When Min Jin Lee published her multi-generational saga Pachinko in 2017, it took the literary world by storm. It landed on 75 best-of lists, was a finalist for the National Book Award — and made it into the 'must read' recommendations of former US president Barack Obama.
The sprawling saga of sacrifice, oppression and resilience is told through four generations of one ethnic-Korean family, pivoting around its indomitable matriarch Sunja Baek — and taking readers on a journey from Yeongdo in 1910 to Osaka in 1931 to New York and Tokyo in 1989.
Think Dickens or Tolstoy — but with yakuza and pinball parlours (more on that later).
Now the novel lands on screen — via an Apple TV+ adaptation that is high-budget, visually spectacular and features an impressive cast of famous names (including Oscar-winner Yuh-Jung Youn) and breakout stars.
Lee wasn't involved in the adaptation — which has made some fans of the book nervous.
But reviews so far bode well, with the series being described as a "sumptuous South Korean epic like nothing else on TV" and "an elating tale of familial resilience and female strength."
What's the story?
Pachinko pivots around the life of Sunja, and takes us from her childhood in a fishing village in Japanese-occupied Korea circa 1915 through a star-crossed romance with wealthy bad-boy Hansu, to marriage and a relocation to Japan — where the young family struggle to build a new life in the face of endemic anti-Korean racism, and watch their fortunes rise and fall against a backdrop of wartime and then post-war economic boom.
In the face of every challenge, Sunja makes bold, unconventional choices, determined that whatever comes, her family will endure.
Bridging the first generation and the third generation
Running parallel to Sunja's story in the TV series is that of her grandson, Solomon: a Western-educated banker whose pursuit of the 'American dream' leads him back to Japan in 1989 — and back into the orbit of his grandmother and his pachinko-baron father Mozasu — as he tries to close a land-sale deal.
Racism is still a potent force in all their lives, and while Solomon does not have to worry about his next meal, he questions his direction and identity.
Hugh was born in Korea but moved with her parents to America when she was just one year old, and it was that feeling of "being in two worlds" that connected her so deeply to Lee's novel.
Hang on, what is pachinko?
Pachinko is both the name of a machine and the name of a game, and it is a national obsession in Japan.
Imagine an exciting cross between pinball and slot machine. Put them in neat rows in a smoke-filled room with loud music and gaudy decorations and you have a pachinko parlour. (Which is where the show's candy-coloured, joyful opening credits are filmed.)
In the novel, running pachinko parlours becomes a way for Sunja's children to climb out of poverty – even as that association with organised crime and yakuza gangs brings shame and conflict.
But the game, with all its uncertainty and complications, also serves as a metaphor for life itself.
What are 'zainichi'? And why did Min Jin Lee write about them?
Lee was moved to write Pachinko when she heard about a young Korean-Japanese boy who was driven to suicide by racist bullying. He was considered "zainichi", a term for ethnic Koreans who migrated to Japan during the colonial years, and their descendants born in Japan.
Lee spent over 20 years conceiving, writing and rewriting Pachinko. A critical turning point came when she and her family moved to Tokyo in 2007: "I met all these people who are just like Solomon, these Korean-Japanese, who are third or fourth generation, and they're incredibly polite, very well dressed and very well spoken. But they don't tell you anything, and they're so boring," Lee told ABC RN's The Book Show.
Does the adaptation stay faithful to the book?
Though Lee was initially involved in the series as an executive producer, she chose to withdraw for reasons she has declined to disclose.
Nevertheless, Hugh says, "the book is a bible for us".
That said, the series jettisons the chronological structure of the novel, instead interweaving narratives from different decades and countries. Hugh has said she wanted Sunja and Solomon's stories to speak to each other, exploring how they were both grappling with questions of identity and belonging.
Some characters also get more attention – and a bigger backstory – as the adaptation sets out to expand the universe of Pachinko.
"What I love about the production so far is what I loved about the novel in that it's both completely panoramic, and yet deeply intimate at the same time," says Benjamin Law, co-host of Stop Everything!.
Three actors in the same role and other Pachinko cast challenges
The older Sunja is played by the extraordinary Yuh-Jung Youn, who in 2021 became the first Korean actor to win in an acting category in the Academy's 93-year history, for her performance in Minari.
"YJ is a legend … and she felt [the character] in her bones," says Kogonada, who directed the series alongside Justin Chon.
Seven-year-old Jeon Yu-na and Kim Minha, who play Sunja as a child and as a young woman respectively, also deliver riveting performances.
Kim, a relatively unknown actor, claimed the part with her audition tape: "Minha had no advantage to her. There was no name, no agent pushing for anything," Kogonada says in the production notes.
Jin Ha, a New York City-based actor whose stage credits include M. Butterfly and Hamilton, is excellent as Solomon — though his screen breakthrough has been overshadowed by controversy over historic Tumblr posts, for which he recently issued a public apology.
It took six to seven months to cast the main actors, and everyone was required to go through an audition. South Korean star Min Ho Lee (beloved for his role in the K-drama Boys Over Flowers) was so determined to play Hansu that he agreed to his first audition in 13 years.
Team Isak or Team Hansu?
One of the key romantic threads in the series is Sunja's struggle to choose between two very different lovers: Hansu, a wealthy fish broker with ties to yakuza networks; and Baek Isak (Sanghyun Noh Steve), a sickly yet fiercely idealistic pastor.
From the moment Hansu and Sunja lock eyes at a market in Busan, we know this is a very bad idea. But they're beautiful together and you want things to work out.
"I wanted to make 'Team Hansu' and 'Team Isak' T-shirts for the crew!" Hugh said in the production notes.
A tale told in three languages
Every episode features trilingual performances, with dialogue in Korean, Japanese, and English. The subtitles tell you which language is being spoken – yellow for Korean and blue for Japanese.
Hugh believes this demonstrates the impact of Japan's colonisation of Korea, with some characters even switching from Japanese to Korean within a single sentence.
Benjamin Law says this represents a major shift — led by streaming services.
What the critics are saying
In The Guardian, Stuart Jeffries says the adaptation "brings to life a Korea you would never have gleaned from Squid Game or K-pop. It's a vast, sumptuous, dynastic political TV series of the kind scarcely made any more, complete with swooning strings from Nico Muhly's score."
Sara Merican in The Verge writes: "Apple TV Plus' most ambitious project yet is a sublime epic that questions cultural identities, national histories, and intergenerational memory and mourning."
While praising the production and the excellent performances, Mike Hale in The New York Times offered this caveat: "Too often, though, their work is wrapped in several layers of Hollywood gauze; the subtlety of their performances gets obscured by the general tendency of the production toward tasteful schmaltz."
Where can I watch the show and will there be another season?
The first three episodes of Pachinko were released on Apple TV+ on March 25, 2022. New episodes drop every Friday. Hugh has said she has a plan in mind for four seasons.
