Pachinko – Season 2 Episode 1 Recap & Review

Chapter Nine

Episode 1 of Pachinko season 2 starts with a train arriving at a station. Han-su is back in town, but conflicted over whether to choose to deal with the Soviets or the Americans with his lucrative stash of minerals (more on this later). We’re in the heart of Osaka in 1945, so we’re right in the midst of World War II. Rations are in full swing, which we see from none other than Sunja. She has her kimchi kart but things are tough.

Her sister is trying to find things to pickle but it’s not looking good. And just to compound the issue, American planes fly overhead and drop numerous letters, not bombs, from the sky. The note urges the people to stop the war by speaking to the Emperor, threatening that things will get worse if they don’t.

Those in the village are trained to protect their own and fight for their defence. Mozasu gets stuck in with stabbing the straw dummy, and it’s a nice way of visually showing the propaganda taught from a very young age.

Contrasting this is Noa, who starts to grow more disillusioned at school. Although he began his schoolyears all confident and proud of his family, he slowly starts to get more disinterested and disillusioned in what’s going on, growing up in Osaka rather than the heart of Korea. He’s been reading Tom Sawyer lately, and his mind is distracted.

Noa’s teacher notices and takes him aside one day after school, encouraging him to study hard so he can escape the slums. Noa refuses as he wants to be a pastor and is waiting for his father. However, Noa is given a book to help with entering university, and it happens to belong to a Go Young-Ho, which is a Korean name. So with this, it makes sense that his teacher would be watching over him, as he too is a Korean just like Noa. 

Sunja is luckier than most here as she’s getting by thus far thanks to her brother-in-law’s generosity. He was drafted to work in a munitions factory in Nagasaki last year, and the money he’s been sending is a godsend. However, lately they’re been paying him in promissory notes so unfortunately, Sunja is down to her last batch of kimchi. It’s also been three months since she received a letter from her mother.

Sunja is offered a chance to make extra money by selling rice wine. However, this is illegal and she could get in massive trouble if she’s caught. Sunja is intrigued though, especially as it means they could survive and she could save her children. She knows that the kids are hungry, especially Mozasu whose stomach she hears growl that night. The risks are high and Kyunghee has doubts when Sunja confides in her that night. Eventually she concedes, but under the promise that Sunja return to her every night.

Unfortunately, a raid at the black market sees Sunja arrested not long after this. Kyunghee tries to get the officer involved to help with sorting this, but they don’t need to. In fact, the officer there knows who Sunja is and while sentencing is read out, she’s let go.

This is Han-su’s doing, as it turns out, who has Mr Kim drive her up to his office. Remember the mineral we saw at the start of the episode? This is called Tungsten and its resistant to corrosion. It’s useful for airplanes, missiles and grenades, allowing the war to go ahead. Han-su is a key component in all this, it seems, and he explains that he’s actually hired Mr Kim to watch over Sunja all this time to make sure she’s okay.

Han-su warns that the Americans are going to strike soon and will level the whole city. Sunja refuses to believe any of this is real but as we know, it absolutely is.

In Tokyo 1989, Solomon’s past with Shiffley’s follows him as he heads over to an interview and tries to get a job. The trouble is, he has a black mark next to his name so it makes things tricky. He needs an investment but everyone turns him down. As Solomon himself comments, despite there being 11 million people in Tokyo, this really does feel like a village.

Abe-san is on the warpath and determined to try and stifle Solomon out of business. And so far, it’s working as he’s not managed to raise anything. As he speaks to Tetsuya about this at a restaurant, he decides to invest 200 million into his project. The reason? Solomon always looked out for him in the past, so this is his way of repaying that kindness.

This finally sees Solomon’s luck change, and he’s joined by Mozasu and Sun-ja who decide to invest $700,000 into his business. However, they also mortgaged the pachinko building in order to do this. Solomon starts to feel the pressure.

In fact, Tetsuya rings that afternoon and explains that Abe-san has heard about his investment and threatened him into submission. As a result, he’s withdrawing his money. Solomon is angry and upset and this boils over in the supermarket when he faces racist backlash from a Japanese vendor, who messes up their cake order. 

Back at the shop, Solomon speaks to Sunja and explains he can’t do this anymore. He rips up the investment cheque, claiming that he feels sorry for her, when really he’s protecting them as it’s just too high a risk. Solomon shows up to see Abe after all this, and a showdown looks set to ensue.

The Episode Review

Pachinko is back and the story here is split into our two timelines, one from 1945 and the other in 1989. This helps to break the story up (and of course harks back to the way the book is split into separate sections) and although slow, we do get a good amount of development for our two main protagonists.

Sunja is struggling to make ends meet and the pinch of wartime rations can be felt across Osaka. Everything is starting to get tougher and with her two kids struggling too, it’s enough for her to turn toward illegally selling rice wine. The fact that Han-su has been watching over her this whole time is a nice touch, while the show does well to end this timeline with Sunja and Han-su face to face once more.

Meanwhile, we get more drama with Solomon, whose woes involve not able to get an investment and everything looking like it’s going to come tumbling down sooner rather than later. You really feel for the guy and that ending with Abe promises a lot of drama to come.

The style and visuals remain true to season 1 so far and it’s nice to see that reworked intro as well. All in all, episode 1 gets off to a solid start and certainly has enough to whet the appetite ready for next week’s follow up.