Youn Yuh-jung and more “Pachinko” stars talk to Infobae about the universal experience of families and migration

South Korea has shown in recent years that it has much more to export at the film and television level with films such as Parasite, which addressed social inequality, or series like El squid game, a story that harbored a strong criticism of capitalism. This time, comes the television adaptation of Min Jin Lee's novel that explores a historical passage from the Asian country: Pachinko, the international fiction of Apple TV+ which was filmed in three languages (Korean, Japanese and English).

The story follows Sunja through different stages of her life, initially during her childhood under the upbringing of her parents in the fishing village of Yeongdo District and, later, in her youth, on her way to becoming a woman and suffering one of the worst disappointments of her life. Years later, we met her elderly woman and her family in Japan, where she was forced to migrate in order not to be seen with shame for carrying a pregnancy out of wedlock and pursuing a better future. From the United States, her grandson Solomon arrives, who will reconnect her with her roots when she must close an important deal for her company.

Regarding the release of Pachinko in the original Apple TV+ catalog, Infobae talked to part of the main cast, Youn Yuh-jung, Min-ha Kim, Jin Ha and Anna Sawai; and creator Soo Hugh.

“I really like this role, first I read the script and then I wanted to know more about it, so I bought the book and read it in two days,” Yuh-jung — the older version of Sunja — shares about her first impression of the plot. “The reason I like this role is the strength, honesty and determination to survive that touched and inspired me so much, that's why I like to play this role,” admits the Oscar winner for Minari.

For the screenwriter, behind the jump to TV for Pachinko, it was “a privilege” to be able to adapt the book by the Korean-American writer and journalist, because it tells a “very specific and universal” story, since migration stories can have similar characteristics in different parts of the world. “This is a series that celebrates the strength of women, mothers and grandmothers a lot,” he says.

And she questions how we can do it without adding fantastic elements all the time: “One thing I always say is: why can't we have more TV series and movies where women don't have to be superheroes, but are given this same scale? Why can't a mother's love feel like a superpower? And that was the goal with this program.”

“It's based in [South] Korea, so I agree that Sunja represents all women in Korea. But, in my opinion, it does not only represent Korean women, but women all over the world,” Min-ha says on a premise that remains universal for more historical aspects that it carries on it. The latter has become a special feature of various proposals of South Korean stories: a level of mass identification.

What was it like to play Sunja in Pachinko?

“I'm glad I didn't play the younger role of Sunja,” says Youn Yuh-jung laughing as he recalls how difficult the character's life was in his younger years, when he is played by Min-ha Kim. “After she ages, in '74, she is an old woman trying to look back at the past. [...] She is a survivor,” she adds, describing more about this role that she also considers “suitable for my age”.

“For Sunja, most of her scenes were very intense and very emotional,” says the young South Korean actress, her counterpart in the same role, and reveals an anecdote that was among the most complex to give life to the protagonist: “I remember that those emotional scenes weren't the most challenging, but the one I felt very difficult was during the first day I had to be Noa's mother, because I had never been a mother before, so I had to figure out how to change the attitude and all things compared to seven years ago. That was the challenging part I had on set.”

Solomon and Naomi, two sides of the same coin

American actor Jin Ha and Japanese-New Zealand artist Anna Sawai also cast Pachinko in the roles of Solomon and Naomi, respectively. Both characters meet when Sunja's grandson goes on a trip to Japan to close a very important deal for his company, where this Japanese woman works, who has spent much of her life giving everything in the corporate world. How do they describe the dynamics of their peers in fiction?

Jin Ha: “Solomon arrives in Tokyo to close a deal that Naomi and her co-workers have been working on for years. He arrives as the star of the financial year of the New York office. And from that competence and I think also in the ways in which we connect in our experiences, growing and working in Japanese offices and Korean society [where applicable] and as a Japanese woman in corporate Japan. That connects us, but at the same time there is tension because we do feel that there is competition.”

Anna: “Naomi sees him as someone who is going through similar things in different ways, because he can't fit in either, but she is treated as if he is more important than her, but she has been working in the office for so long. So I think she's envious of him in a way and that's something that makes her build up her walls, but she also starts to see it in different ways and I think that's intriguing to her because he's different from the other guys in the office.”

Pachinko will have a second season on Apple TV+

Currently, they are available to watch the first four episodes of Pachinko on the platform Apple TV+. A few weeks after the end of the first season, Soo Hugh, the creator and showrunner of the series, assures Infobae that more episodes will be on the way. “This series is meant to have a continuation. It's not a miniseries or a limited series, it will have a continuation.”

KEEP READING: