Pachinko [Apple]

The Black Oil

Meanwhile in Korea...

Impressive trailer. Starts on March 25.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1r5XXJOYNA&ab_channel=AppleTV

Slydice

huh.. it's wierd.. the trailer looks well made but for some reason Apple has got itself a bad reputation my head

I feel somehow wary that the show might be pointless or something

I wonder who that's a bad sign for.. maybe the producers of Apple TV

The Black Oil

I wonder if a trailer for the Korean market would be different. Don't think Apple do social media on a regional basis, like Netflix.

I didn't get around to finishing The Morning Show...yet. Servant is good. Haven't checked out any of the sci-fi offerings.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

I read Pachinko last year and while I felt it was a little bit long, it was a good read, and it definitely felt like something ripe for adaptation. The trailer looks really good. A sprawling epic is probably the best way to describe it. It starts in Korea, covers the Japanese occupation, follows the family through WW2 and right up to the late 80s. There were a surprising amount of parallels between Irish/English history and Korean/Japanese history.

The book was a huge seller in the US, so I'm not sure they need to be marketing it at Korea, it might be the big show they need to shake that reputation of having nothing good. For what it's worth, The Morning Show is clearly their biggest show for some reason, but they have a lot of much better shows on offer. Dickinson, For All Man Kind, Mythic Quest, to name a few. But yeah, I'm excited for Pachinko.

4 episodes are directed by Kogonada, who directed Colombus (2017) and After Yang (2021) starring Colin Farrell, which is getting rave reviews at the moment. And then 4 eps are directed by Justin Chon, who wrote, directed, and starred in Blue Bayou last year.

The Black Oil

Did anyone check it out?

Slydice

No not yet.. hour longs episodes.. but damn.. look at those review scores.. currently 8.4/10 from 1.1k reviews on imdb and over on rotten tomatoes with the 98% critics / 93% audience

think I heard Grace mention it in some of her industry discussion videos too

right so.. let's do this!

Slydice

1: Ooookay. So it's divided between starting in 1915 and going to work it's way through to 1989.

The story of a Korean Family. Looks like it will mainly be connected through one character Sunja (daughter in 1915 through to grandmother 1989).

Well.. a whole bunch of not-good-things (TM) happened to Korea in between those years.

Spoiler Warning

The whole Japan being in Korea around 1915 giving me Irish thinking from the same time period. The seeing Blue and Yellow used in more than one way.. also giving more modern thinking. That can't hardly have been a choice.. the show must have been made from before the invasion .. although could it.

Not sure there's going to be much by way of action that the show won't try to just keep in the background. Feels like it's going to be more of a think-about-it and feel-about-it show.

Slydice

Right.. two in and I think the structure of it with the flash forward / flash backward reminds me a bit of Titanic.. but only loosely.

2: Well.. I think this laid the groundwork for a move to Japan. A bit of a mystery introduced with Hana.

I had to look up what a soapland was.. never heard of it before.

Wiki has some details on it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Types_of_prostitution_in_modern_Japan

PieOhMy

Enjoying this. Its a bit heavy going at times but I understand that's what the book was like too. Some really nice segways between the two eras subtly underlining the generational differences I.e painstakingly handwashing clothes in the river vs the modern grandson wearing his Jocks once and binning them and opening a fresh pair every morning / the overwhelming emotional impact of having korean rice served in the past vs the modern electronic rice cooker.

I often can't help but think of the parallels with with Irish experience in similar eras with going to London / new york (Brookyln Soaise Ronan).

One issue I have tho is that I don't quiet understand the function of role of the fish "broker" in the village and why it had such gravitas. I just assumed it was some type of local mob representative. I watched with a Korean they said the English translation in the subtitles is different from the term used in korean which escapes me now but I have asked them to remind me!

The Black Oil

A well-crated first episode, with emotion and a solid balance of character (forthright) and story.

JP Liz V1

Apple's Pachinko renewed for season 2

Cartman78

Only caught up with this in the last couple of weeks....

Absolutely stunning imho.

Will not be to everyone's taste for sure but easily the best thing I've watched in years.