Saturday, July 22, 2023

Book 1 - Pachinko

I finished reading Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. This is an odd one. I actually watched Pachinko the TV series first before I read the book. I don't recall I have done this for any other book because usually after I watched something that's based on a book, I don't end up reading the original work. On the other hand, if something is adapted from a book that I've read, I'll be sure to watch it. Pachinko the TV series was just so good that I decided to read it. Pachinko tells the story of Koreans during Japanese occupation. Its main character is Sunja, a girl who grew up poor in a fishing village in Korea. Well at that time, everyone was poor. One day a handsome rich Korean man, Hansu, arrived at the fishing village and he took an interest at her and she was interested and then she was impregnated by him, but Hansu actually had a Japanese wife in Japan so he could only make Sunja his mistress. Upon finding this out, Sunja wasn't having it and decided to break off with Hansu. Sunja and her mom had a small inn and one day a sickly Korean christian minister, Isak, arrived. He was so sick, but Sunja's mom and Sunja and 2 other workers in the inn managed to nourish him back to health. When Isak found out what happened to Sunja, he offered to marry her to preserve her dignity, but they will have to go to Japan where Isak was actually on the way to be reunited with his brother. Sunja and her mom agreed, all the while knowing that she and her mom might be separated forever. The book tells these stories up to the lives of Sunja's sons and grandson. While Sunja lives are mostly filled with hardships in relation to lives under Japanese occupation and war, his grandson's story are mostly filled with reconciling with who he was or who he wanted to be. He's a Korean who's born and lived his whole life in Japan and yet the Japanese still saw him as other, not one of them. This reminded me one time during Japanese class when the sensei told us about the concept of uchi and soto, which is basically who's in your inner circle and who's outside. The Koreans in Japan no matter how long they've been there were still seen as outsiders and that's hard to accept. I don't know if it's better now. The grandson also felt he wasn't that fully acknowledged as Korean too when he travelled to Korea because the Koreans there saw him more as Japanese. It can be hard when you're not fully sure where you're belong because of the need to anchor yourself, but some people may argue why the need for that? Who cares if people see you as other right? It's a struggle that his uncle also dealt with.

Anyways, I forget where season 1 of the TV series ended. There's a scene in the TV series that really tugged at my heartstring. During the Japanese occupation, most of the things that the Koreans produced were first and foremost had to be given to the Japanese, so at that time no Korean in Korea could eat rice for example. After Sunja's marriage ceremony and before she was to leave for Japan, her mother wanted to give something good for her as the last thing she could do for her. The way this was depicted in the book was nothing special, but the way it was depicted in the TV series took it to another level. Sunja's mom managed to beg a rice seller to sell a little bit of rice to her. The seller had to do this secretly because otherwise he would get in trouble with the Japanese. The scene that made me cry was when Sunja's mom carefully washed the rice and and cooked the rice :'( I never grew up hungry, rice is always available, but maybe it was the stories from my parents when they're telling us poor people back in the days, maybe their days, couldn't even eat rice that floated to me, that seeing that scene, it really got me. I thought it was the most beautiful scene in the series and comparing it with the book, I am glad they did this, though I think many people may not get the significance of why this was so touching. Then when Sunja arrived in Japan and her kind sister in law served her rice on the first day like it's not a big deal - just like Sunja I cried again.

The book and the TV series have stark differences on some parts which I'm not sure if I like the changes made in the TV series. Hansu got a an episode in the TV series exploring his background, which I thought was good when I watched it, but I come to dislike Hansu a lot reading the book. For someone who had so much power and influence during the war, I thought he perhaps could have done more when Isak was imprisoned. None of the characters questioned this though perhaps they were already feeling indebted when he pretty much saved them during the war. I dislike Hansu so much that I didn't enjoy having him appear more and more. It made me think if the tragedy that happened with his and Sunja's son was a just punishment for him, but it was too sad and it's too heartbreaking for Sunja and I would rather it didn't happen. In the book that I had, one page was hopeful but as I turned to the next page and in just a few lines the tragedy was told, I gasped and had to drop my head and silently screamed whhyyy?!?! Sunja's life really wasn't easy but she and like many others in her era survived and no matter the hardship they rose again and again. Pachinko is really good. I questioned some of the short stories about some of the characters who I thought weren't that necessary to be elaborated. Instead I would rather know more about people like Uncle Yoseb, Aunt Kyunghee, Sunja's mom, what they thought about the events that had befallen the family. I was also curious about when Uncle Yoseb died, was it before or after certain event, and how much did Sunja's other son knew about his brother. All and all I truly enjoyed being immersed in this rich story and I am looking forward to Pachinko season 2 and I wonder how they're going to move forward with all the changes that they made in the TV series.

Alright what else, I guess I want to say how I love The Bear. Finally had time to watch season 2 and it was so so good. I cannot fault any of the episode, I like every single one of them. I want to say it's perhaps not as heavy as season 1 but there were many heavy moments and it ended in an implosion if I can say that. Sometime you think these people just need to say what they're really feeling, their fear and anxiety, put in on the table and move forward from there, but I guess it's not that easy. Even Richie who said I love you in the last episode was like not heard when he said it over and over. By the way, the guy who played Richie, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, like Adam Driver I first saw him in Girls. It often makes me feel good seeing actors in a different role and doing so well in it and he was so good as Richie. In his episode when he said, you want me to fork, I'll fork, you can't help but chuckle. Anyways, yeah The Bear is really really good, 2 seasons in a row filled with brilliance :)

:) eKa @ 11:45:00 AM • 0 comments