Pachinko Season 2 Shows Surviving & Thriving Is A Generational Battle

When you watch Pachinko, it’s immediately clear that you’ve come across something special. Adapted from Min Jin Lee’s acclaimed novel of the same name, the sweeping multilingual drama is set across multiple timelines that follow four generations of a Korean family who immigrate to Japan while their home country is under colonial rule in the early 20th century. The story is fictional, but I wouldn’t blame you if you got so caught up in the tale that you forgot that it wasn’t. At the same time, there is also something almost universal about the series. It’s grounded in a history that Korean families around the world deeply understand, yet you don’t have to be Korean (or even an immigrant) to find something in the show to relate to on some level. 

That’s because, at its core, Pachinko is about survival — and not just survival, but finding a way to thrive regardless of the circumstances. In Season 2, which begins streaming weekly on Apple TV+ on August 23, it’s a theme that becomes even more central to the show’s identity. As Sunja (played by Minha Kim as a young woman in earlier timelines and in the 1980s by Oscar winner Youn Yuh-jung) builds a life for her and her family in spite of the extreme discrimination leveled at Korean immigrants in Japan while facing the challenges of World War II, each character is given the room and grace to come into their own. As they do, one thing becomes clear: “thriving” means something different for everyone. 

“It’s [an issue] that really does define the heart and soul of our show,” showrunner Soo Hugh tells Refinery29. “We always try to make a distinction between what survival is and what it means to endure. I know that those two words feel like they’ve very similar, but we always thought in the writers’ room that there was a difference. Survival is just about your basic needs — whether you have food to put on the table, whether you have enough oxygen to breathe. It seems that when you say, ‘she endured,’ there’s also a moral clause to it, which I thought was really important to Sunja’s character.” 

Sunja is driven by one thing: protecting and providing for her family, something that is especially evident in the 1940s timeline as her two sons enter their adolescent years. Her sense of right or wrong is dictated by her motherhood and whether something will ultimately benefit her children. For her, that may mean defying gender norms by selling food to make a living while her husband is imprisoned (going against her brother-in-law’s wishes), or taking a risk by offering goods at the black market. Even when it seems like she’s considering going after something for herself — say, finding romance — she always stops herself when she remembers her kids and her dreams for them. 

“My mother always told me when I was little: ‘Without you, I cannot live.’ Back then I couldn’t understand it — why wasn’t she living her own life? But I realized that living for me, surviving for me, is her life,” says star Minha Kim, adding that her character, Sunja, is very much the same way. “Sunja doesn’t think she has sacrificed things — it’s just her life, it’s natural for her to do these things, and she’s happy to do it. Making [her] sons dreams come true is also making [her] dreams come true. That’s where she gets confidence and joy.” 

While Sunja’s idea of thriving — or enduring, as showrunner Hugh emphasizes — crystalizes from the moment she learns she is pregnant in Season 1, other characters are still trying to figure out what a full life looks like to them. Sunja’s brother-in-law is away from the family for work, allowing her sister-in-law, Kyunghee (Jung Eun-chae), to think about her identity as an individual. Sunja’s oldest son, Noa, attempts to define what his goals are beyond the expectations of the adults in his life, while her youngest, Mozasu, searches for a way out of his brother’s brilliant shadow. 

Then there’s Koh Hansu (Lee Min-ho), Sunja’s first love who is also secretly Noa’s father. The only way Hansu can possibly conceive of thriving is through access to money, power and influence — things he wants so desperately that he suppresses his Korean identity, even as his Japanese colleagues treat him as less than because of where he is from. But there are few lines he won’t cross, resorting to fear and violence to gain more power. “Hansu is a character who wants more and more as he achieves more and more. In that sense, I feel sorry for him — as he achieves more, he feels emptier … so ultimately he has no choice but to pursue [it further],” Lee tells Refinery29 through an interpreter. “I personally believe that, in the end, Hansu will be confined by his own way of survival and the limitations of the time.”

The quest to thrive continues throughout each generation of Sunja’s family. In the ’80s, her grandson, Solomon (Jin Ha), flounders as he chases his version of thriving, seeking success in his career while disregarding personal relationships. Working in the finance world, he, like Hansu in some ways, is defined by his work and his access to wealth — something his grandmother doesn’t quite approve of, but won’t interfere with. Still, the more he continues down this path, the further it seems like he gets from actually thriving. “Hansu says, ‘Always look forward,’ and that seems to be [Solomon’s] motto. I think that’s such a strong and powerful way to survive and endure — maybe more survive than endure,” Ha says, explaining that all his character has ever heard in his life was that his family wants him to find success. “What’s interesting about that mentality — which is so well intended — is that it actually creates a disconnect and divide between Solomon and his past, which then leaves him incredibly untethered and with this feeling of ‘Who am I? Where do I belong?’”

Part of what makes Pachinko one of the best shows on TV is that it doesn’t pretend to have answers to any of these quandaries. Just as each character has to figure things out for themselves, so too do we the viewer. Is thriving driven by ambition and a successful career? Is it living for your loved ones? Something entirely different? They’re questions everyone can relate to and will ask themselves at some point, and Pachinko understands that inherently. 

It’s something the cast grapples with in their own lives as well. “Thriving is such an aggressive word — it’s so active,” Ha says. “I suppose the place I’m at in my life at the moment feels very present. What’s most important to me is the day to day. When I was a young man, I had so much drive for whatever goal or thing that might be attained, and [now] I feel almost none of that now. I feel deeply grateful for what I’m able to do and the life that I have at the moment. Outside of that, I don’t really know what else there is. I’m happy right now. I’m peaceful, I’m content.”