‘Pachinko’ stars Minha Kim and Lee Min-ho.
It’s been six years since Soo Hugh began planning her adaptation of Min Jin Lee’s best selling novel Pachinko. The first season of the Apple TV adaptation aired in 2022 and the second season will air its first episode on Aug. 23. Six years is a long time to spend with a large cast of characters, particularly Sunja, the novel’s heroine—a woman whose struggles and strong values define the story. The novel made such a strong impression on Hugh, a writer, director and producer, that she devoted years to adapting the story for TV, and, given the popularity of the first season, might easily spend a few more.
“I would definitely say that these characters have really penetrated the bones, so to speak, which is lovely,” said Hugh. “I feel like I’ll probably always live with these characters and there’s moments sometimes when something will happen to me in my everyday life where I will say to myself, what would Sunja do? Or you know what? You’re not forced to sell kimchi in the market, so, suck it up. It does allow things to have a perspective that’s very helpful in life.”
The first season shared the story of Sunja and merchant Koh Hansu, a doomed love story that leads Sunja to marry another man and leave Busan for Tokyo. Sunja’s story was told in contrast with that of her grandson, Solomon. Educated in the U.S. and working for a financial firm in 1980s Tokyo, Solomon lives in a very different Japan, than the one Sunja struggled to adapt to, but in some ways he faces similar discrimination.
That season was so well received that it won the Peabody Entertainment Award, a Critics’ Choice Television Award for best foreign language series, an Independent Spirit Award for best ensemble cast in a scripted series, and a Gotham Award for breakthrough series. The warm reception was a pleasant surprise, said Hugh, but also provided a lot to live up to when planning season two.
Writer Soo Hugh speaks onstage during The Terror events screening in Los Angeles. (Photo by John … [+]
“It was this lightning in a bottle that just worked beautifully,” said Hugh. “We had a cast and crew that was phenomenal. Could we recreate that magic again?”
The second season finds Sunja trying to protect her family in Tokyo during World War II. The family is forced to flee to the countryside, hiding there until the atomic bombings end Japan’s involvement in the war. Recreating such serious historical events added weight to producing this season.
“When you take on that kind of material, even in fiction form, you feel this weight of responsibility,” said Hugh. “And even though we did feel that in season one, it felt bigger in season two,”
The first season featured talented directors Justin Chon and Kogonada. For the second season there are three equally gifted directors, Leanne Welham, Arvin Chen and Sang-il Lee. All three were always on set, even when they were not directing.
“I really want our directors to get credit for the fact this isn’t a show where they could parachute in and walk away,” said Hugh. “They’re on our show from the first day of prep to the last day of shooting, all three of them.”
Hugh praised her cast and crew as an important part of maintaining continuity over two seasons that totaled 16 episodes, spanning Sunja’s lifetime. The show stars Youn Yuh-jung, Kim Min-ha, Jin Ha, Lee Minho, Jung Eun-chae, Noh Sang-hyun and Anna Sawai with hosts of supporting characters.
Koh Hansu, played by Lee Min-ho, talks to the actor playing Noa.
“Our crew and our cast are very much the beacons of our show,” said Hugh. “They stay between all the directors and really do protect the show.”
Some of those actors were required to speak their parts, switching between English, Korean and Japanese. Several actors had to learn some Japanese for the first season, but needed to speak even more Japanese in season two. This involved an on-set army of translators, dialect coaches and language coaches, which Hugh refers to as the “unsung heroes of the show.” Hugh especially praises the linguistic efforts of Jin Ha, the Korean American actor who seamlessly alternates languages in the second season, and also Academy-Award-winning actress Youn Yuh-jung, who is often referred to as YYJ by cast and crew.
“YYJ, who plays older Sunja, speaks mostly Japanese in the second season,” said Hugh. “And she didn’t even have that much prep time because for season two we had to get into production so much faster than we did in season one. What she did in season two is a feat, and YYJ worked so hard, it feels like a life lesson to me. When I watch how hard YYJ worked and when I complain about my work, it really does humble you. Her job was really difficult.”
Two years ago Hugh formed her own production company, Moonslinger, which works with Apple TV+ and Media Res to create, write, and produce content. Hugh’s intention in founding Moonslinger was that it would be a writer-supported, writer-driven company.
“Meaning a production company that made television and film that spoke to the heart and brain, but also was very much keyed into the writer’s experience,” said Hugh. “Especially coming from a writer’s background like me, because of our love of books and articles, it’s focused on IP. That’s been a backbone.”
Pachinko perfectly fits the company’s mandate by portraying a shared human experience, by telling a story that doesn’t feel cynical and by having an epic canvas. “I’m very much drawn to storytelling that is on a grand scale, yet feels intimate at the same time,” she said.
The family relocates to a farm during World War II.
Hugh previously worked as the co-showrunner for The Terror and created The Whispers for ABC. Her next project will be to write and direct a remake of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1934 novel Tender Is The Night. Hugh and Moonslinger Productions will also executive produce The White Darkness. In her role as Pachinko’s executive producer she’s on set for the whole shoot.
“What’s challenging is that we have three directors working, and some of them even shoot on the same day,” said Hugh. “So one director’s shooting these scenes and another director’s shooting a scene on another stage. And so I’m running back and forth between them.”
The most important criteria she seeks to reinforce is that the story being told must come across as believable.
“I feel like my number one job is to say I believe it, or I don’t believe it,” said Hugh. “Whether it’s in the writing or in production or in the post-production. My job is sometimes to say, I’m sorry, I just don’t believe it. So how do we make it believable?”
When adapting a book for TV or film, changes are often required, but Hugh tried to alter as little as possible, especially when it came to her favorite scenes from the book.
“We didn’t change much, but instead just colored outside the lines of the book,” she said. “My favorite passages in the book were when the family went to the rice farm. It wasn’t a rice farm in the book, but it was a farm during World War II, and it was this moment of such generosity to the characters in the book that I loved, because there’s this one moment where they could be together and it almost felt like the farm sequences could have been what it would have been like if Sunja stayed in Korea. It’s such a powerful part in the book. I knew that was going to be something that we really had to stay true to.”
The second season of Pachinko more than lives up the the promise of the first and in some ways dives deeper into the heart of what makes the whole story so appealing. Every character and every scene is believable, which is quite a testament to Hugh’s abilities as a producer. The show airs on Aug. 23 on Apple TV and will release episodes through October.
