Pachinko, arriving on Apple TV+ March 25, is an epic historical tale based on the New York Times best-selling novel by Min Jin Lee. The story spans much of the 20th century, originating in the Japanese occupation of Korea and leading to the much more globalized world of the 1980s. At its heart is a Korean family who was forced by circumstance to immigrate to Japan, and their struggles against poverty and discriminated are told in Korean, Japanese and English as each generation mingles with a new culture.
Written and produced by Soo Hugh, who has made a name for herself with work on shows like The Terror and See, the family saga centers on matriarch Sunja. Each episode shifts through time, going from her years as a teenager in a Korean fishing village (played by brilliant newcomer Kim Minha) to her years as the mature head of a prosperous household (where she's portrayed by Minari's Youn Yuh-jung). Her grandson Solomon (Jin Ha, Devs) anchors the later storyline, having arrived in Tokyo from New York in order to close a business deal, where he runs into some friction with Japanese coworker Naomi (Anna Sawai, F9) will struggling with some past family secrets that haunt his present.
Sawai spoke to Screen Rant about the discrimination her character Anna faces as a woman in business, and Ha spoke the weight Solomon feels carrying a family legacy on his shoulders.
Solomon really does feel like the culmination of those who came before him, and you can see that even in the amazing opening sequence. Can you talk about what it's like to really blend all these characters together?
Jin Ha: I think that's actually really astute of you to ask that question. Because that's actually the response that I've been giving a lot, which is that Solomon is the result of the choices and the challenges of everyone who came before him.
How did I integrate all that? I think the similar way to how we ask questions about ourselves: Where do we come from? What did our parents go through? What did our grandparents go through? I think that's the approach from Solomon's experience and identity, his time in Japan, but also his education and work in America as well - in New England, specifically, even more than that.
If I just pull the thread a little bit on that, it immediately goes back to Japan. And then immediately from there, it goes back to Osaka, and then also Korea. And that is Wikipedia black hole, where everything is attached to each other.
I remember my first month or two of research before we even started shooting. I just constantly had 50 Wikipedia tabs open, being like, "Oh, this incident in this history, that would have been something his dad went through. Let me click on it!" And then it was just absorbing all of that history.
Naomi is our peek into a woman's struggles in business, and she has to hold her own against in the company as well. Can you talk about how she's facing a different kind of prejudice from Solomon?
Anna Sawai: Yeah, this is back in the 80s. The Equal Employment Opportunity Law was implemented in Japan, and so society was starting to open up to women, but people weren't necessarily doing the same. So, even though there she is in a management position, they look down on her.
I think it's even harsher for her to see people going to Solomon, who is in people's eyes an outsider because he's not Japanese. But still, they regard him as better than going to Naomi. And so, she sees him as a little bit of a rival. She's envious of him, and he is doing a lot better than she thought that he would.
I think that's really harsh for her, but there's also a little bit of intrigue. He's a little bit mysterious, and I think it's an interesting relationship to see.
Solomon also has an interest relationship with Hana. Can you talk about what Hana represents to him?
Jin Ha: Hana represents a, I think, traumatic past that he's done a lot of work to try to distance himself from.
It's also, within our show, a little bit different from the book; it's a surprise that she comes back into his life. He was coming back to Tokyo specifically for this deal opportunity, expecting to go immediately back to New York once this deal is signed. Hana somehow finds him and reconnects, and all of the history that they share growing up together [comes out].
A Japanese woman that's, through her mother, somewhat socially ostracized, and a Zainichi Korean-Japanese young man whose father runs a Pachinko parlor; it's all of those social stigmas that are at play. They find each other in that liminal space of, "We both don't fit in," in a lot of ways.
I think there was an incredibly strong bond that, because of extenuating circumstances, gets split apart. It's incredibly fraught, and there's a lot happening when they reconnect. I I think it throws his world into a complete tailspin.
Pachinko's first three episodes premiere March 25 on Apple TV+, followed by one episode weekly for the rest of the season.
