- 1 week ago
The stars and creators explain why their favorite installment of Apple TV+’s epic drama "feels the most deeply Korean."
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00:00Welcome to The Hollywood Reporter's A Closer Look.
00:13I'm Rebecca Sun, Senior Editor at THR,
00:16and I'm here today with the cast and crew of Pachinko from Apple TV.
00:19Welcome, you guys.
00:20Hello.
00:21Hi.
00:22So Pachinko is pretty different from most other TV series that have ever been seen.
00:29You know, in this country.
00:31Let me start by asking the producers,
00:33why did you believe that this story could be adapted and could be made
00:37both from a creative standpoint, but also from a practical industry standpoint?
00:43Well, I think for, if I can speak for Michael and myself and Sue,
00:47there definitely was a bit of an audacity to think we can even get something like this made.
00:52And having this cast, having this crew, and Sue's vision really masterminding all of it,
00:59that gave us a confidence, Michael loved the book, I love the book,
01:04and Sue's capacity to write and showrun it.
01:07You put all those things together and you can actually see a plan.
01:11And, you know, how do you get it ordered?
01:13How do you get it greenlit?
01:14All those things sort of coming into place once you have a creative vision.
01:17But I will say the idea of making a show that's trilingual,
01:22mostly all Asian cast, and while not a Game of Thrones budget,
01:28it needs to be produced smartly.
01:31Those are all things that were hard to achieve, certainly.
01:34But it also was an incredibly universal story at the end of the day.
01:37So while deeply Korean, and a real story about Koreans who live in Japan,
01:42Zainichi, it's really a story about any family.
01:45It's a global family story.
01:47Michael, I mean, I think that we've had conversations before about timing.
01:53Do you feel, though, that like if this was 10 years ago,
01:55or that like something like Pachinko could exist?
01:59It could not.
01:59Like the changes, you know, streaming is a giant part of why this is possible,
02:06which is, you know, there are companies that are seeking a global audience
02:11from the beginning, and so from the, when we were designing this,
02:15there was always a notion of it being a global show, a global,
02:18and could be a global hit and success.
02:21And where the, from the beginning, the fact that it would appeal in Korea
02:25and in America would be a reason to do it.
02:28And just no broadcaster was thinking that way a decade ago.
02:32So that was, that was maybe the business opportunity we saw.
02:34And then the cultural opportunity, both to add to what Teresa was saying,
02:39Korean cinema had been incredible for eons and had been global in every sense
02:44for quite a while.
02:46K-drama, if you were paying attention, was global for, also for quite a while
02:51at that point, and was huge in East Asia, in America, in Latin America.
02:55So if you were looking closely, you could see that there was a unique opportunity
02:58to do a real premium Korean story that could play uniquely to an American audience,
03:05an Asian American audience, and an East Asian audience,
03:07and then hopefully the rest of the world.
03:09And yeah, so without Apple, this wouldn't have been possible.
03:13Sue, tell me about, you know, I think one of the most striking
03:16and immediate features of the adaptation is the decision to,
03:20instead of using the linear structure of the novel,
03:23to really tell these generations stories in tandem with each other.
03:29Tell me a little bit about your reasoning, you know, and again,
03:32it might be both creative and from a practical standpoint
03:34of why you decided to weave timelines together like that.
03:39It was completely a creative decision.
03:40I think there was no cynicism at all involved in the decision to do,
03:45to follow the different generations.
03:47For me, my way into the story, this is a book that I loved
03:50and I found to be extremely just groundbreaking.
03:55But my creative angle into this show is how do you follow generational trauma
03:59through the decades and through generations?
04:01That's a story I have never seen before.
04:03As beautiful as Sunja is, I've grown up with the Sunjas.
04:07There's a Sunja for all of us.
04:09So I think all of us as creators and talents,
04:12we want to do something that's never been done before.
04:14We're constantly wanting to break new ground.
04:16And for me, that story of generational trauma felt like the light bulb.
04:19Speaking of the different generations, let's talk a little bit about casting.
04:23And, you know, tell me about, I mean, these are all incredibly difficult parts to cast.
04:29You know, we have Minha who plays Sunja in the pivotal, you know,
04:34sort of young adulthood of her life.
04:35And then Jan who plays her grandson in movie magic, you know.
04:41But, you know.
04:43It's a lot of prosthetics.
04:44It's a lot of prosthetic work for Sunja.
04:46But tell me about the casting and, you know, why, you know,
04:50for these two actors in particular and maybe some of the other cast members
04:53who aren't here, you know, what it was about them
04:55that sort of made you feel confident that they could embody these parts.
05:00Well, it was something that we decided to torture them
05:02and put them through months and months of auditions.
05:05And this was a pretty grueling process.
05:07And with Kay, Justin, and me, the three of us,
05:10you know, we've been living with these characters for years now, right?
05:13So, like, they form in our imagination.
05:16And I think the onus on them is are you going to meet the expectations
05:20that we've imagined or are you going to bring something new to the table, right?
05:24And that's what the audition process was so long.
05:27And this is a show they're going to carry for years.
05:31It's not just, you know, the ambition has always been four seasons.
05:35Sunja's character, Salman's character, where they start off
05:38and where they end, it's an enormous arc.
05:41So, we had to just really make sure that they were going to be able to accomplish all that.
05:46And we're still figuring that out now.
05:48Yeah, we're still finding that out.
05:50Thankfully, you'll still have opportunities to do so.
05:52Yeah, absolutely.
05:53Are you serious?
05:55Do you think you don't want to make a mistake?
05:58Do you think you're going to marry me and marry me?
06:04It's not my face.
06:05It's not my face.
06:35You know, Minha, I've asked you before about what about your character sort of remains
06:46the same as, you know, she, her life changes in this journey.
06:49But now I want to ask you the other question, which is how do you think, how, how has Soon-Jae
06:54changed from when we first meet her in the village, you know, sort of this innocent teenager
06:59to where she is at the end of season one?
07:01But what were the choices you made about how she could appear different?
07:06She had to decide it a lot, like, but she's fast and she's really flexible and she do whatever
07:14that makes, that could protect her family and herself.
07:18So like, like in season one, there's a lot of obstacles that Soon-Jae is facing.
07:25And for my Soon-Jae, I thought that even though she is confronting so many shocking news, she
07:35just keep thinking like what to do.
07:38And she's not afraid of crashing down.
07:40So, which means she's really honest.
07:44So like every time she is like overcoming and finding the solutions of something really terrible,
07:50she's just being really honest.
07:51So like that's how she reinforced her like sturdy disposition and the, um, the way she's
08:02thinking.
08:03It's just getting so much like an adult, but even though she's adult, she's like 23 years old.
08:09Like she's a kid, but she's also having two kids and like, oh my God, I cannot spoil this.
08:22Yeah.
08:23But still, um, she's losing a lot of things, but also gaining a lot of things from that process.
08:29So at the end of the season one, um, uh, starting from the episode one, she's kind of like naive
08:37and innocent girl, but at the end, she becomes really strong.
08:44Even though she looks so strong at the end of the season, she has more journey to go on
08:48to become more, like more strong.
08:51So like, I think it's kind of not for the Sanja, it's like journey for everyone.
08:56So yeah, that's how I really wanted to keep in mind.
09:01You can see similarities between Sun Jin and Solomon in this sense that they're both very
09:05resilient, they're survivors, but I feel like they approach that very differently, you know,
09:12and for Solomon to me, and you can tell me if you have a different interpretation, Jin,
09:17he's kind of a chameleon.
09:18Was that your approach to the character and, and why is, why is Solomon the way that he
09:24is?
09:25Oh boy.
09:26I mean, I think that's the question that he's grappling with, that we see him grapple with,
09:31um, more obviously as the season goes on.
09:34Um, it's exactly the, the skeletons in his closet that you touched on, that we see him
09:42sort of finally, A, looking at it, addressing it, and then perhaps starting at the end of the
09:48thing to have a reckoning with it, maybe, you know, it turns when he has the conference
09:52room, uh, scene with the landlady and everyone's gathered and, um, uh, I guess we can just speak
09:59without concern of spoiler, is that correct?
10:01Pause here, watch the whole show, come back.
10:03Yes, we can do that.
10:04Hey, thanks for coming back.
10:05Uh, eight hours later, appreciate you.
10:08Um, the, uh, yeah, so it just, when he decides to essentially, um, close, like crash his own
10:16deal that he's been working so hard to finalize, that is such a big turning point for Solomon,
10:23because that is a, um, I think he's looking, you know, at himself almost through the landlady,
10:31he's looking at himself for the first time in a way that he hasn't, maybe in, in, ever.
10:36Um, and it just happens to manifest itself in the most pivotal moment of this, like, deal
10:42of his life, but it doesn't matter, it's still so powerful that the ghosts of his past have
10:48come through the landlady in her speech and, um, and it connects with Solomon at that time.
10:54Um, so in that sense, to go back, I think, how did we create Solomon?
10:59I mean, those are the exact questions that we had as well of how does he carry himself
11:03in all these different spaces?
11:04He is exactly a chameleon.
11:05I would have used the same terminology.
11:07Um, I think it's, it's an experience that's super understood, I think, by a lot of people.
11:13I certainly understood it from my Korean American immigrant perspective of having been plopped
11:18in spaces where I am one, uh, one among, you know, one of many, you know what I mean?
11:25Like I am the one in a large crowd of people who do not look like me or do not have the
11:29same background and it's, it requires a lot of, uh, versatility and, um, adroit assimilation
11:39that sort of can become a part of somebody's second nature.
11:45Do you know what I mean?
11:45I think that's where Solomon, we meet Solomon where it's these code switchings and these
11:49mask wearing and taking off and, and the different personas of his have become such a deeper part
11:55of his innate self and identity when we meet him.
11:58Uh, and we see it sort of stripping as the season goes on because of outside circumstances
12:04and changes.
12:05And, um, I think, I believe in season two, it'll maybe get to a place where like, maybe there's
12:10more of a, he has to deal with the different pieces of himself.
12:15And ask the questions of who am I, where do I belong?
12:17Cause I'm not actually sure Solomon knows at this point.
12:20Yeah.
12:21Um, and there's a lot more technical, obviously of like how we got into building the actual
12:25facets of Solomon, but that's, that's, uh, another longer conversation.
12:29But I mean, even that scene that you were telling, talking about, you know, when the landlady's
12:34about to sign the deal, he's about to basically make his career and land that actual promotion.
12:39And, you know, that's where, again, the way in which this show uses language so cleverly,
12:44and that's something that you can really only feel the full effect of on the screen, you
12:48know, cause the landlady, she's initially speaking in Japanese, but then she switches to Korean
12:54and everybody's like what she's saying.
12:55Exactly.
12:56It's a dagger.
12:57I mean, even for me too, having grown up, having left Korea at a very young age, I still speak
13:02Korean.
13:03I spoke Korean at home, but there is something innately emotional about the language for me,
13:09uh, as someone who grew up hearing it, that was my first language, but I went to international
13:14school in Hong Kong.
13:15So I learned English technically first in schools.
13:19And so I remember even in grad school, I was used, you know, I would, one of the tools that
13:22I would try to use, I was working on Uncle Vanya at the time and something I was using
13:26was like, oh, I found that listening to Korean music and hearing the stories weaved in, you
13:31know, emotional songs in Korean had a completely profound effect on me that was different from
13:36if I was just listening to music with English lyrics.
13:39And so similarly, I felt, I imagine that's the same thing that Solomon felt when the landlady
13:43suddenly switches and it's speaking to him in this mother tongue of his, truly his mother
13:47tongue.
13:48And I, I, for me, I was at least relating to that in the, on the day when we were shooting
13:52it, I remembered that, um, I mean, it's, that's why I love that we did it in the languages
13:57that we did, because like in Shakespeare, when they switch from verse to prose, the moments
14:03of the change is sometimes the most significant.
14:06And so similarly, I think for us, it's when and why they switch from Japanese to Korean or
14:11vice versa to me are some of the most fascinating details that we have in our show.
14:15Yeah.
14:16And, and the, I mean, also just the innovation of the color coding to do that for people who
14:20don't understand.
14:21I've never seen that in, in anything else.
14:23And that's what a brilliant way to like kind of go about that.
14:27Um, so, you know, that, that episode we're talking about 104, Justin, that was your first
14:32episode.
14:33Um, did you, did you shoot your, for at least, I know that you guys did the insane thing
14:38where you and Coconata were like shooting episodes at the same time, but did you at least do your
14:42episodes in order?
14:43Hell no.
14:44That's not how the show was designed.
14:46That would be too easy.
14:47Yeah, yeah, yeah.
14:48No, it's not in order.
14:49Right.
14:50So Justin, as a director, what was your approach?
14:54Like, I mean, you know, you and your cinematographer, did you guys really work and were you very agnostic?
14:58Uh, no, they're actually very different the way I shot it.
15:03Um, and this is like nerd talk, but, but, uh, you know, we shot all the stuff, uh, that's
15:10early 1900s handheld anamorphic.
15:13So you can see a wide screen.
15:15You can see more and then, um, on vintage lenses.
15:19And then, and then, uh, you know, all the stuff that Solomon's doing is, you know, there's
15:23a sleek sleekness to it and he's doing business deals and everything.
15:27So I use, you know, steady cam, techno cranes, dollies on a very clinical German lens.
15:32And then everything for older Sonja was just on sticks, no camera movement.
15:37It was just because she's so much more retrospect, uh, you know, introspective and thinking about
15:42the past constantly.
15:43So we put it on, on sticks so it would have a very steadiness to it.
15:47Um, so, you know, but I think, I think each of those things, like, it doesn't matter.
15:54It's just, it's, it's the only thing that matters is how does it make you feel?
15:57And that's what we were concerned about.
15:59But you didn't direct different.
16:01The, I think the brilliance of the conceit and the design was that by doing past and present
16:06together, the, the, the past wasn't treated as different than the present, right?
16:11Like, so, uh, there isn't an artificial formality or a stiffness to it.
16:15Um, and that's all over both the direction, the performance, the writing, all of it.
16:19Uh, so that rather than see the past as something else and the present, and we're so much, you
16:24know, more advanced and more natural and organic, um, it's one aesthetic, it's one sensibility.
16:29I think I was the genius of the concept, which, uh, of Su's approach, which was, um, there
16:34is no past.
16:35Like, it's all present, actually.
16:36I'll show you the best.
16:40Fine.
16:40So, let's see.
16:41So, let's see what happens.
16:45Okay.
16:46Let's see what happens.
16:50What happens!
16:51Let's see!
16:52Let's see what happens.
16:53Let's see what happens.
16:57What happens!
17:05It's been a long time for us to live in the middle of the city.
17:12But what do you want to do with you?
17:15You want to do it with me?
17:18What do you want to do with you?
17:21What do you want to do with you?
17:26It's our best friend.
17:31I have never thought about the phrase flashback.
17:34Never once entered my mind watching this.
17:38It didn't feel like a flashback.
17:39It felt just like these parallel timelines unfurling
17:45and you get a sense that if Soonja does something,
17:48if your character Soonja does something,
17:51that it would just immediately have a butterfly effect.
17:55Right?
17:56And what was happening there.
17:58However, it was a very simple story,
18:00and what was happening in the past.
18:03So speaking of the complicated, masochistic production,
18:07you know, you guys shot things simultaneously,
18:11shot episodes simultaneously.
18:12Overall, the production spanned multiple countries,
18:17you know, multilingual, multinational cast.
18:19We did exteriors mostly in Korea
18:21and interiors we built in Vancouver, including,
18:25it was so much fun.
18:26We built this interior room on a gimbal
18:29that to mimic the earthquake.
18:31And we could have charged people money
18:33because it was such a great ride.
18:34Because it was, it was amazing.
18:37But you did need to make sure
18:38if there were exterior, interior,
18:40like I heard that there was things about like
18:41making sure the dust was going to be the same.
18:44Like the dust in Vancouver was going to look the same
18:47as the dust in Korea.
18:49Do you know how much we talked about dust in this show?
18:51It was an incredible feat that Sue and Koganata,
18:54who directed the episode too,
18:56because it really was a distinct world
18:59from everything else.
19:00So in this, as Justin was discussing,
19:02you're filming both shows simultaneously.
19:04And in essence, then you're making, really,
19:05there's three productions.
19:07There's two shows, and then there's a third movie
19:09you're prepping, which is episodes,
19:11yes, a prequel film.
19:13And somewhere in the middle of all the chaos,
19:15it held together.
19:17And Sue always had an idea about filming it differently
19:21and the different films and different color scheme
19:24that I employed.
19:25And the shock of Ohansu is,
19:30he makes choices and he's responsible for those choices
19:33and we won't spoil them.
19:34But similar to Solomon or Sundar or anyone else,
19:39you know, those choices came from somewhere very human
19:42and very, very extraordinary, but emotionally relatable.
19:46Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
19:47Yeah, I mean, and we should note that that whole episode
19:50is wholly original to the series.
19:52You know, we don't get that level of detail
19:55in the original novel.
19:58So since this video series is called A Closer Look,
20:01I wanted to really just dive in
20:03and take a closer look at one of the episodes.
20:05And, you know, we've already talked about it, 104.
20:07Sue, you've said that this is your,
20:09you told me that once that this was your favorite episode.
20:11Why is that?
20:12I know you're not supposed to choose one of your babies,
20:14but, you know, even from the writing,
20:16I remember I texted you, Justin, from the hair salon
20:18saying 104 is the best episode, you know.
20:21No pressure.
20:21No pressure.
20:22And then you saw what Justin did.
20:24I think specifically that sequence with the rice
20:28when Yang Jin makes the rice
20:29and the mandate on Justin and Koganata from all of us
20:32was this has to be iconic.
20:34And then when I saw what Justin did,
20:38yeah, it was extremely emotional.
20:40I have never cried over rice
20:42and I've eaten a lot of it in my life.
20:45So that was, and I want to get to that.
20:48But it's funny because Minha,
20:49you and I have also spoken about
20:51what your proudest work in the whole series has been.
20:54And you actually also mentioned
20:56scenes that happen in 104.
20:58It's been a long time for me.
21:28Tell me a little bit about how you sort of access the emotion.
21:54Well, in episode 4, I had to say a lot of goodbye to Dong Hee, Bo Ki, and to Yang Jin, and to my house and to my country.
22:06Like, how scary it is to leave my home and never know when we're gonna meet together again.
22:15Back then, we don't have anything about, like, we don't have any iPhone, we don't have any email.
22:21And, of course, Sun Ja and Yang Jin couldn't read.
22:24So, they cannot send any, you know, message.
22:27So, I was like, I was just thinking about my mom too.
22:31And right before I was shooting the scene where Yang Jin and I say goodbye, my mom sent me a message that, you know what, I miss my mom too.
22:43So, I was like, at that moment, I was just, oh my god, this is crazy.
22:50My mom, because I always thought my mom is just my mom.
22:55Never thought of her as my grandmother's son, I mean daughter.
22:58So, that made me, I don't know why, but my mom only sent me a message, you know, by timing.
23:07No, no.
23:08But she always sent me that.
23:10So, especially when I was in a foreign country, because she missed me so much.
23:15So, like, she sent me a lot of messages, and every time she sent me the message, it just motivated me so much.
23:22So, right before we were shooting that scene, and also right before we were shooting the scene where Yang Jin gave me the right prize with Isak.
23:37In Ji, who played the role for Yang Jin, yeah, she was, like, adjusting my clothes, and she was saying, how can I let you go before the camera was on?
23:52It was like, you made me so, like, it made me so, like, crazy.
23:56So, I think, like, people around me helped me so much to be in that moment.
24:04I don't know why, but, yeah, they helped me so much, too.
24:08So, I mean, it just came from the honesty, not from the head.
24:15So, that's how I deal with this emotions.
24:19That makes sense.
24:20You know, Justin, in directing this episode, because you're an actor yourself.
24:24And so, aside from all of the logistical and technical aspects of a director, I'm curious, and Jin and Minha, you can feel free to weigh in, too, is do you bring that area of expertise to your notes in terms of directing performances?
24:39You know, frankly, that's the exciting part for me, is working with these two.
24:45I'm, I'm lockstep emotionally with them.
24:50So, if it's not making me emotional behind the camera, then I think there's something wrong.
24:55So, it's, you know, and I just, I just, I'm such a proponent for actors when I'm directing that I'm truly trying to see what they need and, and, you know, help them get to wherever they need to go.
25:10But, but, you know, man, you know, Minha had so many emotional scenes in our episodes that it just, and again, you know, the craziness of this production.
25:20We're shooting something one day that's from episode eight, next scene is something from episode four.
25:26And, and the, the sort of emotional rollercoaster she had to go on was so insane.
25:33And then Jin, you know, his, just all that language technicals, I just couldn't believe it.
25:40Like we, we did this, you know, and, and we did this one scene and it was, I think, like seven pages or something entirely in Japanese.
25:49Oh my God. And Jin is not a native Japanese speaker.
25:53No, I don't, my studies now.
25:55Yeah, but incredible just watching.
25:58So yeah, I'm a fan. Like I'm a fan of these two and I, I really loved working in that capacity.
26:04So yeah.
26:19Oh my God.
26:32I was just going to say, this episode that Justin directed 104, the feedback that we've
27:00gotten is that it feels the most deeply Korean. And through that, everyone who's non-Korean relates to that episode as if it's their own family. And so I've heard from so many people who are Korean and non that that opened up for them to talk about their own family experiences within their family.
27:22Just to echo what Justin was talking about in terms of his directing style as well. It was in addition to the trust that was already there because there's an understanding of what we have to do in front of the camera.
27:33There was also a sense of play as well, which I really appreciated. I mean, every director is very different. And I like working with all different types of directors because I think it's fascinating to the languages, the shorthand that we can create in a quick amount of time.
27:48But with Justin, there was a lot of like, what I appreciated was, we've got a shot of what we needed or what we, you know, our first impression of maybe the scene or the choices.
27:58And then while we're still rolling, it'll be like, okay, let's just try, like, give me a couple of different, you know, takes of that with like, maybe try with this color or like this sort of subtext or this something.
28:07And that it was a lot more of like, you know, felt like, I mean, all of my projects kind of feel like this a little bit, but it's like just a group of friends, like we're in a cul-de-sac, like you're shooting something like, ooh, can we just try that again?
28:20Like, let's do it this way. Like, you know, while we're still, the camera's still rolling and it's just keeping it like fresh and in the moment, which is a really fun way to work as well.
28:29Like creatively open.
28:32Yeah, because then I think it allows for, especially for me, I really admire actors like Minha who are so in touch with and can speak through their emotional center.
28:42And it's like a lot more available where it's like for me, like, you know, as a person, I feel that, but I'm an incredibly like cerebral actor, which was kind of perfectly matched, I guess, with the task of what Solomon was in terms of trying to master all of those languages.
28:56Um, but it is, you know, that is the, it gets me out of my head. If there's, if there's, if I have a director that's able to, uh, suggest notes or adjustments in real time that are rooted in the text and what the scene might need, but we're also trying to figure it out on the go as well.
29:16So let's try this, see what might feel right. And then, you know, go from there.
29:20I should correct for those at home. Jin really did learn. I mean, he did not speak Japanese going into this. And part of the rigorous audition process was him sort of, you know, um, demonstrating his facility to do all of this.
29:33And he mastered it to the extent that when they're on the floor with Justin and with Kay, um, he was just in it, you know, so as a viewer, you have no idea. And you, the, what you do have an idea of whether, and the coding, the color coding signals, which is, um, you know, different expressions of Solomon when he's speaking different languages, right?
29:53So it's, it becomes a code for the audience to understand what's going on. Even if you speak, um, playing of our audience speaks none of these three languages, by the way. Right. So, so, but his, his affect, his demeanor, that all changes, uh, from, you know, as he moves between languages and, uh, it was just, he deserves, uh, like, uh, it's intimidating to everyone, uh, and really awe-inspiring, uh, what he had to do to, to, to, to get there.
30:18And also the fact that it wasn't just sort of like learning a standard version of Korean and Japanese and even English is, you had to do authentic dialects and accents and not speak English the way that Jin, who has grown up in New York, speaks English.
30:34Yeah, yeah, right. I mean, we were trying to, with a dialect coach of mine from grad school, we just came up with, uh, you know, we sort of used, like, New York City finance sector in the 80s, city finance sector in the 80s,
30:48late 80s as it was booming, like, somebody who was, uh, educated and, and lived in New England, you know, for their American portion of their life.
30:56Like, how would they speak at this time in this, in this sector? And, um, yeah, and then this Kansai dialect, the Tokyo dialect, the Kanto dialect of Japanese,
31:04and then with Korean, because I had a slight American accent with my Korean, I copied, I emulated my dialect coach Yumi's Japanese accent.
31:12She's a Zainishi Korean, happens to be, and also an actor. So we were able to break down scenes and figure out if this were my emotional intention,
31:22or if this were my obstacle in this scene, how would one say this line with the right intonation and the musicality to make it sound fluent?
31:29And then we'd, we'd kind of figure out some options and then be like, okay, on the day, maybe I'll choose this flow intonation,
31:34or this emphasis, or this beat here. Um, but it was truly like a unicorn experience to have found someone like Yumi and then to have been able to analyze and break down the text,
31:46and she also speaks both dialects, so it's, I, and I used her Japanese-accented Korean as the, the template for Solomon,
31:53because he wouldn't have spoken with an American accent in his Korean. And I wanted to be as much of an honor as it was for me to represent the people of Solomon's generation and community and experience.
32:08It's that much responsibility as well that I felt.
32:11I love that we live in a time where attention to like accent accuracy finally exists, right?
32:16It's amazing. It's amazing. And I'm really grateful that the show, I mean, without question was always going to be that, but that every time Sue would be like,
32:22are you sure, you know, we were thinking about this dialect for this, for this scene, like, are you sure you want to, and I was like, yes, without it,
32:29I'm so happy you're even thinking about it. Let's go a hundred percent if we're going to do it.
32:34When you're weaving these things together, how much, like, for example, you, Justin, as a director, are you thinking,
32:39you know that this rice cooking sequence and this rice cooking sequence or this rain sequence and this rain sequence are going to be cut together.
32:45Does that affect how you plan the shooting of each of those individual strands?
32:50Well, specifically for the rain, you know, that, that actually wasn't scripted.
32:55And I just wanted to visually find a way to connect two people on in two different countries and make it feel like they're sharing the same experience.
33:04I got in a lot of trouble from YJ because I was one of her first day shooting.
33:08You drenched an Oscar winner.
33:10Yeah, I drenched her and she called me afterwards and she was just like, I'm mad at you.
33:16And I'm like, I'm sorry. She said, you made me, you know, you made me stand in the water too long.
33:20And I was like, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
33:22You know, and I bought her a nice bottle of white wine and I brought it to her the next day because she was so mad at me.
33:27But but I think, you know, I think it's beautiful because it's just like, you know, on an emotional level,
33:32it just feels like they're having both having this very cathartic experience together and just connects them.
33:38You know, so who cares about the logistics?
33:41It's just how does it make you feel the poignancy of just because as is diasporic people,
33:47especially as Asian-Americans, we're literally separated by an ocean, by a body of water from from our past,
33:53from our entire ancestral base.
33:55And the idea that your family, your blood could be having the same emotional experience as you are in that moment
34:03is something I never thought I would be able to experience on screen.
34:07So, man, we are so out of time.
34:09But thank you guys so much for coming.
34:13Pachinko, the entire first season is available now on Apple TV Plus.
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