Soo Hugh, who created the Apple TV+ adaptation of Min Jin Lee’s bestselling novel, talks about the movies, historical events, and books that influenced the show.
When considering the many influences that went into making the unexampled Apple TV+ dramaPachinko , one must bulge out at the source : Min Jin Lee ’s bestselling family epic . Like the book , Pachinkotells the level of a family bequest , starting with Sunja , a untried lady friend born to modest parents who run a boarding house in Japanese - occupied Korea in the former 1900s . Over the course of eight episodes , the audience image a teenage Sunja ( Minha Kim ) become the mistress of a high - class Korean fishwife , a married woman to a seedy parson , and a female parent put forward two Korean sons as an immigrant in Japan . At the same clock time , Pachinkochronicles an older Sunja , now a nanna ( dally byYoun Yuh - jung ) who must present her past after her grandson , Solomon ( Jin Ha ) , repay home .
Though the bone of the report remain the same , accommodate a 500 - Sir Frederick Handley Page novel into an eight - episode series involve many changes . Some of these change came from the series ' growing . God Almighty and showrunner Soo Hugh ( Under the Dome , The Terror ) originally envisionedPachinkoas four seasons ; as such , the first time of year only shroud about one - twenty-five percent of the book . But other changes were inspire by Hugh ’s own historical research and her desire to tell a account that honour the experience of Korean immigrant who experience favoritism in Japan in the 1900s .
As Season 1 ofPachinkoaired , Hugh spoke to Thrillist about what root on the many differences between the record book and the show , and why it was so important for her to have that killer first step - credits sequence .
Yuh-Jung Youn and Soji Arai in ‘Pachinko.'|AppleTV+
The Godfather
One major deviation between the book and the boob tube show is how it ’s severalize . Lee’sPachinkounfolds linearly , but Hugh ’s version entrap the story first through Solomon , Sunja ’s Japan - tolerate grandson , who returns to Japan for workplace . The show bound back and forth between two main timelines : Sunja ’s youthfulness and her grandson ’s takings in the 1980s . Francis Ford Coppola’sGodfathertrilogy was a key influence for Hugh , who was specifically exhort byThe Godfather Part IIto see how Coppola integrated the Corleone family line past with the present .
When I pitched this to Apple and the vendee , [ Godfather II ] was one of the references that I said . Godfather IIin lore has now become a criminal offence story , but when you really watch the moving-picture show , especially the first two movies , it ’s a fellowship story . And crime is decidedly an constituent of that phratry , but at the heart it is a account about , “ What does a family become ? What are the choices a family pull in ? ” And so that was in spades a big breathing in for us in the writer ’s room , specially the second moving picture .
I eff how in the second movie , even though Marlon Brando is not in it , you ’re still taking on the myth of that male parent figure with a De Niro character . … now I feel like Francis Ford Coppola would ’ve made theGodfathers a idiot box show .
When I was much vernal , I had seenThe Godfather Part Ion TV . They actually put [ Part IIandPart III ] together . They televised a rendering where they put the two films together and had to re - blue-pencil it . And I thought it was a lesson in what not to do with meter . Because by making things too smooth in those clock time jumps in that TV variant , you actualize time loses its energy . But sometimes some of that ambiguity and some of that question of how these timelines relate to one another gives it that spark .
Historical texts and the labor movement of 1930s Korea and Japan
For Hugh , write the show was n’t just about have the menage epic onto the screen — it was about expanding the taradiddle . That meant research — and lot of it — in the form of diachronic texts and 20 history consultants , including those specializing in “ Nipponese history , Korean account , and colonization . ” As she learned more about the account of Koreans in Japan , Hugh decided to pull off the history of Isak , Sunja ’s minister husband . In the book , Isak is arrested after another pastor reject to pledge fealty to the emperor , but in the show , Isak is arrested for malcontent acts against the Nipponese government activity .
As I was digging more and more into the story of this time period and working with various historians and consultants , I just live on down the rabbit trap of 1930s politics in Japan , peculiarly the politics of the undertaking movement and the plight of so many of these marginalize communities in Japan at the sentence . I desperately wanted to see more example of people who judge to fight back or seek to create a better life for their children , who said , “ These are terrible circumstances , but I ’m going to keep fighting and I ’m going to keep yearn for a better Clarence Shepard Day Jr. . ” And it was such a fascinating time in history that I really wanted to fetch that political relation into the show .
The Great Kantō earthquake of 1923
Hugh ’s research also led her tothe Kantō seism , which hit the Tokyo - Yokahama region on September 1 , 1923 . The quake ’s wallop was monolithic , with a death toll believed to number at least 140,000 . In the backwash , Korean immigrants became scapegoats , with rumors that they were bestow to the wipeout . This led to massacres , and theSmithsonianreports that an forecast 6,000 Koreans were vote down as a result . That urge another major change from the playscript : give Sunja ’s upper - class lover , Hansu ( Lee Min - Ho ) , a backstory in Episode 7 . In the book , Hansu is much more of a villain who seduces a much - younger Sunja and leave alone her meaning and unmarried , but Hugh wanted a unlike glide path for the show .
[ In ] the research that I was doing about Korean history in Japan , I came across the Kantō temblor . I had never heard of the Kantō quake ; I had never known about just what a devastation it was upon Japan . And then to take heed about the violence that came upon the Koreans , I was really offend by it , but more of import that I realized [ it answered so many of ] my questions about Hansu : “ Who is he ? Where did he come from ? How does someone like him become that way ? ” All of a sudden , things just start to realign themselves in this really elegant way of life . And I thought about the Kantō earthquake , and all of a sudden in couch him with that screen background and that story , he became a fully fleshed , three - dimensional character to me .
I ’m not concerned in doing Hero of Alexandria and scoundrel . I just do n’t believe it represents life at all . And I do n’t think it represents the ambitions or the heart of a show like this , which just say , " We ’re endure to secernate the narration about a kaleidoscope of humanity in our own way . " And that intend masses have to have backgrounds . hoi polloi have to have had a life lived . And whether or not you like a character , you have to accept them as human . And so with Hansu , I find [ him ] to be an extremely complicated figure of speech , [ but ] when I think about the Kantō quake , it just makes that character sense more lived - in .
Marlon Brando in ‘The Godfather.'|Paramount Pictures
Hidden Treasures: Lives of First-Generation Korean Women in Japanby Jackie Kim
Hugh says that the author all show countless historical text “ to ensure that the story ring as lawful as possible , ” but she especially took inspiration fromHidden Treasures , a piece of work by Jackie Kim that enliven the ending of the season , which let in veridical interviews with women who immigrated from Korea to Japan at the same sentence as Sunja .
I was so revolutionize after read her leger because she has really dedicated her life to capture the final , the unwritten testimonies of these first - generation . There ’s not that many of them left with us . … So it just feel urgent that we endeavor to capture as many of their tale as potential . And so her book was very seminal for us .
Originally I think it would be dainty to end the whole intact series — if it was meant to be four seasons — with finally meeting these woman , and reminding audience that these characters that you ’ve lived through for all these year , their tale total from actual events that happen , even though we ’re not a true level . … And as our first season went on as we were writing and during the prep , I just had this flavor of like , " You never have it away when a series is lead to issue forth back . You do n’t know how long it ’s choke to take . And also , I do n’t know how many more years some of these women have . ”
A scene from Tokyo after the Great Kantō earthquake.|Photo by NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images
I just finger an unbelievable urging about those interviews . … And at the end of the Clarence Shepard Day Jr. , I told myself , “ I have it away these women . I make love their stories . I love the bravery that it train for them to tell their stories at their long time . ” And so I need the audience to feel that as well .
Gordon Parks’ photography
Pachinkorejects the melodic theme that everything in the past times has to be sepia - toned or wash away - out to betoken meter go by . rather , the show is full of profuse , pale colors , return a vivacious energy to Sunja ’s youth in Korea and Japan . But for Hugh , the inspiration for thePachinkocolor pallet actually come from iconic black - and - clean photographerGordon Parks .
What I love about Gordon Parks ’ color and his framing is his blacks . I feel like so much of TV and motion picture nowadays , I miss ink-black black . But the reason why I think that color palette work really , really well and does n’t feel just virgin nostalgic is because we have these harsh , tough Shirley Temple Black in the frame as well to balance the creaminess . One of the words in the color cortege we always said was " creamy , creamy , creamy . ” Where ’s the soupiness in this image ? But whenever we have that creaminess , it had to be balanced by black .
Opening-credits sequences
Pachinkofeatures aninfectious chess opening - credit rating sequencethat invites the chief cast of characters to dance in the pachinko parlor run by Mozasu ( Soji Arai ) , Sunja ’s son and Solomon ’s father . The sequence is the only prison term the actors from the past and present intersect , and was inspired mainly by Hugh ’s own love of first step credit rating .
I wrote the championship sequence into the script . I love the title of respect sequence . I just come from the background where I learn form of address chronological sequence sacredly and I will Google title succession and just determine title sequence . I mean they ’re very much an art course , and a good title sequence tonally sets the stagecoach for that cinematic experience .
The mandate for all the title sequence always is we do something that [ the audience is ] never going to bound off over . They have to see it week - to - week .
Gordon Parks (1912-2006) stands next to one of his most famous images, ‘American Gothic,’ which depicts a cleaning woman holding a mop and broom beneath a large American flag.|Photo by John Pineda/Getty Images
The Joy Luck Club
It ’s impossible to look at the chronicle of Asiatic stories being enjoin in Hollywood without look atThe Joy Luck Club , Wayne Wang ’s 1993 adaptation of the book by Amy Tan , and magnificently the only Hollywood motion picture with an all - Asiatic cast untilCrazy Rich Asianswas released in 2018 . ThoughThe Joy Luck Clubdidn’t straightaway influencePachinko , Hugh made sure to give the motion-picture show credit for breaking roadblock .
We ’ve always enounce , “ lease ’s do the show the style we need to do the show . ” I think every write up require to be told in its own unique elbow room , but without a doubt , Pachinkowould not be here withoutThe Joy Luck Club . I owe such a huge debt toThe Joy Luck Club , and not justJoy Luck Club , but toMinari , toSquid Game . And even non - Asian movies that broke land — without them , we would not be here , period .
‘The Joy Luck Club’ grossed $32.9 million in 1993.|Buena Vista Pictures
