‘Pachinko’ Is a Multigenerational Saga Whose Time Jumps Sap Its Power: TV Review
variety.comDaniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticThere’s a beautifully drawn moment in the fourth episode of “Pachinko,” Apple TV Plus’ new cross-generational epic, in which a young woman (Minha Kim) is served white rice as a final meal in Korea before setting out to the unknown.
It’s moving on its merits — this character, Sunja, has already been through a great deal, and a meal lovingly prepared by her mother (Inji Jeong) has a certain symbolic weight all its own.
But it’s bolstered by our knowledge, conveyed in the episode before, that, later in life, Sunja (played in old age by Oscar-winner Yuh-Jung Youn) reminisced about the quality of Korean rice, noting that it had “nuttier” flavor and “a bit of a harder chew;” later in life, she’d tell her grandson it was “a luxury.” That’s an example of “Pachinko” using its central device — an eagerness to hop around in time and geography — elegantly.
We know that Sunja went her whole life remembering the subtle changes in how rice tasted between her birthplace and her adoptive home of Japan. “Pachinko’s” story, of one Korean family’s journey from the aftermath of the Japanese invasion of their home nation in 1910 up to 1989, can in numerous instances throughout gain resonance and emotive power from connections established in unusual or roundabout ways.
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