Apple TV+’s new production Pachinko weaves together multiple timelines to tell a story that spans generations. The one constant is our protagonist, a woman born during early Japanese colonization of Korea. Although the world she grew up in is vastly different than the one her grandson returns home to, echoes of her past are seen in his present as he navigates the societal and racial implications of being a Korean in Japan.
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EPISODE 1 FIRST IMPRESSIONS
I told myself I’d read the novel first. I even (accidentally) bought a second copy after forgetting that I’d already downloaded the Kindle version years before the adaptation was announced. And yet, I never found the time — or the right headspace — to sit down and read what I knew would be a very dense narrative deserving of my undivided attention. Although a part of me feels like I’m cheating on my unread copies of the novel, the silver lining to my procrastination is that I’m able to watch the story unfold with fresh, unbiased eyes.
And the first episode of Pachinko is a visual feast. A bit stylized with some subtle filtering and contrasting of colors, it often feels like stepping into an old sepia-toned photograph. Even the more modern scenes have a slight saturated finish, like the faded colors of Polaroids that have been stashed in a shoebox. Say what you will about its faithfulness to the source material — I wouldn’t know one way or the other — but there’s no denying that the cinematography is gorgeous. It does a beautiful job of mirroring the tone and historical setting of the story, which follows several generations of a single Korean family.
The first episode introduces the family’s matriarch SUNJA (played by Jeon Yuna as a child, Kim Min-ha as a young woman, and Yoon Yeo-jung as a grandmother). Sunja was born during the era of Japanese colonization in Korea, and her story actually begins before her birth, when her mother YANGJIN (Jung In-ji) visits a shaman in hopes of finding the cure to the curse that has caused her three sons to die in infancy.
As the shaman performs her ritual, we’re introduced to Sunja’s grandson SOLOMON BAEK (Jin Ha) in the year 1989. He works for a New York banking company and has been denied a much-deserved promotion due to racism, but he negotiates a deal: in exchange for a written guarantee that his company will promote him, he will convince a Korean landowner in Japan to sell property to their client and close a massive deal.
Back in 1915, the shaman foretells of a child who will thrive and allow Yangjin’s family to endure the passage of time, and so Sunja is born. Although poor, Sunja’s family is marginally better off than many of their countrymen during the Japanese colonization because they manage a boarding house. Both Sunja’s parents dote on her, but her relationship with her father HOONIE (Lee Dae-ho) is particularly endearing.
Hoonie is patient and kind-hearted, and there are moments where he seems more childlike than Sunja, as demonstrated by the playful way he holds his breath while Sunja dives for abalone. He also does his best to shelter Sunja from the ugliness of the world around them, but she’s too intelligent and inquisitive to remain ignorant of the Japanese soldiers in their small fishing village.
After one of their guests — a fisherman that treats Sunja kindly — drunkenly admits to wanting to murder the Japanese soldiers, Sunja overhears her mother worrying that they will be punished for not reporting the fisherman’s anti-Japanese sentiments. Hoonie is too nice and doesn’t want to ask the man to leave, so Sunja approaches him herself. The fisherman disappears from their boarding house, but Sunja and her father see him again later. He’s being paraded through the market by the Japanese soldiers, and Sunja cries and buries her face in her father’s side as the fisherman sings and is beaten for his defiance.
In 1989, Solomon arrives in Japan and returns to his family home in Osaka. We get the sense that it’s been a while since he’s visited, as he seems to be reacquainting himself with the house, pausing to look at framed photographs and casually play the keys of a piano. Even though his father MOZASU (Soji Arai), who runs a pachinko parlor, assumes Solomon is home for good, his grandmother, an older Sunja, senses his visit is temporary.
When Solomon reports to the Tokyo office, the briefness of his stay is confirmed when he assures a colleague that he’s not out to steal his job and will only be in Japan for a short time. Their conversation is cut short when news breaks that the Japanese emperor, who ruled during Japan’s occupation of Korea, has died. As the report plays out on the television, our story shifts back to 1915 and the moment Sunja’s beloved father passed away.
Nine years after her father’s death, Sunja is a young woman and a familiar and beloved face at the fish market. But unlike the other Koreans, she refuses to lower her head as the Japanese soldiers pass by. Her defiance catches the eye of the new fish broker (Lee Min-ho), but when he asks about her identity, he’s told that she is “no one.” And yet, he cannot keep his eyes off of her.
Those last five minutes or so felt like the weakest part of Episode 1, but I’m not sure if that’s because there was a shift in tone and color that made it noticeably different than the rest of the episode, or if it’s because Lee Min-ho is so recognizable that seeing his face ripped me from my immersion.
Now that he’s broken away from his usual type-cast roles, I’m curious to see how well he flexes his acting chops, but the verdict is still out since he didn’t get much screen time this episode. He just stared longingly at the object of his affection, and that’s Lee Min-ho’s bread and butter. The rest of the cast, however, were undeniably amazing.
Overall, the fist episode left me feeling… intrigued. It’s not the kind of story that has me hyped up and craving the next episode, but it’s also not a world or story I can let go of easily. But the question now is, do I keep watching, or do I stop and read the novel first?