Pachinko: How to Watch the Best Korean Drama & How Many Episodes Are There?

The incredible success of Squid Game has adjusted the ambitious plans of the streaming giants: Netflix has begun to finance Korean projects more often, and other platforms have decided to release more content from South Korea.

In 2022, for example, Apple TV+ released the first season of Pachinko, a big-budget historical drama based on the bestselling English-language novel of the same name.

What is Pachinko About?

At the beginning of the 20th century, Japan annexes Korea. The girl Sunja, who lives with her mother, almost gets raped – but she is saved by the new market inspector Koh Hansu.

An affair begins between them, Sunja quickly becomes pregnant, but ends the relationship when she finds out that the man is actually married and planned to treat Sunja as a mistress.

70 years later, Sunja's grandson, a young man named Solomon, arrives in Tokyo from the US. In his new job at the bank, he is entrusted with an important deal on which his promotion depends: he has to convince a Korean immigrant to sell her house.

He takes his grandmother with him to this important meeting – Sunja, who once left Korea for Japan, will certainly understand the feelings of a stubborn old woman clinging to a piece of land.

The Book and the Show Take Different Approaches But Both Tell a Poignant Story

The original source is linear and divided into three parts: in the first, Sunja lives in Korea, in the second, she migrates to Japan, and the third is devoted to the lives of her descendants and grandchildren – among other things, they get involved in the pachinko business.

These are popular slot machines in Asia whose mechanics are based not on the player's skill but on blind luck – hence the title of the book, which emphasizes that chance is important in life.

However, the series lacks this chronological sequence – instead, the viewer is told in the first episode that the main character will live until the end of the 1980s and will apparently give birth to someone, since she has a grandson.

The intrigue changes dramatically – if the reader waits to see how Sunja's path will end, the viewer guesses what horrors she has experienced between the beginning and the end of the story. In addition, by mixing the lives of Sunja and her relatives, the authors bring other characters to the fore, looking for parallels and differences between them.

Pachinko Season 1 Streaming & Season 2 Release Date

Pachinko is one of the most impressive and beautiful historical series of our time, which, unfortunately, has received less attention than it deserves.

However, one fact can make up for the lack of attention – Pachinko has been renewed for a second season and it will be released very soon. The second chapter of this touching story, consisting of eight episodes, will drop on Apple TV+ on August 23.

All eight episodes of Season 1 are also available to watch only on Apple TV+.