Suffering and joy: the cast and creator of Korean drama ‘Pachinko’ are eager to unveil Season 2

It’s not every day that an actor gets excited about PDFs and, yes, I am talking about email attachments. But “Pachinko” isn’t your average show and research comes in many forms.
“I asked Soo (showrunner Soo Hugh), please send me everything,” says actor Jin Ha. “I got like, 25 PDFs, 15 or 30 pages long, with intros of some books and essays.”
Ha was clearly enthused. “I love that I get to learn so much. And for this, it’s so much bigger because we’re Korean and of the diaspora. I’m feeling the sense of history within my own family.”
Family bonds are at the heart of “Pachinko,” whose second season premieres Friday on Apple TV Plus. The powerful saga follows four generations of a Korean family and spans much of the 20th century, revealing the hardships of colonization, class struggle, war and migration, specifically through the experience of Zainichi, ethnically Korean people living in Japan.
“My grandmother cried a lot when she was watching ‘Pachinko’ because, you know, it’s not just a series to her,” said fellow actor Minha Kim, who plays Sunja. “But she was very proud of me and she’s dying to see the second season.”
Growing up in Korea, Kim had learned about historical events depicted in “Pachinko,” but found she still had much to learn.
“I watched a lot of interviews with people who lived in that era and it surprised me so much. All the experiences, how they were treated differently,” Kim explained, describing the process of finding identity as “intense.”
Showrunner Hugh is eager to bring to the surface the layers of knowledge that experts provided to the show.
“We have food historians, clothing historians, architectural historians, historians who specialize in the firebombing of Tokyo, you know, it’s a specific scholarship,” Hugh said. “They’ve been so helpful in figuring out, ‘How do you tell a fictional story with the lens of historical accuracy?’ We’ll never get it a hundred per cent right, but I do think that having as much accuracy as possible gives the show an emotional weight that feels important.”
Colonization is complicated, which means the stories, and their nuances, are too. The strength of this show may be in the deep layers of process that remain invisible to audiences while being integral to the cast and crew.
As Solomon, the Yale-educated, upwardly mobile grandson, Ha delivers his performance fluently in three languages, including Japanese, which he learned specifically for this role.
“I worked with an incredible coach that we found, Yumi Kang, who is Zainichi. She has both Japanese dialects that Solomon speaks, has a Japanese accent in Korean and is an actor herself. I felt so lucky. Without Yumi, there wouldn’t have been my version of Solomon.”
For Korean megastar Lee Minho, who portrays the rich and powerful Koh Hansu, visual research was key.
“I tried to get as many photos of that time as possible,” Lee said through a translator. “And what I noticed is that people were not smiling. They’re all just straight faces. That inspired me a lot about what sort of era they were living in. They were all trying to survive, desperately living their lives.”
Hansu is wealthy, with unfettered power, never a good sign of someone’s character in fiction. What does Lee want audiences to know about the man he plays?
“If you look at him from the perspective and value systems of the contemporary time, he might be seen as somewhat immoral,” Lee admitted. “But as an actor portraying Hansu, rather than defining him as evil or good, his personality is that he’s a very clear-cut person. When he makes a choice, he doesn’t regret it, doesn’t look back and he keeps going. So to me, Hansu is very honest.”
Lee is intentional about his character for Season 2.
“Through his choices, I want the audience to see him as enigmatic as to what his next steps will be. That’s what I was focusing on.”
Indeed, Lee’s own fans are watching his every move. In February 2023, Lee arrived in Toronto, where part of Season 2 was filmed, setting local fans abuzz.
In Korea, Lee is the type of star who needs airport security to form a human chain around him to safely escort him out. Here in Canada, when Lee uploaded photos of himself to Instagram (where he has 37 million followers) fans loved that he was doing very normal things, like loading up on supplies at Shoppers Drug Mart.
“I mostly spent my time in Toronto trying to be calm and relax. That quiet time for me in Toronto really helped me get into the character of Hansu for Season 2. I remember riding bicycles with my staff a couple of times, going against the cold wind by the lake. I was walking around, listening to music. That was a great memory that I have from Toronto.”
Hugh praises the Toronto film and TV industry for its peerless ability and said she was shocked by how diverse it is. “I was walking through a park and I heard so many languages, even more than in New York City. I love the international flair of Toronto and I felt it was really appropriate that we shot ‘Pachinko’ there.”
When the cast was asked about local activities, they mentioned Niagara Falls, that classic destination for international visitors, as well as a Blue Jays game for Ha and restaurants for Kim, who appreciated the great food and wine.
On the eve of Season 2, some of the glittery energy of the show’s successful awards run was back, including a Peabody, Critics Choice and Gotham Awards wins, plus an Emmy nomination. It’s in stark contrast to the suffering portrayed in the show.
What are Kim’s hopes for this season in particular?
“While I was preparing to portray Sunja, I tried not to lose joy and hope. That’s why you can see more laughter and smiles, compared to the first season. When the audience watches the second season, I want them to think that even though they’re suffering the worst period of time in their life, there’s still hope. There’s still their own light to turn on.
“I want our show to encourage them to have the courage to have that hope and joy inside.”