Pachinko Star Explains the Big Changes in Season 2

As Pachinko returns for a second season on Apple TV+, Sunja’s (Minha Kim) story is taking a jump forward in time. The hit, Emmy-nominated series follows four generations of the Baek family, between 1910 and 1989. Set across multiple time periods, Kim portrays the younger version of Sunja, the Baek family matriarch, through the ’30s and ’40s. Season 1 followed Sunja as she emigrated from Korea to Japan, and Season 2 is jumping ahead to one of the most significant years in Japanese history, 1945.

Pachinko

4.5/5

Created by Soo Hugh, Pachinko is a Drama series created for Apple TV that was released in 2022. The series stars Soji Arai, Jun-woo Han, and Jin Ha. The series follows multiple characters as they attempt to navigate their lives in New York, Japan, and Korea.

Release Date

March 25, 2022

Cast

Eun-chae Jung , Jin Ha , Kaho Minami , Yuh-Jung Youn , In-ji Jeong , Lee Min-ho , Jimmi Simpson , Jun-woo Han , Anna Sawai , Min-ha Kim , Soji Arai , Steve Sanghyun Noh

Streaming Service(s)

Apple TV+

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In an exclusive interview with MovieWeb, Minha Kim explained the show’s time jump, and how she prepared to play an older version of her character in the new season. Kim explained that Sunja had become used to the hardships of surviving in Japan, especially after raising her two sons without her husband. Even towards the end of the Second World War, Sunja is so used to having to fight for survival, that she remains strong as the war reaches Japan’s home front. However, Sunja isn’t entirely independent in Season 2, as she unexpectedly re-unites with Hansu (Lee Min-ho). Minha Kim said:

“There’s a huge time jump… So I tried to melt those time [periods] into my character, while keeping the personality that’s shown in the first season. But I had to make it different… I felt like she’s [becoming] more strong, and she’s got deeper… But when World War Two started, and all this chaos, and all the horrible things happened around her, again, she’s so used to the survival… She would think [about] how to survive, how to protect [her] family. And, in that moment, Hansu appears, and he leads [her] family to the countryside.”

Minha Kim Explains Sunja & Hansu’s New Relationship

When Sunja started a new life for herself and her children in Japan during Season 1, a large shadow loomed over her… that of her old fling (and father of her first son) Hansu. Unlike Sunja, who has to fight to keep her children fed, Hansu uses his extensive wealth and influence to keep tabs on, and secretly control Sunja and their son Noa. Season 2 dives deeper into their relationship as the pair formerly re-unite at the tail end of World War II.

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As Season 2 peels back the numerous layers of their relationship, Minha Kim explained the conversations she had with her co-star Lee Min-ho about their characters’ new on-screen dynamic. Kim explained that, despite Sunja’s disdain for Hansu, their son brings them closer together as they escape the bombing by American soldiers and flee to the countryside. Kim said:

“On-set [and] off-set we had a lot of conversations about their new relationship. For the second season, their relationship is not just about the romantic love, but, i think they become more of a family in the second season, because they have a kid… and they keep having conversations about how to raise [Noa]. So Min-ho and I had a lot of conversations about that… And, besides that, we share our emotions, and [what] we think about our characters. I’ve that the love towards Hansu [from] Sunja is quite complicated, which I cannot [define].”