There’s a rare emotional intelligence to this deft, heartfelt look at Koreans living in Japan. It’s a methodically observed drama about the agonies of being human
A historical epic, filmed in Korean and Japanese and following several generations of a family along two timelines? It sounds like a time investment you might never get around to making, but season two of Pachinko confirms that this show is worth the effort – and that effort is in fact minimal, since drama as deft and heartfelt as this can never be a chore.
Sunja (Minha Kim) is a Korean woman living in Japan in the last years of Japanese colonial rule over Korea. We rejoin her in 1945 in Osaka, where she works hard to bring up her sons, Noa and Mozasu, in the absence of her husband, who has been imprisoned for sedition. Meanwhile, in Tokyo in 1989, Solomon (Jin Ha) – the son of Mozasu and grandson of Sunja – is trying to make his fortune amid economic uncertainty.