about this part of Korean history, so I am more interested in conveying the human story. I hope the audience will connect with the feelings and emotions of the characters who lives during the time—what they endured to survive and exist. I’m really glad this story is being told, and I hope we can honour their lives with this show.

 

Spoiler

It has been over a year since your historic win at the 2021 Oscars for your role in Minari. How do you feel about the award you received and what do you think it meant for equality and representation?
The award I received hasn’t changed me—I’m still myself, living in the same house with the same friends. But my hope is that my win makes the current equality gap that exists in the acting industry smaller. My son says that equality exists only in mathematics and I think that’s true. Balance may be the right word, and that’s all I hope for in the future.

 

You presented CODA’s Troy Kotsur his Oscar for Best Supporting Actor at the 2022 Academy Awards, and he was the first deaf man in history to win an acting Oscar. On stage, you signed his name in American Sign Language (ASL). Why was this an important gesture for you to do and did you practise beforehand?
Actually, friends of mine had asked me the night before: “Who do you wish to be the winner?” I told them that I wanted Troy Kotsur to be the winner—he was on my mind and that was my guess. So, my friends suggested, why don’t you practise how to say “Congratulations” and “I love you” in ASL? They were trying to teach me through the internet. When he turned out to be the winner, I was so incredibly happy for him. I had wanted him to be the winner, and he so deserved it. So I really wanted to congratulate him from the bottom of my heart.  But I think I made a mistake with one finger when I signed “I love you.”

 

What advice do you have for newcomers who look up to you and wish to enter the film or television industry?
If somebody wants to be an actor or work in the film industry, the most important thing to know is that it is not glamorous. Like what you see from the outside? Trust me, on the inside, it is very difficult and requires a lot of labour. If you are prepared to be a hard worker and not chase the fame or glamour—then yes, you should try it.

 

What is next for you and what are you most looking forward to?
Well, I’m an old lady. At my age, I’m just trying to slow everything down. I’ve lived long enough and nothing excites me much nowadays. All I want is rest and a peaceful life.

 

https://vogue.sg/youn-yuh-jung-pachinko-interview/

 

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‘Pachinko’ creator Soo Hugh on how ‘you couldn’t tell this book only in one season’ [Exclusive Video Interview]

 

 

Like many who read “Pachinko,” the sweeping novel by Min Jin Lee that tells the story of a Korean family over the course of the 20th century, Soo Hugh felt a deep resonance. The writer/producer felt compelled to adapt the story to television, with the first season recently ending on Apple TV+. “It was a shock of recognition,” says Hugh in an exclusive new interview for Gold Derby, recalling her experience reading the book. “There’s something about the story that felt so familiar to me and it was a really extremely powerful experience and I knew that this was a story worth bringing to the screen.” 

 

What fans may have been surprised by is Hugh’s approach to adapting the novel. While Lee’s book tells the story chronologically, starting with a young Sunja in the early 20th century and concluding with an older Sunja in 1989, the showrunner decided to crosscut the storylines through each episode. Through this process, she was able to make the show more expansive, she explains, “and not just big for the sake of big, but I felt like it was something that I personally was interested in exploring is, ‘How does one generation either save or burden the next generation?'” Season 1 does not include large sections of the novel but still has plenty of material in both storylines. “You couldn’t tell this book only in one season.”

 

Hugh feels a special connection to Sunja, not necessarily because she reminds her of herself so much as her grandmother. “When you think about what that generation went through and how they still maintain their dignity through it all, and more important, a sense of hope still,” she observes, “that’s my grandmother’s generation.” She personally relates more to Sunja’s grandson, Solomon, a multilingual businessman who feels conflicted about his sense of place in the world and leads the 1989 storyline. “Not only is there guilt about how easy things have been made for me because of my grandmother’s sacrifice,” she notes, but also dealing with just the micro-aggressions every day of, ‘Am I part of this country or am I not?'”

 

Despite having to film during the pandemic, Hugh found a sense of community with her collaborators, who inspired her to make bold choices to deliver a stellar first season of the show.

“The big lesson I learned is you just hire the best people possible,” the showrunner states. “People loved working on the show; it wasn’t just a job for them.”

 

https://www.goldderby.com/feature/pachinko-creator-soo-hugh-video-interview-1204976472/

 

[syntyche]

 

 

Three Great Things: Nico Muhly

 

The brilliant musician and composer, who scored Apple Tv+'s new show Pachinko, on what brings him joy, both at home and on the road.

 

Nico Muhly’s setup in Paris, where he scored Pachinko. (Photo courtesy Nico Muhly.)

 

https://www.talkhouse.com/three-great-things-nico-muhly/

 

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Cultural leverage to better neighborly ties

..

In this context, two hit drama series streaming globally effectively counter Japan’s policy of concealing its dark past from its younger generations through revisionist history textbooks. “Pachinko” on Apple TV+ ... are poignant dramas that relive the turbulent era from the late 19th to 20th century. Beautifully produced with terrific casts, both are epic sagas that depict generations of Koreans confronting and enduring the turmoil of history.

 

“Pachinko” is an adaptation of the 2017 bestselling novel of the same name by Min Jin Lee, a New York-based Korean American writer. The eight-episode series is faithful to the gripping tale of resilience, identity and trauma surrounding Sunja, the daughter of a couple that runs a boarding house in Yeongdo, an island beside Busan. Born on the island during the Japanese occupation of Korea, she ends up in Osaka, where she raises her family in the land of her homeland’s colonizers.

 

“Pachinko” is fiction, but it is based on the experiences of real people and a nearly three-decade quest. Back in 1989 at Yale University, where Lee was a history major, she attended a guest lecture by a Japan-based American missionary about Zainichi, or Korean residents in Japan. She heard about the history of Zainichi and a middle school boy who was bullied in his yearbook for his Korean background. The boy jumped off a building and died.

 

“I would not forget this,” Lee says in the acknowledgements in her book. She became convinced that “the stories of Koreans in Japan should be told somehow when so much of their lives had been despised, denied and erased.”

 

In 2007, a job offer brought Lee’s husband to Japan. She used the time to interview dozens of Korean residents and realized their life was more nuanced than she had assumed. “The Korean Japanese may have been historical victims, but when I met them in person, none of them were as simple as that. I was humbled by the breadth and complexity of the people I met in Japan.”

That was how her novel came to offer a sweeping narrative about four generations of immigrants, a portrayal of ethnic bigotry, a celebration of women’s resilient capacity to survive, and a vibrant history lesson that can resonate with a broad range of people.

 

https://asianews.network/cultural-leverage-to-better-neighborly-ties/

 

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He is a queer icon who has worked with Björk and Philip Glass. Now, he has just created the music for the most romantic series of the year

 

Nico Muhly is responsible for the sumptuous score for the new Apple TV+ series, the family saga “Pachinko”. Infobae spoke with him about the risks of composing music for a story that takes place in Asia as an American and doing it remotely during the pandemic.

 

In "Pachinko", by Min Jin Lee, one of the most acclaimed novels of recent years in the United States, several generations of a Korean family are torn between tradition and modernity, the familiar and the foreign, in a story that is half family saga and half romantic melodrama, taking place at different historical moments, ranging from the Japanese occupation of the peninsula between 1910 to 1945 and the island's economic boom in the 80s.

 

In the new series adaptation of the book, released by Apple TV +, one of its most sumptuous and emotional components is the original music, by the AmericanNico Muhly, a renowned queer composer and arranger who, in the same way, has built his career with one foot in the classical tradition (operas, orchestral, chamber music) and the other in the present, working with Bjork, The National, Grizzly Bear and even Philipp Glass, of whom he apprenticed during his years as a student at Julliard and with whom he has since continued to work as a collaborator.

 

Muhly is one of the members of the main creative team of the series -which includes the showrunner Soo Hugh and the filmmaker Kogonada- who does not descend from a Southeast Asian family, something that, he tells Infobae from London via Zoom, was something that he took into account when debating whether to accept the proposal to participate in the adaptation of “Pachinko”.

 

“I had read the book, I think everyone in America read it when it came out. And I loved it, even though I knew very little about it, it's a period of history that Americans don't teach us much about [referring to Japan's occupation of Korea] in schools. And when Son Hugh called me and asked if I wanted to be part of the team, I had to think about it, but the fact that they came over because they liked my previous music, made me feel sure that it was something that I was going to know how to do. "

 

Spoiler

However, Muhly confesses that he imposed some rules on himself to sensitively address cultures that are not his own, such as the Korean and Japanese, especially considering the usual accusations about "cultural appropriation" that are launched in the United States against artists of all kinds before the slightest flirtation with genres that are outside their traditional spheres.

 

“The first thing I decided, before accepting the offer, was that if I did, I couldn't use the instruments of that time and those places, because it would be inappropriate as a white person, and as one of the few people who are not from East Asia of the project, it seemed to me that it did not correspond.I don't think there is a rule in this type of situation, I don't believe in dogmas, but I think it's important to understand the subtleties and participate in these debates, especially since this was something so culturally and historically precise, that I didn't want to make a mistake and screw it up.. And it's just full of examples, and you don't have to go as far as the Siamese twin song in The Lady and the Tramp to see how callously this has been approached over the years, and I wouldn't like to think that I'm taking a job away from someone who deserves it more,” says Muhly.

 

For this reason, he explains, he decided to use instruments such as the oboe instead of more traditional ones such as the shakuhachi (a type of Japanese flute) to compose the music for the series.“If for artistic reasons I had needed to make music with the shakuhachi, I would have composed it with someone else, with a local person, because otherwise I would have felt like those white people who appropriate ethnic foods and start selling a taco for 9 dollars… I would not like to be part of that universe”.

 

Once the proposal was accepted, Muhly, who is one of the most sought-after young composers in the world of classical music, had to face other types of dilemmas, such as how to musicalize the scenes between the protagonist Sunja and her suitor Koh Hansu. , a powerful man who could be the heroine's salvation, or perhaps her undoing.

 

“I knew I had to make a decision about him, musically speaking. Whether he was a freak or a romantic hunk. That was a bit difficult, but I already had some experience with that ambiguity from having made the music for the film The Reader. Is Kate Winslet's character in that story a war criminal? Is she a woman in love? You have to understand what they are telling, ”she says.

 

Muhly also says that the process had the particularity of being carried out mostly during the months of confinement imposed by the Covid pandemic, so almost everything was done remotely. “With the showrunner we must have spoken about 400 times, but we only met in person when we were doing the final mix. Luckily, she had sent me an incredibly detailed document of everything that happened in the series and everything that she wanted musically, so she had in my mind very well mapped everything that she wanted to achieve”.

 

Muhly also talks about the "intense" work involved in having to compose 4 and a half hours of music for the series. “Towards the end, for example, we were finishing recording the music for chapter 7, I took 10 minutes, and I was going to finish writing the music for the next one. But when we went to do the mixing and saw the finished product, it was very moving, because the series is fantastic. It made me very happy and proud to be part of this project.”

 

The musical pieces composed by Muhly, which possess the same classic and melancholic elegance that the series itself exudes, are also available to listen to on all platforms. Are you interested in people being able to enjoy your music separately from what was originally intended, or do you think it only makes sense as part of an audiovisual whole?

 

“I actually try not to think about how people listen to my music, because I don't have any control over that.Recently [Italian director] Paolo Sorrentino put a violin piece of mine in one of his recent works and I thought it was incredible, I would never have thought of putting it there, and then many people have also told me that they study with my music in the background. Obviously I would never do it, but it seems good to me that they give it the use they want. I like being able to be useful to people.”

 

https://www.infobae.com/lgbt/2022/06/13/es-un-icono-queer-que-trabajo-con-bjork-y-phillip-glass-ahora-acaba-de-crear-la-musica-para-la-serie-mas-romantica-del-ano/

 

[syntyche]

Inside ‘Pachinko’, The Apple TV+ Hit From Soo Hugh That Captured Hearts

 

The journey from page to screen for Pachinko began in 2017, on a plane ride from London to New York.

 

 

The transatlantic flight was a typical commute for Soo Hugh, who at the time served as executive producer and co-showrunner on the first season of AMC’s The Terror. Nearly seven hours in the air provided an opportunity for Hugh to finally—though somewhat hesitantly—dig into Min Jin Lee’s recently released New York Times bestseller. Theresa Kang-Lowe, Hugh’s former agent and friend, had sent it her way.

 

“I felt very ambivalent about reading it just because I knew it was going to be very personal,” Hugh says. “I knew that it was going to be this beautiful story and I also was just finishing up another big international show, so I was in a very particular headspace at that time.”

 

 

While fellow passengers scrolled through in-flight entertainment options and shifted in their seats to find optimal nap positions, Hugh immersed herself in the life of a young Korean woman in a rural fishing village on the coast of Busan, South Korea, during the era of Japanese colonial rule from 1910 to 1945. As she flipped from chapter to chapter, Hugh encountered Lee’s meticulously crafted words about protagonist Sunja’s boarding house duties, laundry routines and her secret love affair with a mysterious fish broker. From Lee’s specific descriptions of adolescence, maternity and Korean customs, Hugh says she connected “on an internal core level” to Sunja, despite her own vastly different experiences as a Maryland-raised Korean American television writer.

 

“I was really jolted by that shock of recognition. I wasn’t expecting it to be that visceral,” she recalls.

 

Several hours and scores of emotional pages later, a bowl of white rice brought Hugh to tears. In the book, Sunja’s mother Yangjin pleads to a merchant for a measly amount of white rice to celebrate her daughter’s sudden marriage. At the time, the Asian cuisine staple was incredibly scarce and reserved only for the Japanese and elites. A satisfying bowl of immaculate and steaming rice can certainly beget a powerful reaction. But in the matriarch’s desperation to provide anything and everything to her child, Hugh saw her mother, her grandmother, and all those who came before her.

 

But even despite that familiarity, Pachinko wasn’t a story Hugh felt she could adapt for television. At least not in its original structure. “I just didn’t see that show as one that I thought I could tell linearly, and so I was like, ‘I love the book, I’m going to put it away, I’m not the right person for it,’” she says.

 

Then came Hugh’s “eureka moment”, one that would remix Lee’s sprawling novel for the television format. Inspired by the time-skipping, country-hopping elements of The Godfather Part II, Hugh decided to follow not just one generation of the book’s central family, but two—putting Sunja’s coming of age in direct conversation with that of her grandson, Solomon. A non-linear approach presented a stage where Hugh could show how themes like home and identity—and the lack thereof—played out across past and present generations. How the choices of yesterday molded the privileges of today.

 

“What if this was a story about generations and specifically following generational trauma from one generation to the next, and creating a conversation about that?” Hugh asked herself. “Sunja’s life becomes the foundation, but upon that foundation you build this pretty amazing narrative structure.”

 

Confident with her newfound approach to Pachinko, Hugh, with Media Res’s Michael Ellenberg and Lindsey Springer and Kang-Lowe’s Blue Marble banner, began her search for a platform. With multiple buyers throwing their hats in the ring, Hugh knew she and her team had something special in the works. However, that spark in connection didn’t quite click until she sat down with Apple TV+ and Michelle Lee, the streamer’s director of domestic programming. It was “electricity in the air” when the two finally connected.

 

As Hugh recalls, the pitch meeting didn’t feel like one at all. What started off as Hugh’s attempt to convince Lee and her team to bring the trilingual immigrant story about a Korean family to TV, evolved into an emotional release for both sides. Perhaps it was that “shock of recognition” again.

“At one point very early on in the pitch I was watching [Lee] and I saw her tearing up, and then the minute I see her tear up I’m starting to lose it a little bit,” Hugh recalls. “That was a lot. I had to stop looking at her because my voice was shaking so much, and I just had to look at the spot on the wall behind her.”

 

She continues: “I just don’t think I’ll ever forget that pitch. It didn’t feel at all like I was trying to sell something at that moment. It felt like I was really having this very human connection with someone.”

 

From then on it was a done deal. By August 2018, the news broke that Apple would adapt the bestseller with Hugh at the helm. Less than a year later in March 2019, the streamer ordered the series. Author Lee was initially slated as an executive producer early in the process, but eventually dropped out of the project. She “just wasn’t creatively involved”, Hugh explains.

 

Nevertheless, Hugh marched forward with a distributor and a new vision on her side. She assembled her writers’ room, populated with some scribes who tapped into their own immigrant stories, and sought out the aid and talents of directors Kogonada (After Yang) and Justin Chon (Blue Bayou) to help bring her multi-generational conversation to life.

 

Then came the task of casting nearly 600 roles for Pachinko. Naturally, a series that concerned itself with multiple countries and numerous generations required a large enough lineup to fit time and space.

 

In a Yeongdo fish market, merchants and fishers display their freshest catches—eel, squid and abalone—while hollering their best prices. All the commotion comes to a sudden halt when two Japanese officials walk through the aisle, prompting nearly everyone to bow their heads in respect—except for one young woman who stands unfazed and unimpressed by their presence. This is the first time that audiences meet the teenage Sunja, and through her, fresh-faced newcomer Minha Kim. Wearing a stainless,  traditional hanbok, Kim’s Sunja seems to float through the fish market, magnetizing the audience and her eventual love interest Koh Hansu alike.

 

Kim, whose credits included Korean indies and the series School 2017, graduated from the Hanyang University’s Department of Theater and Film in early 2020. She was supposed to move to New York to kick start her stage career in the U.S. and enrolled in courses at the New York Film Academy, but life and the pandemic had other plans. Still experiencing the aimlessness all too common among recent grads, the Korean actress said she was searching for a great story to take on. Luckily a casting director had just the thing for Kim, who had neither a manager nor an agent in her corner at the time.

 

 

“Pachinko is totally a gift for me,” Kim says.

 

After learning about the project, Kim sped through Lee’s book overnight and sent in her self-tape. Hugh was initially cynical when the casting director first claimed she found the perfect fit. She had heard that line before. But after a worldwide search with a number of “extraordinary actresses”, callbacks and conversations, it was clear to Hugh and her team that Kim had cracked the Sunja code.

 

“You just got sucked in. There was something, everything we wanted. Timeless and yet specific. Innocent yet wise. Real and authentic,” Hugh recalls of Kim’s audition tape. “It was there from the very beginning.”

 

Throughout the series, Kim stretches her abilities to embody the joyous highs and devastating lows of Sunja’s coming of age. She stands tall in her silent defiance against the Japanese in the fish market. She shrinks in heartache and tears when she reveals her accidental pregnancy to her on-screen mother Inji Jeong. While seemingly effortless in her portrayal of the series’ central matriarch, Kim’s work wasn’t without rigorous research.

 

Like the creatives behind Pachinko, Kim engaged with numerous historical resources to better comprehend the geopolitical and social conditions surrounding Sunja during the late 1920s. Books and documentaries on the subject supplemented her school knowledge. Kim also looked to novels written during the turbulent era to fill in the gaps of fact with humanity and emotion. Her most valuable resource, however, was one she had known since birth.

 

Kim grew up hearing her grandmother, who had remained in Korea throughout the Japanese occupation and World War II, speak about her own experiences. Her grandmother’s stories of survival often filled the silence at various family gatherings. But Pachinko offered a rare opportunity for Kim to dig even deeper into her own family’s history.

 

“We talked for a few days and every time I heard a story from her, I couldn’t stop crying,” Kim recalls. “It was an intense conversation, and I can feel the intimacy between my grandmother and me. It was so precious.”

 

Kim cross-examined the facts she came across in historical journals and documentaries with her inherited primary source. “‘Is that true? Did you really do that?’ And she said, ‘Obviously, it was worse than that.’” From Kim’s own time with her grandmother came a character in which viewers could identify their own mothers, family members and themselves.

 

Back in the Yeongdo fish market, K-drama heartthrob Lee Minho makes his debut as the respected, or feared, Koh Hansu, an older Korean businessman with his own traumas and connections to Japanese elites. Lee found himself doing something that he hadn’t done in nearly a decade: auditioning for a part. The audition process isn’t the most common practice in the Korean entertainment scene, and even less so for stars like the Boys Over Flowers breakout. But he was game.

 

“He’s like, ‘This is new for me, let’s try,’” Soo remembers of Lee’s audition. “Minho’s just one of those people that really thrives on challenges. He just likes always trying new things, so this was new for him. He’s like, ‘Interesting, let’s see how this process works.’”

 

A self-proclaimed “big fan” of the hit high school series Boys Over Flowers, Kim says she felt an immediate “great power” from her co-star during the chemistry audition.

 

“He has such powerful eyes. Whenever I look at his eyes, I get energy from his eyes,” Kim notes.

 

A longing gaze in the fish market is what sets off the series’ central romance and Sunja’s complicated multi-national journey. Kim views Lee’s Hansu as an encyclopedia of sorts for her character. After their initial encounter in the fish market, Sunja and Hansu grow close. He explains what the world has to offer outside of her small fishing village—abundant electricity, sweet oranges and candies.

 

On a riverbed boulder, Hansu roughly charts a map of the world for Sunja, including Japan and the United States, nations Sunja and her descendants will eventually attempt to call home as ‘Zainichi’—ethnic Koreans who migrated to Japan under colonial rule, and their descendants.

Several decades after the Japanese occupation of Korea and World War II, a 74-year-old Sunja flies first class from Osaka back to the Busan shores of her childhood. She runs from her taxi to the water. As she revels in the feeling of the sea’s welcoming, wet embraces, rain begins to pour. Droplets become indistinguishable from her tears of joy. This moment could not have been more frustrating for Oscar winner Yuh-jung Youn.

 

“I tried to put all the emotion over there, and then all of a sudden, they start pouring the rain,” Youn says. “I couldn’t act. I was upset with [director] Justin [Chon]. Sunset was just going down very fast, so I was just frustrated.”

 

Fresh off her Oscar-winning turn as the uncouth Grandmother Soonja in Lee Isaac Chung’s Minari, Youn says she felt an “immediate connection to Sunja”. Convincing the Korean acting vet, whose career spans more than 50 years and titles, including Dear My Friends and Lucky Chan-Sil, to take on another matriarch was no issue. Getting her to audition, however, was another story.

According to Hugh, Youn “rightfully so” rejected the request to try out. Youn, an icon in her own right, said auditioning for the Pachinko role held a certain weight for her career.

 

“I told [Hugh and Kogonada], ‘I understand your culture, but in Korea, everybody knows me. If I fail, they will think I failed, even if I’m not suitable for that role,’” Youn explains. “If I audition for that role, and then if I fail, rumor will get all over the country. ‘Oh, Yuh-jung Youn failed that role.’ I didn’t want to have that reputation. I didn’t want to ruin my 50-year career with one audition.”

 

What followed were conversations between Hugh, Kogonada and the star. Youn, born in North Korea shortly after the Japanese occupation, spoke about her personal connections with the character. She said her mother, like Sunja, lived through the Korean War, Japanese occupation and World War II. Born in 1947, Youn said she also experienced some of Korea’s turbulent history herself. She knew that she could play this role better than anybody. After conversations with the actress, that also became evident to Hugh and Kogonada, who directed four episodes including the pilot.

 

While her mother’s experiences of perseverance did not precisely match those of Sunja’s, Youn says her family history informed and nourished her performance as the Baek family matriarch: “It’s all in my body and in my thoughts.” The same goes for her own experiences as a single mother to two boys. While she didn’t have to sell kimchi in a foreign land to make a living like Sunja, Youn took up any opportunity to provide for her children following her divorce.

 

“I’d just get any job, any role. Maybe if they asked me to audition at the time, of course, I would do the audition,” she laughs.

 

In Pachinko, Sunja’s sacrifice and need to provide extends well into the ’80s to her grandson Solomon, portrayed by Love Life and Devs alum Jin Ha. A prestigious university graduate with a well-paying and seemingly stable career, Solomon can easily represent what many immigrants hope for in their future generations. The unspoken pressure to succeed after multiple eras of sacrifice, however, only grows more complex with his family’s geographical displacement and historical discrimination. Throughout the series, Solomon attempts to persuade a reluctant Zainichi Korean landowner to sell the only home she’s known since the colonial era to impress his boss in Japan, who himself questions where the young financier’s internal loyalties lie.

 

Spoiler

 

“He’s already juggling so many different sides of himself,” says Ha, who is Korean American. “Whether it’s interacting with his Zainichi family in Osaka—what that means in terms of straddling the two cultures and histories there within himself—or if it’s him existing in spaces in Tokyo as a Zainichi person, and then, on top of that is his experience in America as an Asian American. The specifics of his Zainichi identity… it’s not a welcome or understood nuance. It reproduces itself into something else that’s not found in Japan or Korea.”

 

Some of the series’ most obvious departures from the original novel lay within Solomon. Using the character’s 50 pages as a starting point, Ha worked closely with Hugh to further flesh out his character’s various arcs, from his professional pursuits to his final moments with ex-girlfriend Hana. As Hugh says, “Solomon is our clay… let’s take that scalpel, and we’re going to form a human being.” Ha recalls that Solomon posed a peculiar challenge for Hugh, perhaps because he “demanded a sort of self-reflection that maybe she didn’t have to go through with a lot of the other characters”.

 

“We were working on this character together like we were two actors working on the same role. The conversations felt that easy and that personal too,” Ha says. “It was a lot of the traumas in our own life or the experiences in our life that resonate with Solomon’s character and therefore we can try to understand where he’s coming from.”

 

From expressing the complexities of Solomon’s identity to building some of his story from scratch, Ha says that he felt his Pachinko character was “certainly the biggest and most challenging role” of his career yet. To make the character even more of a challenge, Ha had to speak in three languages: Korean, English and Japanese. He was fluent in the first two coming into the role but received assistance from a team of translators and dialect coaches for the latter, once cast.

Pachinko presents audiences with color-coded subtitles—yellow for Korean dialogue and blue for Japanese. Each character interaction, across nations and eras, presents a unique set of subtitle combinations. Heart-wrenching dialogue between a teenage Sunja and her mother is entirely yellow. Solomon’s promises to boss Abe-san flash blue. But conversations between Solomon and his father Mozasu (Soji Arai) can often display both, to indicate switching between the two languages.

 

For Hugh, featuring all three languages—each with various dialects and accents—was essential.

“[Without the languages] I think you have no idea what it means to lose your home and then go to a country that’s not yours,” she says. “I think you have no idea what it means to speak from one generation to another and not be able to speak fully with them just because your language isn’t there. All of our big themes would have fallen completely flat.”

 

Engaging performances by devoted actors and linguistic authenticity are just two parts to the equation behind Pachinko. A massive, transnational saga also required transporting audiences through history and across country lines. The season’s eight episodes take viewers from from a humble boarding house in Yeongdo, to the dimly-lit and grimy streets of Ikaino, Osaka; to the site of the devastating Great Kantō earthquake and to the geometric finance offices where Solomon seeks to prove his worth.

 

Production, which began in October 2020, brought Pachinko’s cast and crew to Korea and Vancouver. The series was supposed to also film in Japan, but pandemic restrictions put a wrench in the initial plans. Nevertheless, production designer Mara LePere-Schloop and her team worked to place and recreate the scaffolds and silhouettes of the past.

 

Like the stars’ performances themselves, building out the world of Pachinko required deep research into various eras of architecture, geography and more. The designers, with teams based in Korea, Japan and the U.S., consulted a variety of resources including rare photographs to build their historically accurate visions. The result are environments that help the performers, like Kim, immerse themselves into their respective decades.

 

“I couldn’t shut my mouth. I was just taking photos of [the sets] secretly,” Kim says. “Mara and [prop master] Ellen [Freund], I would always tell them ‘Thank you so much for making these fascinating sets. It helps me so much.’”

 

Set against a meticulously constructed recreation of an Osaka train station, is one of the most significant scenes in both the book and series. Sunja, now a mother of two sons, maneuvers a wood cart stocked with kimchi. Onlookers, both Korean and Japanese, sneer at her fermented cabbages, fearful that the dish’s trademark smell will drive away business. Now the primary breadwinner following her husband’s arrest, Sunja taps into the business savvy and persuasion of her hometown fisherman to convince passersby to sample, and purchase, her kimchi.

 

“Best kimchi in the world! My mother’s special recipe,” she touts. “This is my country’s food!”

One of the final frames of the season, the kimchi scene—with a standout performance by Kim, decade-defining sets from LePere-Schloop and even era-appropriate cabbage sizes curated by Freund—is a definite culmination of the many layers of intentionality and dedication from across the Pachinko team.

 

While a series that seeks to dazzle with star power, size and scale, at its core Pachinko is a tribute to a community whose stories haven’t had much time in the spotlight. With its season finale, Pachinko brings the fictional tale back to its roots by featuring the testimonies of real-life Sunjas: Zainichi Korean elders. Filmed in Japan during the pandemic, the intimate conversations see the women—who range from 85 to 100 years old—reminisce on loss, hunger, and the challenges of assimilation. But while flipping through scrapbooks filled with black-and-white family photos, the women also reflect on the lives they’ve made for their families, despite the history that they’ve come to accept, not resent.

 

The testimonies were initially slated to come at the end of what Hugh imagined as a four-season journey. But unsure whether Pachinko would even make it to Season 2, Hugh says she “started to feel this sense of urgency. Who knows how much longer these women will be with us?”

She continues: “[Pachinko] was built on the backs of real people who lived. These lives really did have this kind of trajectory and we really wanted to make that as powerful as possible. These women, for so long they didn’t think their stories were at all worthy to be told, and the lives of all those women are anything but boring. They’re extraordinary.”

 

Confronting the past—by having intimate conversations with our elders, flipping through history books or embodying those who came before us—is what molds identity and keeps the often private, personal stories of survival and love from slipping between the cracks of the monumental.

Exposing the experiences like those of her mother to educate younger generations like her sons’, was Youn’s mission for Sunja. “You need to learn the history, and why we are who we are today,” she insists.

 

Sunja’s story may be one among millions of migrants, but it’s one that hits home for viewers across ethnicity, nationality and age. The evidence? The viewers who have sent Kim Sunja-themed gifts and expressed that they felt seen in her performances.

 

“Whenever I got their reactions, I feel like I’m alive,” she recalls of one fan event held at an Apple Store in Korea. “This is my responsibility as an actress and as a storyteller. This is my job. I feel so proud of my job. Whenever I get people telling me that, ‘You remind me of my grandmother,’ I’m speechless because even though I’m not Sunja in real life, I get the chance to give them courage, which I get a lot of courage from other actors and actresses. It’s like the vice versa. It’s so mutual.”

Read the digital edition of Deadline’s Emmy Drama magazine here.

 

Facing similar interactions was Ha, who recently had a ride-share driver tell how Pachinko has educated her on the Zainichi experience and Korea’s history. With moments like that, Ha says, he “couldn’t ask for anything more in my heart”. Pachinko has clearly created conversations about family and helped renew interest in Korea’s past, but even just on paper, the series is a welcome and sophisticated addition to the ever-growing American television landscape. As Hugh notes, a show like Pachinko—with its predominantly Asian cast told in three languages centering on a minority of the Asian diaspora—would not have been possible even five years ago. But in 2022, Pachinko is a reality and is nothing short of “groundbreaking”, notes Ha.

 

“We live in a world of superlatives and hyperbole, but I think ‘groundbreaking’ is actually accurate. There have been other American-produced shows that have featured multiple languages, but I don’t think at this scale and certainly not these languages. How much it centers, and focuses almost entirely on, Korean and Japanese and Zainichi characters… I don’t think we’ve seen that before, especially from our own perspective. It’s about us. It’s for us.”

 

https://deadline.com/2022/06/pachinko-minha-kim-lee-minho-soo-hugh-interview-feature-1235044899/

[nina_mitrokhina]

‘Pachinko’ Team Talks Season 2: Soo Hugh, Minha Kim and Jin Ha Share Insights As The Show Goes It Alone

 

By Alexandra Del Rosario

June 15, 2022 9:02am

 

Apple TV+ will be diving back into the multi-generational world of Sunja, Solomon and more with Pachinko Season 2 already in the works.

 

In its first season, Pachinko focused on the early life of Sunja as she moves from Korea to Japan, and her grandson Solomon’s unrelenting efforts to close a critical finance deal and prove his worth. But with an emotional finale that featured a bittersweet death, a heart-wrenching arrest and a key character’s return, Pachinko sets the stage for an even more dramatic and history-packed Season 2.

 

“We do get to World War II in Season 2,” shares series creator and showrunner Soo Hugh.

 

Of course, the series’ World War II arc will center on young Sunja (Minha Kim), who was last seen in 1938 selling kimchi to provide for her two sons following her husband Isak’s arrest. Hugh says the upcoming season, after a “little bit of a time jump” will also focus on the family’s second generation: a young Mozasu and older brother Noah. The two children appeared in the first season, but further details about their childhood remained  largely unexplored.

Kim shares that Sunja, now her family’s main breadwinner, will “become stronger, even though there are so many burdens on her shoulders.”

 

Inside ‘Pachinko’, The AppleTV+ Hit From Soo Hugh That Captured Hearts

 

“It’s about the story of her, continued from Season 1… even heavier, but still, there’s joy,” she teases. “Still, there’s joy.”

 

At the end of Season 1, Kim’s Sunja wasn’t the only character resorting to desperate measures. Pachinko last sees Jin Ha’s Solomon striking a deal with Mamoru Yoshii, a seedy, yet powerful Japanese businessman. With this newly formed alliance, Ha says he can only imagine that “a sort of moral conflict will certainly be part” of Solmon’s Season 2 arc, which will be “completely new” and separate from the original source material.

 

“I think we are seeing him question his preconceived notions of what success looked like when we meet him at the beginning of the season, and I’m rooting for him to find a healthier and less toxic idea of success,” Ha says. “But I leave it to the skilled brains of the writers and Soo.”

 

For more from the team behind Pachinko, check out the cover story for the latest issue of AwardsLine, here.

 

https://deadline.com/2022/06/pachinko-second-season-soo-hugh-minha-kim-jin-ha-interview-1235046052/

[syntyche]

The new history that Korean content is writing is expected to continue until autumn. While another Korean content is likely to be the main contender of the Emmy Award for Best Picture, the most prestigious award in the US broadcasting industry in September, Apple TV+ 'Pachinko' starring Yoon Yeo-jeong, Lee Min-ho, and Kim Min-ha is also being mentioned as a candidate.

 

https://n.news.naver.com/entertain/article/052/0001752285

 

#FYC #Pachinko 

 

 

 

[syntyche]

Why the Casts of ‘Pachinko’ and ‘Peacemaker’ Dance It Out in Their Shows’ Title Sequences

The Apple TV+ family drama and the HBO Max superhero comedy give viewers a reason not to skip the opening credits.

 

 

 

Each episode of Apple TV+’s Pachinko also begins with its actors joyfully dancing, in this case to The Grass Roots’ “Let’s Live for Today” in the vibrant pachinko parlor seen in the series. Showrunner Soo Hugh tells THR that the credits sequence has the “spirit of the cinematic experience,” which adds to the drama’s epic nature. “I wanted one moment where characters of the past and present come together to dance with unfettered joy, honoring the enduring human spirit,” says Hugh. ” ‘Let’s Live for Today’ celebrates those moments when we can take stock of where we’ve come from and where we are going while also taking that much-needed breath to appreciate the present.”

 

The two dance sequences, which follow a similar dance sequence in the credits of A24’s After Yang, have initiated a mini-trend, bringing new relevance to the title credits sequence as an art form. “Pachinko .. engage with their audiences in a visceral way,” says Barton, noting that our brains incorporate “neuron mirroring” when we encounter other people moving rhythmically. “You connect with a show on a deep, neurological level, just by watching people dance.”

 

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/pachinko-peacemaker-dance-title-sequences-1235160179/

 

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‘Pachinko’: Showrunner Soo Hugh Breaks Down Her Historical Asian Epic On AppleTV+ [Interview]

 

“Pachinko,” Apple TV’s sprawling historical epic adapted from Min Jin Lee’s acclaimed novel, has just wrapped up its first eight-episode season. An ambitious drama that spans four generations of a single-family, the series examines the lives of the ethnic Koreans of Japan through the throes of heartache and perseverance. Starting with the annexation and colonization of Korea by the Japanese empire in 1910, “Pachinko” paints a measured dichotomy between past and present by surrounding its narrative around one woman: Kim Sunja. The thread that connects the disparate timelines of this multifaceted narrative, Sunja’s story, is summed up powerfully and succinctly by the series’ opening text: “People endured. Families endured.” “Pachinko” slowly reveals the hidden stories of a forgotten people, anchored by bold visions and astounding performances.

 

With the parallel announcement of its second season renewal with the release of its season finale, “Chapter Eight,” we had a chance to speak with Soo Hugh, the executive producer, showrunner, creator, and writer of “Pachinko” about her groundbreaking series. We discuss key differences between the novel and the series, working with directorial talents such as Justin Chon and Kogonada, and the universal resonance of its very specific story of a very real people.

 

I wanted to ask you about this fascinating contradiction within the show because before reading the novel, I had no clue that these people — or this story of these perpetual foreigners — even existed. It’s such a narrow and specific milieu, but it strikes at a very universal throughline: the idea of survival, endurance, who gets to tell our stories, and how our stories get told. Obviously, this is tackled in the novel, but how did you balance these two opposing forces for the show? Giving this voice to the Zainichi people (Koreans living in Japan), who have been largely forgotten in history, but also finding the power in that narrative that a general audience can relate to?

What we tried to establish as our guiding force was the reality of the historical truth. I think human nature doesn’t change that much throughout history. We were doing very, very specific research, for example, what happened in 1923 with the Kanto earthquake in Japan? Or when you came over in 1931, what kind of world did you come into? In some ways, by limiting our field of vision by being very, very precise about what we needed to know, it allowed us to work backward and then say, okay, how does this experience or story then reach broader audiences?

 

How do we then get to a 10,000-foot point of view from there? Whereas in most shows, it’s the other way around. I’m doing another show right now, and I’m working in the completely opposite way. You start at 10,000 feet up, and then you go down, right? Usually, that’s generally the way you think of narrative. With this show, we couldn’t do that. You have to start on the ground, you have to start with the close-ups, you have to start specific, then sweep up. What’s interesting about this approach, is that that’s when the universality comes in. But you know, this is the diaspora. This is an immigrant culture, absolutely. But the difference with “Pachinko,” I think, is that when Koreans move to Japan, they look Asian, they fit in, and it’s not until they open their mouths that they reveal how different they are. Then you realize that’s a different story than when my family came over to America. Because our differences stood upon how we just looked different from the get-go. And it became a different kind of narrative, which was one really interesting challenge for the show.

 

As an Asian American myself, the show really speaks to a very specific feeling of being stuck between two cultures grasping at anything that can help ground my identity. Did your personal experience and upbringing fold into the narrative at all and influence how the story was told?
Yeah, without a doubt. How could it not, right? I mean, one of the reasons why I went for the cross-cut of past and present was because of that. At some point, everything we do is a biography. I believe your reviews and your work as a journalist are a biography. Every show I make is a biography. And maybe it’s just the way I can’t imagine doing it otherwise. So I knew this show was going to be in some way a biography of my life, and that’s why Solomon’s story needs to come earlier. And it was a story that, I think has to have been told at much more of a slower pace, because what we’re doing is watching two different coming of ages: Sunja’s coming of age and Solomon’s coming of age. And they have completely different stakes. Without a doubt Sunja’s stakes are so much bigger, there’s so much more urgency. And Solomon’s stakes can feel almost indulgent. And that’s the exact point of the show. As someone who grew up as an immigrant, it felt like my life’s stakes were smaller than my parents and my grandparent’s, and how do you live with that?

 

Spoiler

And speaking of the cross-cutting, I just really want to praise the reconfiguration of the story with the different timelines, because it’s so elegantly and gracefully done. You have all of these wonderful emotional juxtapositions that aren’t in the book, not that it’s a bad thing, but it’s so much better for a visual medium. And I just can’t imagine what your writers’ room whiteboard looks like trying to configure all these moments together to get those poignant moments. It must be so daunting. The moment that I think of the most is probably when Sunja is doing laundry with Kyunghee, and they wash the smell out of her clothes, and she breaks down. And that’s juxtaposed with the older Sunja spreading Kyunghee’s ashes. And I thought that was such a beautiful scene with absolute powerhouse performances. With the novel’s steady procession through time, you can’t really do something like that.
Thank you! What’s beautiful about the novel and inherent in its form that the visual that the TV and film mediums don’t have is that time works completely differently in the novel. And I get the question a lot: “Did you ever consider telling this chronologically?” I think it would have been a beautiful show. But I really think it would have been Masterpiece Theater. I really do. If you translate this to the visual medium and told it chronologically, I think the show would be too small at first. And I wanted it to still feel like a Marvel show or a superhero show in terms of the size of the canvas. And maybe it’s this sense of wanting to make our stories feel just as important as superhero stories. To me, Sunja is a superhero. And there was perhaps an anxiety on my part, but I really do believe the cross-cutting helps us.

 

Absolutely. And related to that, I think it’s also a big risk, right? Because if you tell it chronologically, you can have a self-contained story in season one, but doing it this way, you’re almost banking on a second season when that’s never a guaranteed thing. And I think that really paid off because the story is so beautifully told and you obviously did get a second season. But how did you balance the risk and reward portion of how fickle streaming and television are right now?
 

Yeah, I mean, that’s a really good question. And I wish I was that savvy, Jeff, that I had a very sophisticated answer as to the master plan, but I just have to say, believe in everything you do, and you have to go for broke. And what I mean by that is I have no control anymore of anything. Because there’s too much TV out there. Because the industry is changing so fast and the players are changing. The only thing I can do is say: This is all I have, and I have to go for it.

 

I want to talk a little bit about working with Justin Chon and Kogonada, who are just phenomenal filmmakers and storytellers in their own right. How was it working with their distinct visual styles? And how do you make everything conform across the season as a cohesive story? What was it like working with them? I’m just curious because I love their work as well. “After Yang” was one of my favorite movies this year, and there’s a fun little throughline between “Pachinko” and “After Yang” with the musical introductions, both of which I love.

 

“After Yang” is my favorite film of the year so far. It’s just going to be very hard to think of what’s going to top “After Yang.” Well, maybe “Everything Everywhere [All At Once]”, that’s a very, very, very close second for me. And to talk a bit about Kay and Justin — because they are so different — what was very intentional was the episodes they were given. Kay opening the series with a pastoral Wonderland. The Homeland. That’s Kay’s aesthetics and philosophy to a tee. And then having Justin do the move away from home, the de-centering and dislodging of the psyche. That’s his forte.

 

And one thing I always say is you never hire people to change them, right? Like, what’s the point in hiring the best people at what they do to only rein them in? So, I knew Kay and Justin, I knew they were very different. And I think you know, in terms of keeping an identity the center of a show, I didn’t worry about that. You let them be who they are. Be the visionaries they are.

 

And to talk a little bit about the cast. The cast that you assembled is just astonishing. You have screen legends, like Yuh-jung Youn, a pop superstar in Minho Lee, Minha Kim who’s a relative newcomer, and Jin Ha is an American actor. What was the casting process like? Especially for Minha and Yuh-jung because they’re just such centerpiece characters for the series.
 

Casting was very stressful, especially because we’re trying to bridge two very different processes: The way they cast in Korea versus the way we cast in the States is very different. And, for me, especially, I come from the point of view where I really think the last few years, something terrible has happened in television with the idea of “offer only,” because what happens is, especially when you create an ensemble cast like this, if you don’t know the chemistry between the characters and the actors, I really do think you’re taking the biggest risk, which is why I asked for a very extensive audition process. And it’s not because I trust the actors at all. It has nothing to do with trust. It’s like, is this the right chemistry?

 

That was something that was very hard for Korea to understand. This is not their process. And once we explain why we have to believe this person is the mother of so and so, and why we put people together in combination, then it becomes very freeing. It’s so funny. You know, Minho hasn’t auditioned in 13-15 years, right? One of the biggest stars in Asia. And in the end, he said he hasn’t had that much fun in a really long time because it really felt like exercising different muscles. YJ was the only person who did not audition because she’s YJ.

 

I mean, speaking of Yuh-Jung and Minha, they’re just so phenomenal because watching the show, I don’t feel a distinction between them at all. They are the same person to me. And I think that’s just a testament to the storytelling there and the power of these actors and actresses.
 

Yeah, I agree. I think this cast is phenomenal.

 

So let’s talk a little bit more about Minho’s character, Hansu. You know, he’s played with this facade of sinister cool, but then you have the seventh episode, where we get to dig underneath his veneer a bit and look at his own hardships. What was the decision-making like to decide to break from the main narrative of the first season to dig deeper into this character?
 

We’ll first talk about Hansu in general. It’s so funny the way Hansu is talked about, he’s probably the most alluring character from the book. And yet, I sometimes felt like people read a different book than I read. People like to say: “Oh, he’s the romantic lead.” And I’m like wow, that’s so strange. Is that what you got from this character? Because I think I agree [with you]. I think Hansu is very sinister in the book. And I think I’m surprised he’s not more controversial, because there are some very questionable things he does, especially to a young woman. So when I’m passing him as a character, we really said, he’s not a human, he doesn’t exist. He’s not three-dimensional. He’s sort of the archetype of a romantic lead slash villain, but who is he?

 

And so in trying to figure out who Hansu was, I just think about: What year did he come to Japan? What happened to his mother and father? All these questions that make up our own biography. And I came across the research for the Kanto earthquake. And it really did rattle me in terms of learning about what happened to all those people in Japan, but then also to the Koreans in the aftermath, and it really was this lightbulb. We talked about those moments of inspiration that happen rarely, but do happen. And that was one of them, and this is where Hansu came from. And once that light bulb went off, everything he did in his life — whether or not I’m saying is justified — was understandable. I do think of television as a visual novel, and as a result, I do think characters need to have a past, present and future. I think they need to have fully-constructed emotional DNA. And whether or not the audience needs to know it, I need to know it. It was very, it was very helpful to unlock that.

 

And the placement of that episode as the seventh episode. I mean, obviously, it was a deliberate choice, but what kind of decision-making went into placing it in that particular spot right before the finale? Before the end of this first chapter?
 

That’s a great question. No one’s actually asked that before. So you can easily move that episode anywhere in the standalone. What happens though, if you move it — let’s say — after episode three, episode three is the episode Hansu tells Sunja: “I’m married and I can’t marry you.” And she realizes she’s been betrayed. She’s devastated. If you move that departure episode right after episode three, what happens is that he’s softened right away, completely. And then every time you see him afterward, you’re going to feel some level of sympathy for him.

 

But there’s something about keeping his edges a little bit sharper and harder so that you can be more with Sunja. Because Sunja doesn’t know that history, Sunja doesn’t know Hansu’s backstory. And so I’m much more interested in Sunja’s subjective point of view of feeling: “How could you have done this to me?” On a practical level, we also make the biggest time jump from episode six to eight. Episode six ends in 1931 and episode eight starts in 1938, and that standalone episode was just a nice break to justify that huge time leap. For those two reasons, I think it’s in the right place.

 

The one pivotal element of the “Pachinko” story we didn’t really get to meet this season is the character of Noa. Considering how crucial the character is to the novel, what went into the decision to delay his actual introduction to a later season?

 

So, because I broke this as being four seasons, I knew we couldn’t possibly tell this book’s story in one season. And one thing I knew from the very beginning was that the last scene of the season was going to be Sunja at the kimchi market. So because that was the very final scene, we knew that we wouldn’t be able to get into the second generation in detail; we get a glimpse of Noah in season one as a young child, but the second generation story was always set to be season two.

 

The one trick is I never want to be coy with the audience, but obviously, there’s a huge character missing. So how do you make that natural without feeling deceptive? And in episode six, when Sunja’s with Hannah, she says there was another one. And it’s the first hint that there’s some great tragedy that has befallen Sunja that we aren’t aware of. So really for season one, it was just wanting to do justice to all our storylines, and I really wanted to focus on Sunja moving to Japan and really being in her shoes. And for Noa’s story, it just wasn’t time yet.

 

And how is season two progressing? How far along are you guys in planning and producing everything?
 

We are deep in the writer’s room; we have this amazing, amazing writer’s room, and we have season two broken out. We’re about to start getting into scripts. Season two is enormous which terrifies me. And the reason why it’s enormous is not for the sake of being enormous. The nature of this show is that more and more generations come in. Not only in season two do you have Solomon’s storyline, and not only do you have Sunja’s storyline in the past, but now we have moved on to the Noa storyline, right?

 

So it’s this idea that our show is growing and growing exponentially. So it’s just about making room for everyone and making sure that we don’t do a disservice to any one storyline. I’ve always said in a pitch to Apple and all the buyers that season two was my favorite season by far. It feels like a crucible season.

 

It’s also maybe where we get even more of Solomon’s arc because, in the first season, we see him just come out of his naïveté a little bit grappling with his family’s history. What was it like working with Jin Ha, on that character, on Solomon’s progression?
 

Yeah. So I always described Solomon — when people ask who Solomon is — as a Shakespearean character, but watching paint dry. You know, by the end of the fourth season, you will realize what an epic story Solomon has that he should feel Shakespearean at the end. But that is the slow-moving disaster if that makes sense. It’s a human tragedy in slow motion.

 

And I think when Jin and I talk about Solomon in that way, it’s about nuance. It’s about little microcurrents. And Jin is so good at that. I think, Jin — and I’m not playing favorites when I say that — has the hardest role in this entire series. It’s not just about language, you know, to speak three different languages and different levels of fluency with different levels of accents. But I also think Jin as Solomon has to play the most mask-wearing character. So in every interaction, he has with every different character, he’s a different person. Very difficult to crack.

 

I just want to say, I think he portrays the habit of code-switching so well. Obviously in terms of culture, but also language. And I think the mix of the languages is so interesting and that feels so authentic to me. I mean, I don’t speak Japanese or Korean, but when I’m at home, it’s a different dialect of Chinese depending on who I’m talking to. And if I don’t know the words, I’ll use a word in Shanghainese or in Mandarin or in English, you know? And I think that’s so authentic to me. And how did you guys drill down to that specificity for the show? Did any of the actors actually know both Japanese and Korean? Or was there a lot of coaching and training involved?
 

A lot of coaching and a lot of different dialogue coaches. Perhaps the person who was most anchored into this was Soji [Arai], who plays Mozasu. His native language is Japanese, but he’s actually a third-generation Zainichi. Japanese is his most comfortable language, but because he had spent some time studying abroad in Korea, he did have some language skills. But for the most part, everyone else had to undergo extensive language training. Including eight-year-old Noa, that little actor. Oh my God. Like in episode eight when he’s translating for Sunja, that kid knows not a lick of Japanese

 

So it was learned all phonetically for him?
 

Yeah. Oh, my God, I thought this kid would never be able to do it, you know. And he did. He did such an extraordinary job.

 

I want to talk about your decision to use the documentary footage of the Zainichi women at the end of the first season. I think it’s so poignant to see the real-life people behind the stories we tell. Was that always a decision for an end cap to each season? Will we be seeing more of that in future seasons?

It was originally meant to be at the end of the entire series. But thinking of the fourth season when we would meet these women, there was just this anxiety about whether or not we would get four seasons, and how many of that first generation would be with us then. So then I decided to move it to the first season. Because I knew how extraordinary these women were, the one thing I really worried about was whether or not people would think it was cynical, or manipulative, right?

 

Because that’s so not the intent of that piece. But I simply thought it was important to remind audiences: Although this is a fictional story and Sunja does not exist, her view is built on a foundation for these women who did. And tonally, I wanted it to feel a little bit jarring, meaning that this rousing, rousing swoop up in the kimchi market, of Sunja selling kimchi. And you get this feeling of triumph, but you know what? It felt weird to just end on that triumph. It felt a little bit Disney-fied, I’ll be honest.

 

Which is why then when we see the women at the end, you understand that that triumph was really, really hard-won. I worked with this amazing historian Jackie Kim-Wachutka, who has been a true friend to the show and has dedicated her life to recording these women’s oral histories and making sure that they aren’t forgotten, and it’s all a reminder that these women, they never thought their stories were worth telling. That’s why the final line of the documentary is: “Thank you for listening to my boring story.” I think that line just breaks my heart because if only she knew that it was anything but boring — her life is extraordinary.

“Pachinko” is available on AppleTV+ now.

 

https://theplaylist.net/pachinko-showrunner-soo-hugh-breaks-down-her-historical-asian-epic-on-appletv-interview-20220614/

[gtLmh0622]

 

Pachinko was nominated for Best International Drama of EDINBURGH TV AWARDS.

 

https://www.thetvfestival.com/edinburgh-tv-awards-2022-shortlists/

 

 

[syntyche]

Pachinko is the new poetry drama we didn't know we needed

 

The following article contains NO spoilers about Pachinko Season 1, this is because we want to convince you to give it a chance. Believe it, it really deserves it all!

 

To stand out positively in an increasingly saturated panorama of TV series has become increasingly complicated - even if we must admit it - it is equally so to judge positively a product made in recent times. Fortunately, there are some promising little masterpieces that have not gone unnoticed to try to reverse the trend. Apple TV + has earned particular praise in this regard. We are here to talk about another success of the increasingly popular streaming platform: Pachinko is a story told with animated paintings of unprecedented beauty, taken from the homonymous bestseller by Korean-American Min Jin Lee and adapted by Soo Hugh.

...

Pachinko is also a story that makes us reflect and question: to what extent can accepting the conditions in which one is born be considered one's own destiny? And how much, instead, can we build with our hands, and above all, choice after choice? It also reminds us of the power of the memories that accompany - and shape - everyone's life in a more or less decisive way. Their potency - or volatility - affects the present more than anything else and we understand this very well. Some moments are extremely moving and evocative precisely because they try to tell a strong, intense and never dormant nostalgic feeling, despite the fact that time has passed.

 

The drama is the heart of the story, yet Pachinko manages to cover everything it returns to the screen with a cloak of poetry. Everything comes to us in an intense way yet never crude or aberrant . Even the glimpses of history that emerge in several points of the story have been constructed with skillful mastery and give us back the reality of the facts in their sincerity, but also from the more emotional and human point of view. Pachinko is a caress to the soul that knows how to convey how much harm it brings with it, because it has found a way to arrive stronger than ever, to strike but never without moving and deeply upsetting.

 

https://www.hallofseries.com/pachinko-la-moglie-coreana/pachinko-dramma-poesia-aver-bisogno/

 

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How to Watch Pachinko on Apple TV+ in Original Language

...

What are the critics saying about Pachinko?

 

The historical drama series has been well received by critics and fans. On Rotten Tomatoes, the reviewer approval rating is 98% based on 57 reviews, while the audience score is 95%.

 

“Justin Chon, along with a uniformly excellent ensemble cast, beautifully conveys the scale and spirit of the novel.

 

"Deeply moving, this eight-episode Apple TV+ series barely scratches the surface of the novel it's based on, and will surely leave a core audience clamoring for more," according to CNN's Brian Lowry.

 

https://www.jolie-bobine.fr/comment-regarder-pachinko-sur-apple-tv-en-langue-originale#Qui_est_le_showrunner_de_Pachinko

[syntyche]

LMH is included in the 2022 Emmy Awards Ballot for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series! 

 

https://www.emmys.com/sites/default/files/ballots/performer-2022-v1.pdf

 

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These are the nominees at the Edinburgh TV Festival’s annual TV awards, which will take place as an in-person event on Aug. 25.

 

Best International Drama
 

Spoiler

“Gomorrah” – Sky Atlantic. Sky Studios, Cattleya, in collaboration with Beta Film for Sky Atlantic
“Mare of Easttown” – Sky Atlantic. HBO in association with wiip Studios, The Low Dweller Productions, Juggle Productions, Mayhem and Zobot Projects for Sky Atlantic
“Pachinko” – Apple TV+. Media Res / Blue Marble Pictures in association with Apple for Apple TV+
“Squid Game” – Netflix. Siren Pictures for Netflix
“Succession” – Sky Atlantic. HBO Entertainment in association with Project Zeus, Hyperobject Industries and Gary Sanchez Productions for Sky Atlantic
“Vigil” – BBC One. World Productions for BBC One

 

“Pachinko” – Apple TV+. Media Res / Blue Marble Pictures in association with Apple for Apple TV+
 

https://variety.com/2022/tv/global/squid-game-succession-edinburgh-tv-awards-2022-nominees-1235296097/

 

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The Television Critics Association has announced the nominees for the 2022 TCA Awards set to take place on August 6 in Los Angeles.

 

OUTSTANDING NEW PROGRAM
 

Spoiler

“Abbott Elementary” – ABC
“Ghosts” – CBS
“Only Murders in the Building” – Hulu
“Pachinko” – Apple TV+
“Reservation Dogs” – FX
“Severance” – Apple TV+
“The White Lotus” – HBO
“Yellowjackets” – Showtime

 

“Pachinko” – Apple TV+
 

 

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN DRAMA
 

Spoiler

“Better Call Saul” – AMC (2019 Winner in Category)
“The Good Fight” – Paramount+
“Pachinko” – Apple TV+
“Severance” – Apple TV+
“Squid Game” – Netflix
“Succession” – HBO (2020 Winner in Category)
“This Is Us” – NBC
“Yellowjackets” – Showtime

 

“Pachinko” – Apple TV+
 

https://deadline.com/2022/06/tca-awards-2022-nominees-1235046381/

 

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Congratulations to LMH and the Pachinko team!

 

[partyon]

 EVENT: Bad Hair Day - Kdrama edition

 

Chingus, time to vote and choose the worst hairstyles in kdrama history!

 

Your Event Organizers,

@partyon @agenth @confusedheart @Sleepy Owl

[nina_mitrokhina]

Lee Min Ho heading to the 2022 Emmys as 'Pachinko' actor and TV series apply for nominations

 

 

The cast of Pachinko has been officially nominated for the 2022 Emmy Awards. Lee Min Ho, Minha Kim, and Yoon Yoo Jung are nominated.

 

June 17, 2022

 

The cast and series of Apple TV+'s Pachinko are officially on their way to the 2022 Emmy Awards. The production put forward its nominations for an important award for Best International Television. Lee Min Ho, a Korean actor known for his roles in romantic dramas, may be getting a mention for his role as Hansoo.

 

On June 16, voting began between the pre-appointed, and thanks to this it was possible to see the full list of applicants. The final list of elected members of the Television Academy will be published on July 12th.

 

Lee Min Ho and Jin Ha are listed as Best Actor in a Drama Series, while Minha Kim (Sunja) is recommended as Best Actress. For her part, Young Ju Jung (Sunya in adulthood) could compete for Best Supporting Actress.

 

 

 

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In addition to this, "Pachinko" is enticingly nominated for All Actors, Cinematography (episodes 4 and 7), Music Composition for a TV Series, Writing for a Drama Series (episode 1), Costumes, and Vintage makeup".

 

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The Apple TV+ blockbuster Pachinko is based on the novel of the same name by Min Jin Lee. Photo: composition The Republic/Apple TV+

 

Pachinko is an adaptation of the bestselling book of the same name by Min Jin Lee (Korean-American writer). The eight-episode series premiered in March on Apple TV+ and received positive reviews from various specialist media outlets. Praise fell on the performances of Oscar winner Yoon Yoo-jung, Minha Kim, Jin Ha, and Lee Min-ho.

 

Among those who have been following Korean dramas for a while, there was an expectation that the well-known heartthrob from Flowers Over Flowers, The Heirs, and The Eternal Monarch King would be able to show a more complex character. The critics who praised Lee Min Ho's work especially praised the 7th episode of "Pachinko" as it focused on Hansoo's story..

 

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Hansoo in pachinko. Photo: YouTube capture

 

Translation from spanish google

https://larepublica.pe/cultura-asiatica/2022/06/17/lee-min-ho-rumbo-a-los-emmy-2022-actor-y-serie-pachinko-buscan-nominaciones-en-los-emmy-awards/

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‘Pachinko’ season two will be “even heavier” than the first, says star Kim Min-ha

 

Pachinko star Kim Min-ha has opened up about what the second season of the Apple TV+ K-drama has in store for viewers.

 

In a new interview with Deadline, the South Korean actress teased what viewers can expect from the much-anticipated continuation of the hit K-drama series. Kim played the teenaged version of the shows main character Kim Sunja, whose adult version is portrayed by Oscar-winning actress Youn Yuh-jung.

 

“[Sunja will] become stronger, even though there are so many burdens on her shoulders,” Kim hinted. “It’s about the story of her, continued from Season 1… even heavier, but still, there’s joy.”

 

Meanwhile, showrunner Soo Hugh revealed that the show will take “a little bit of a time jump” for the second season, while teasing that viewers will get to follow the characters as they face the hardships of World War II.

 

On the other hand, Korean-American actor Jin Ha, who stars as businessman Solomon Baek, hints that his character might face a story arc that won’t be from the source material, but instead something “completely new”.

 

“I think we are seeing him question his preconceived notions of what success looked like when we meet him at the beginning of the season, and I’m rooting for him to find a healthier and less toxic idea of success,” Ha said. “But I leave it to the skilled brains of the writers and Soo.”

 

Based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Min Jin Lee, Pachinko tells the story of a fictional Korean immigrant family in Japan over four generations through the life of its matriarch, Sunja. It premiered on Apple TV+ in March.

 

https://www.nme.com/news/tv/pachinko-season-two-hint-even-heavier-kim-min-ha-3248869?utm_source=hootsuite&utm_medium=&utm_term=&utm_content=&utm_campaign=

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WOMAN SENSE (KOREA WOMEN’S MAGAZINE) - May 2022 Issue

Pachinko Interview - Lee Min Ho

cr: wettedO weibo

 

 

 

https://www.kstargate.com/shopdetail/000000050758/

 

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Pachinko Season 2: New information regarding the continuation of the series

 

If Pachinko's first season finale left you tearing up like a sponge, you're far from alone.

 

Apple TV+ 's multi-generational saga about a Korean immigrant family has seen tragedy strike on many levels, with one terminally ill character succumbing to his illness and another dragged to prison for alleged treason to the Japanese emperor. Many of our favorite characters have been left behind, leaving emotional fans to wonder: Will Pachinko return for a second season? Find out everything we know about the future of Apple TV+ 's hit series .

 

Is Pachinko renewed for a season 2?

Yes. In April, Apple TV+ announced that Pachinko would continue for a second season. "Words cannot express my joy at being able to continue to tell the extraordinary story of this indomitable family," said showrunner Soo Hugh. “I am grateful to the amazing team at Apple and studio Media Res for believing in and supporting this series, and to our passionate fans who cheered us on. It's an honor to be able to continue working with this incredible cast and crew. Hugh said the plan is for the series to run for four seasons, but so far only season 2 has been confirmed.

 

What will the second season of Pachinko be about?

Pachinko is adapted from the award-winning novel of the same title by Min Jin Lee. Given that the first season hasn't exhausted the material, there are still plenty of stories to tell.

 

The last time we saw Sunja, the family matriarch, was standing on a street corner in Osaka, circa 1938, selling her homemade kimchi to customers in the local market. According to Hugh, a "little jump in time" will take us to World War II, where Sunja, now the breadwinner, "will grow stronger, even though she has so many burdens on her shoulders". 

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Fans of Lee's novel know that Sunja will struggle to make money as ingredients run low during the war, then decamp to the countryside with the help of Hansu, the wealthy father of her eldest son, Noa. "It's about her story, sequel to Season 1... even heavier, but still, there's joy," Hugh teases. “Again, there is joy. »

 

 

According to Hugh, Season 2 will also focus on Sunja's sons Noa and Mozasu. The boys appeared as children in Season 1, but little about their childhood has been explored. Speaking to Deadline, Hugh referred to the brothers saying, "The brotherhood between Mozasu and Noa, I think because they're so young in Season 1 we didn't capture them, but in the season 2, this brotherhood is simply magical”. Readers of the book know that tragedy awaits the brothers, as Noa, as an adult, will one day take her own life. In the series, we saw Mozasu and an elderly Sunja dance around this painful story, but never explicitly address it. If Season 2 jumps back in time like Season 1, it could jump into the brothers' adulthood and explore this family tragedy.

 

Hugh also talked about an increased role for Kyunghee, Sunja's sister-in-law, who becomes his best friend and partner in the kimchi business. "In the second season, Kyunghee becomes a whole person and a whole being, and he's one of my favorite characters in this story, so I would love to see that," Hugh said.

 

We last saw Sunja's grandson, Solomon, make a deal with Mamoru Yoshii, a powerful and dishonest Japanese businessman deeply involved in the pachinko business. Jin Ha, who plays Solomon, tells us that his character's Season 2 arc will be a "moral conflict" — and "completely new," rather than taken from the novel. “I think we see him challenge his preconceptions of what success is when we meet him early in the season, and I encourage him to find a healthier, less toxic idea of success,” said Ha to Deadline.

 

When is the second season of Pachinko coming out?

Your guess is as good as ours, but given that the series debuted in Spring 2022, we have high hopes for Spring 2023 . Watch this space for updates as we learn more.

 

https://sextant-revue.fr/series-tv/12462/pachinko-saison-2-de-nouvelles-informations-concernant-la-suite-de-la-serie/

 

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"Pachinko" Kim Min-ha in the Cover of U.S. Deadline Magazine
 

 

Actress Kim Min-ha once again drew attention from around the world by gracing the cover of the special issue of the U.S. famous entertainment magazine "DEADLINE."

 

Media and global fans around the world are getting hotter day by day to Kim Min-ha, who is continuing her relentless moves with the lead role of Apple TV+ "Pachinko." Along with Soo Hugh, the producer of "Pachinko," and Jinha, who plays Solomon, she has solidified her global influence by being on the cover the special issue of "Deadline," a famous American entertainment magazine. In particular, this magazine is a special AWARDSLINE episode, which is even more meaningful as it was held as part of the Emmy campaign, the most prestigious awards ceremony in the United States, to be held in September.

 

https://www.mk.co.kr/star/hot-issues/view/2022/06/532494/