‘Pachinko’ Review: Apple TV+’s Sweeping Korean Epic is TV’s Newest Masterpiece

Apple TV+‘s new drama Pachinko made me ugly cry like nothing I’ve seen on television ever before. The moment comes during a quiet lunch date in a noodle bar towards the end of Episode 3. A kind young man named Isak (Steve Sang-Hyun Noh) is trying to give a young woman named Sunja (Minha Kim) some advice. Instead she turns his pity around on him, delivering a speech with such quiet dignity that I bawled for her. I bawled for Sunja and her father, and I sobbed for my father, and I cried for all the people who have lived and loved and suffered and endured without much fanfare. Pachinko is here to give those souls the spotlight they deserve.

Apple TV+’s Pachinko is a show about one family that somehow manages to be about all families. Kogonada and Justin Chon’s direction, Soo Hugh’s writing, and the work of Pachinko’s outstanding ensemble cast weave together a story that is both huge in scope and humble in its beauty. Pachinko is perfectly exquisite (though not quite perfect) and will stick with you long after the credits roll.

Based on the best-selling novel by Min Jin Lee, Pachinko follows one Korean family through decades of shifting fortunes, heart-breaking tragedies, and massive world events. Pachinko Season 1 focuses mainly on the family’s matriarch Sunja. We follow her from an intrepid child in a sleepy fishing town close to Busan to a struggling immigrant in Osaka, Japan. By the 1980s, though, Sunja is a supporting character in grandson Solomon’s (Jin Ha) storyline. The American-educated financier has returned to Japan to attempt to close a major real estate deal that should give him leverage within his company. Pachinko flits back and forth through the decades to show how choices made in the past influence the present and just how connected we are to our ancestors.

One of the reasons why Pachinko is so affecting is because it is such a specific story that simultaneously feels familiar. The series opens like a fairy tale, with a Korean woman journeying through a forest to beg a wise woman to lift a curse from her blood. This is Sunja’s mother Yangjin (Jeong In-ji). We learn that Yangjin’s past is full of pain, loss, and shame. When her alcoholic father had the chance to basically sell her off to a man with a cleft palate, he does so happily. The twist is that man, Hoonie (Daeho Lee), is so kind and loving and good to Yangjin that she desperately wants to give him a child. She is told that there will be a daughter — Sunja — and that the family line will thrive.

Sunja is played over the decades by three extraordinary actresses: Yu-na, Minha Kim, and Oscar-winner Youn Yuh-jung. As a child, Sunja shows an indefatigable, playful spirit that comes in handy when she’s a teenager living under oppressive Japanese rule. Her quiet defiance attracts the attention of handsome fish broker Koh Hansu (Lee Min-ho) and the two strike up a clandestine romance. The rustic charms and small town struggles of Sunja’s early 20th century life in Korea are shown in huge contrast to the comfort, wealth, and greed enjoyed by her grandson Solomon in 1980s Japan. They’re shown in contrast, and yet, throughout the run of Pachinko, we see time and time again how Sunja’s past has influenced her descendants in ways they’re blind to.

If I have one major quibble with Pachinko, it’s that the first season ends rather abruptly, leaving the fates of some of the major characters up in the air. Of course, that could be because the producers intend to address these storylines in other seasons, but the overall arc of the season seemed to fall just short of a natural crescendo.  I suppose it’s a good thing a great show left me wanting more, but Pachinko really leaves you wanting.

Pachinko is one of those magic stories that becomes universal through its specificity. Young Sunja’s sweet connection with her appa reminded me of my own tender father, who also died when I was young. Through Sunja’s struggles to adapt to Japan, I remembered stories about how my own grandparents left rural Ireland to seek a better life for their children in New York. In Solomon, I recognized the angst of being the child who carries a family’s dreams far from home and higher up the social ladder. But I also recognized the differences. Pachinko is a story told in three languages — Korean, Japanese, and English — and it often exposes bitter chapters of history that many Westerners never hear about. Episode 7 is wholly devoted to a horrific natural disaster that doesn’t get much play in American pop culture and throughout Solomon’s “chapters,” he’s forced to confront the specific cultural hallmarks that make him Korean.

Pachinko is a gorgeous TV show that will transport you with its straightforward charm and epic soul. But like all art, it also pulls off that most holy miracle: it will make you feel more human. You’ll find yourself feeling more connected to your parents and grandparents, to strangers on the other side of the world, and the characters orbiting Sunja’s world.

Pachinko premieres on Apple TV+ on Friday, March 25.

Where to stream Pachinko