Pachinko Apple TV+ review

 Pachinko, Apple tv+, Lee min ho kdrama, new york best seller pachinko

 A story of emotional rhythms carefully made against the backdrop of history. The drama is neither Korean, nor Japanese, nor American, but rather a mixture of the three rhythms. Which gave it a special touch somewhat exciting.

Adapted from novelist Min Jin Lee's best New York Times seller multigenerational epic about a Korean family surviving colonialism, war, and loss more than they allow themselves to feel, starring (Kim min Ha, Lee Min Ho, Youn Yuh Jung, Jin Ha)

A comprehensive historical epic covering a rich era in modern East Asian history. It journeys through colonial Korea, World War II, the Allied occupation of Japan, and the Korean War, to Japan's period of high growth - all reflected from the perspective of one family.

Pachinko moves sophisticatedly across continents and eras, from a rustic fishing village controlled by Japan in 1915, to the brokering deals of suit-clad financial workers sitting at computer screens in New York and Tokyo in 1989.

The first scenes take us from Pachinko in front of a Korean island. Where our beloved heroine Sonja grows up with her simple family that we saw in the first scene (Sonja's mother begs another woman to rid her of the curse in her blood since all her three children died and she wants her fetus "Sonja" to stay alive).

then time passes and Sonja grows up and the scenes take us To Sonja's daily adventures with her father and her fisherman friends who struggle with the islanders under the control of Japanese soldiers, each of these scenes flashes back to 1989, as Sonja's grandson, a Korean-Japanese child named Solomon, tries to broker a hotel deal in Tokyo to earn his fortune. He visits his family in the Korean town of Osaka. but is he also under the family curse?  no doubt that's why Solomon's beloved grandmother tells him he's better off in the united States.

 But the problem with this narrative journey through time is that it burdens us with bewildering stories. For example, the unknown story of Hana, whether she was in Tokyo or outside it, and what is the confusing story of her disappearance.

Near the end of Episode One, there's another shift in the schedule. We look forward eight years to 1915. Sonja is now a beautiful, albeit poor young woman, who wanders into the fishmongery area of ​​her town, her eyes met by a handsome stranger dressed in the clothes of the wealthy. It is an eloquent depiction that this stranger desires Sonja.

"Pachinko" is a story of marginalization and deprivation, of people too busy to survive in the worst conditions. So much so that they weren't able to fully process everything they had lost until years later. It's also a story about outcasts, particularly poor young women like Sonja, whose humble lineage (disabled poor father and marginalized mother), her fateful first romance, and geopolitical circumstances forced her to a different kind of injustice one that comes with material comforts she would never have imagined in her youth. To take away the feeling of home.

Pachinko's periods are neatly presented and there is a special touch between the timelines. The actors also managed to beautifully convey the story of the novel. But it seems that the disparate stories do not coherent. One longs for a show that lets its key moments unfold without the sometimes forced collisions between eras, ones that can leave viewers feeling confused and bewildered.

The first 3 episodes are available on Apple tv+ and the rest episodes will be streaming every week.