Presenting Pachinko & Other Projects

[Lmangla]

so happy to see this event finally go live!!! it has been in the works for so long and so glad to see it up finally up -- heart to EO team @partyon, @agenth, @confusedheart and @Sleepy Owl . 

great job @syntyche @CarolynH @CallieP @Missprincesa and @msdot for the writeup and collating the info.

hope that it is useful cheatsheet for all those who have no time or inclination to read the book as well as for those who are unfamiliar with this period of history. 

 

when I hear period adaption from books, I sometimes hesitate. depending on how it is directed, it can be confusing (if you don't know the history) as well as intimidating if there is not enough context  @the_sweetroad and I had a discussion about another apple adaption few months back -- the foundation. what was interesting to me were the parts that were not in the book at all! I haven't read the book myself but as a dramatic concept, I didn't buy the series central theme and found it rather dumb. perhaps, I would have been more impressed with the central theme if I had read the book? I don't know. it was still watchable for the costume, sets and acting but it was strictly time pass. like @willenette mentioned, not all adaptions make good movies/series. some stuff cannot be translated. 

that said, I hope pachinko as a series is fun to watch. some of these period adaptions are so slow and moody that we fall asleep.  I need action! drama! feelings! so fingers crossed it is good! 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ameera Ali]

 

10 hours ago, the_sweetroad said:

 

Hee hee, I probably shouldn't say this out loud to you but I've never been drawn to any of LMH's dramas.... or to him. I will watch Pachinko for the story itself.

What for the story itself 

You underestimating oppa charm , be aware oppa will bring you to your knee from his charm , isn’t right  @Thong Thin & @JoannaID 

#when someone say they watching LMH drama for the plot itself 

 

 

11 hours ago, agenth said:

i didn't know LMH was one of your oppas

 

he is my ultimate oppa  ( cos he only oppa my twin @partyonwill not fight me to have him ) 

 

# for the sisterhood 

 

[sweetroad]

2 hours ago, Yinye said:

but as an Asian woman, I have to be in a specific mindset and mood to read these kind of stories. A lot of time - it brings up lots of emotional and trauma up etc. Like when I read Amy Tan’s novels, I had to take a long long break - especially with her focus on mother-daughter issues etc. 

 

Totally agree! Sometimes it hits too close to home. The Joy Luck Club totally wrecked me, not with the moms' stories themselves (my mom did not have to go through that hard of a time) but the dynamics between the mothers and their daughters was too familiar and true.

 

1 hour ago, Lmangla said:

@the_sweetroad and I had a discussion about another apple adaption few months back -- the foundation. what was interesting to me were the parts that were not in the book at all! I haven't read the book myself but as a dramatic concept, I didn't buy the series central theme and found it rather dumb.

 

Unfortunately they crammed too much stuff into the show that wasn't in the perfectly-fine books, according to hubby.

 

1 hour ago, Lmangla said:

perhaps, I would have been more impressed with the central theme if I had read the book?

 

According to hubby, you would've hated the show even more because they changed the book so much.

 

12 minutes ago, Ameera Ali said:

You underestimating oppa charm , be aware oppa will bring you to your knee from his charm , isn’t right  @Thong Thin & @JoannaID 

 

Oh gosh, that would be quite the feat if LMH could bring me to my knees. We will all just have to wait and see what happens.

[madmad min]

FINALLY It's HERE,.....Hhaaha

 

 

[Thong Thin]

47 minutes ago, Ameera Ali said:

 

What for the story itself 

You underestimating oppa charm , be aware oppa will bring you to your knee from his charm , isn’t right  @Thong Thin & @JoannaID 

 

42 minutes ago, the_sweetroad said:

Oh gosh, that would be quite the feat if LMH could bring me to my knees. We will all just have to wait and see what happens. 

 

 

[Ameera Ali]

1 hour ago, the_sweetroad said:

Oh gosh, that would be quite the feat if LMH could bring me to my knees. We will all just have to wait and see what happens.

 

@Thong Thin  she wouldn’t understand the power of oppa  

** glimpse of him is enough to .. 

#blossoming to fan 

 

 

[larus]

I found out about the book when they announced the intention of making an ecranisation. I read the book last summer.

I have a feeling the adaptation will be good. 

 

It is fascinating how there are so many covers of the book. Here is the cover of the book I read.

 

[Yinye]

@the_sweetroad yep, 100% wrecked me too because I read the Joy Luck Club before the film came out as a teenager going through things with my own mom. I felt like that was the first time these issues were recognized and discussed since most of us can’t speak about it within our families.

[agenth]

7 hours ago, gm4queen said:

 

Thank you @agenth chingu for tagging me on this event! I am not a dedicated fan of Lee Min Ho but I have watched some of his dramas so i am looking forward for Pachinko to be released! All your good talks about the novel and the author herself are making me curious over the plot!

I suppose LMH is the biggest draw in casting, as the others are unfamiliar, except Youn Yuh Jung. It is a mixed cast of star power and new talents ~

 

6 hours ago, Yinye said:

It’s been in my to read list for a long time but as an Asian woman, I have to be in a specific mindset and mood to read these kind of stories. A lot of time - it brings up lots of emotional and trauma up etc. Like when I read Amy Tan’s novels, I had to take a long long break - especially with her focus on mother-daughter issues etc. 

 

I'm pretty sure the book back then evoked some emotions in me too. But I am not my parent's generation, so a lot of the concepts seemed strange to me, especially the high place of suffering and importance of shame in this book.

 

I will be interested to see how that was implemented in the drama

 

  

5 hours ago, Lmangla said:

when I hear period adaption from books, I sometimes hesitate. depending on how it is directed, it can be confusing (if you don't know the history) as well as intimidating if there is not enough context  

yesterday i was watching a 30 minute rant on the Mulan 2020 adaption. I enjoyed the Disney Mulan movie back in the 1990s, even though as a child I was aware it probably is not culturally aware, but I still thought representation matters. The new 2020 movie was apparently made by mostly caucasians (screenwriters, directors etc), which showed lack of cultural understanding and making the script weird. the cinematography was nice but I also didn't connect with the 2020 version.

 

I think Pachinko has Asian cast and production, so I have high hopes that the culture isn't distorted as it is quite important.

 

  

7 hours ago, willenette said:

. And while some adaptations have actually been better than the books, it’s a rare adaptation that can beat the source material. It is fun to watch books that are movies/dramas and see what has changed and what has stayed the same. I’m not claiming that this adaptations including "Pachinko" are wonderful, but the books are certainly great. The best books don't always make the best movies/dramas, though. For me, it’s usually a good gamble for studios to grab them in case the book does well. 

 

Thanks for sharing about your book adaption. I will be on the lookout for it ~ 

 

As for book-to-film adaption, I agree that books are by the rule better as they can convey so much with words (the history, the emotions, the motivation etc), and the film is usually constrained by time and scenes, so there is lack of depth. Nevertheless I like to watch the adaptions, giving the meaning of the story a wider appeal to people who haven't heard about or read the book.

 

 

[Lmangla]

5 minutes ago, agenth said:

yesterday i was watching a 30 minute rant on the Mulan 2020 adaption.

have you ever seen my rant posts on aladdin on the add thread? 

to say the live action irritates me is an understatement. I watched it with my mom and she summarized it this way, "this is american aladdin. this is not the real aladdin story we know". 

 

 

[agenth]

1 minute ago, Lmangla said:

have you ever seen my rant posts on aladdin on the add thread? 

to say the live action irritates me is an understatement. I watched it with my mom and she summarized it this way, "this is american aladdin. this is not the real aladdin story we know". 

 

 

haha no I haven't. As a child I wasn't a big fan of Aladdin, and I totally forgot they remade Aladdin. Now that I look it up I see that Will Smith plays the Djinn (?). 

 

Then again Aladdin was sort of neutral to me, I think I put Pocahontas at the bottom.

 

It's so sad that even in this day and age people misconstrue stories because ... of ignorance? out of laziness? All you really need to do is have at least 1 person in your staff that is aware of the ramifications. 

 

 

 

[Lmangla]

@agenth ~ aladdin irked me so much that I have stayed away from all the live action remakes that came after. so let me list the things that annoyed my mom as well as myself. the entire movie, my mom was like "where on earth is her scarf and why isn't she wearing it right?".. then there was the belly button and the clevage and the cuts of the costume. my mom's reaction "is she a princess or a courtesan????" ... yea, my mom was face palming the entire time. 

 

for me, the sets were also horrendously wrong. I could not stop eye rolling that the set designer gave an interview where they proudly proclaimed that they threw in elements from all over the world as well as different time periods into the design. ummm, what???????? cue horror in my heart. 

 

persian architecture is stunning and super distinct. very clean geometric lines. 

so this is what a balcony would look like: do you see the geometric flowers in the balcony rail? the beautiful arches, clean walls, inlaid marble work... these are all what sets persian architecture apart. 

 

  

now, see aladdin's weird set. the designer used some strange balcony rail columns (wrong style -- not at all geometric) and the balcony itself is really low. that is a security risk. it is bizarre.

 

  

 

also the balcony faced the city which makes no sense. women's palace quarters would never be open and face the city.  instead, it always faced the garden and would be away from the main gates. this way, if there is an attack, women and children would be evacuated through the secondary back gates of the palace. you also wouldn't have low balcony that any soldier can easily climb over and attack. that is basic palace design 101. I am not a historian and even I know this!!!!! 

 

 

also the ceiling to floor length columns are all weirdly placed and seem to have no purpose other than to fill up the set. again, that is bizarre because the purpose of columns is foundation and to hold up the roof. this means they shouldn't randomly be placed but instead be in a line. the lines are so straight that typically you can see from one end to another even in a large hall.

 

this is what it should look like, the rooms should give off a sense of expanse, space and at the same delicacy. note, how the columns are beautifully rounded and smooth? the arches give off a sense of height and also magnifies sound. at the same time, there is movement of both air as well as light. 

 

again, that is architecture 101 and anyone with eyes would know that. ugh!!!!!

UGH!!! can you tell I am annoyed? I won't go on but there was so much about the sets that was irritating and I am not even a historian or expert in architecture. 

 

and the worst bit was the weird costumes and the jewelry. I couldn't believe that she wore the same jewelry again and again. she was supposed to be princess. I came to the conclusion disney princess are apparently very poor and cannot afford real jewelry. 

 

 

 

[agenth]

4 minutes ago, Lmangla said:

this is what it should look like, the rooms should give off a sense of expanse, space and at the same delicacy. note, how the columns are beautifully rounded and smooth? the arches give off a sense of height and also magnifies sound. at the same time, there is movement of both air as well as light. 

 

it's really beautiful ~ I'm no architecture expert or design eye but I have to say you are right. The many columns in the Aladdin movie look very cluttered, make the space smaller... and it looks unnecessary.

 

The balcony design sort of reminds me of Florence ~ Italian? Not sure haha. 

 

I wouldn't mind if you take a peek at Pachinko. I think critique is quite important, because you wouldn't learn otherwise and progress must be made. Otherwise we are stuck with weird balcony and bad architecture

 

Those photos make me want to travel again...

 

[Lmangla]

1 hour ago, agenth said:

The balcony design sort of reminds me of Florence ~ Italian? Not sure haha. 

yea I felt it was kind of french? the onion type design. it is not clean lines that is part of persian architecture. this type of design is similar to designs found from a certain empire & period here. so having grown up visiting those palaces and forts, I felt like gagging when I saw the movie. I was that annoyed. even little details annoyed me because it was obviously designed by someone with no sense of history. 

 

so jasmine's room had doors like these. 

 

the designer imagined it is all grand and some rubbish like that.... except women's quarters would never have such a large freaking door that is wide and tall enough for a contigent to just march through. that is a security risk. instead the doors will be narrow and sometimes even short. you had to bend a bit to enter -- meant to teach you humility and show dignity to the room's occupant. also, it meant that it would slow down any advancing army troop who couldn't just storm in and attack. instead, it would take them a few seconds to enter -- valuable time that might give the occupants enough room to escape or hide somewhere... 

 

details like these drove me nuts while watching. and I am not even some historian. these are just details I know from school and going on excursions. 

 

1 hour ago, agenth said:

The many columns in the Aladdin movie look very cluttered, make the space smaller... and it looks unnecessary.

exactly. jasmin's room itself was some claustrophobic mix of clutter which was bizarre.

part of what makes this architecture amazing is how it incorporates space, light, air into the frame. since these places had two extremes -- high temperature in summers and cold dips in winters, the buildings had to serve a dual purpose. so the design incorporated ways to stream sunlight in but not too much that it burned up the room. at the same time, it took advantage of natural sunlight so even the small rooms would have a sense of space. it is amazing the effects of this architecture considering they had no heating, cooling or electricity. yet they are beautifully designed as they are cool in summer and warm in winter. to just dismiss it like these details didn't matter and for the designer to proudly claim that they created some kitsch design by taking in stuff from wherever --- absolutely lazy, clueless and stupid.

   

 

1 hour ago, agenth said:

I wouldn't mind if you take a peek at Pachinko.

fingers crossed. I am not familiar with this time period or history. my impression of the trailer is that it does look a bit too serious for me. so it will all depend on my mood. I wish they had used lighting to make it feel a bit pretty. instead, the lighting makes me already think this will be a downer. 

 

 

 

 

[syntyche]

Yay, it's up!

 

Thank you @partyon, @agenth, @confusedheart, @Sleepy Owl, @Lmangla, for organizing and making this event possible. Thanks for putting a spotlight on this much-awaited series!

 

Cheers chingus @CarolynH, @CallieP, @Missprincesa, @msdot, seeing our work for this event marks that our long wait for this series is finally paying off.

 

Looking forward to seeing you all in the drama thread!  

 

[sweetroad]

4 hours ago, Ameera Ali said:

@Thong Thin  she wouldn’t understand the power of oppa 

 

You and @Thong Thin have A LOT of confidence in LMH's power. He must be charming because I find him just normal-looking (hides).

 

3 hours ago, Yinye said:

@the_sweetroad yep, 100% wrecked me too because I read the Joy Luck Club before the film came out as a teenager going through things with my own mom. I felt like that was the first time these issues were recognized and discussed since most of us can’t speak about it within our families.

 

Same! Read it as a teenager and then sobbed with all my friends in the movie theater when we watched it. It was terrible!

 

Andrew McCarthy being in the movie was nice, though.

 

But yes, it gave us the chance to identify some things we were going through with our moms....even if we couldn't put exact words to it. And - stuff going on in previous generations could be so depressing. Seemed like women going through a hard time didn't have much power to make their lives better. Glad I was born when I was.

 

1 hour ago, Lmangla said:

aladdin irked me so much that I have stayed away from all the live action remakes that came after. so let me list the things that annoyed my mom as well as myself. the entire movie, my mom was like "where on earth is her scarf and why isn't she wearing it right?".. then there was the belly button and the clevage and the cuts of the costume. my mom's reaction "is she a princess or a courtesan????" ... yea, my mom was face palming the entire time. 

 

LOL. That's too bad. I haven't watched the Aladdin live remake but now I'm even more disinterested after your review. And @agenth I didn't really connect with the Mulan of 2020 either. I barely remember it, too. Did you guys see Shang Chi? I actually really liked that one.

 

And did you all see the trailer for Turning Red? BBC gave the film a 5-star review.

 

 

 

Back to Pachinko I love that Youn Yuh Jung is in it! That's a big draw for me.

 

 

 

[agenth]

14 minutes ago, the_sweetroad said:

You and @Thong Thin have A LOT of confidence in LMH's power. He must be charming because I find him just normal-looking (hides).

 

I think LMH in motion looks better, then again personally I get drawn to people when I see them in motion rather than just looking at photos. Which is why I have 0 affection for male models normally.

 

It's all about the look in the eyes, the slow spreading smile, almost unwilling, that quirk and the cadence of their voice. 

 

 

LMH has a nice voice.

 

I think his casting as this particular Pachinko character is pretty apt. Didn't he also play a gangster in Gangnam Blues? 

 

 

also, whenever you see men walking with their suits,

 

 

I will put Shang Chi in my list!

 

 

[Ameera Ali]

43 minutes ago, the_sweetroad said:

 

You and @Thong Thin have A LOT of confidence in LMH's power. He must be charming because I find him just normal-looking (hides).

 

 

what normal looking 

 

his dimple only is special and you saying he normal looking , take it back or 

~ when someone insulting oppa lol 

 

@agenth I am just not reading book because I’m busy reading oppa looks - that a book need reading too 

[Lmangla]

1 hour ago, the_sweetroad said:

LOL. That's too bad. I haven't watched the Aladdin live remake but now I'm even more disinterested after your review. And @agenth I didn't really connect with the Mulan of 2020 either. I barely remember it, too. Did you guys see Shang Chi? I actually really liked that one.

 

And did you all see the trailer for Turning Red? BBC gave the film a 5-star review.

well there were people I know who liked it. so who knows - you might, kekekeke.... but yea, it just wasn't for me or my mom.  if I had to say something positive, the villain acted well. 

[mizv]

What is the start date????  thanks for the tagging. I didnt realize there is a book!