Why is Sunja played by different actors in Pachinko?

Because the series follows her across decades. Apple's billing lists three performers for Sunja: Yuna as young Sunja, Minha Kim as teenage Sunja, and Yuh-Jung Youn as older Sunja. Wikipedia writes the names in Korean order, Kim Min-ha and Youn Yuh-jung, and credits child Sunja to Jeon Yu-na. When two timelines share a character name, it is the same person played at a different age.

Is the Pachinko series told in the same order as the novel?

No. Min Jin Lee's novel moves forward chronologically in three books covering 1910 to 1933, 1939 to 1962, and 1962 to 1989, so 1989 arrives only in the final book. The series instead introduces the 1989 storyline of Sunja's grandson Solomon in its first episode and cuts between that year and Sunja's early life in Korea, so the two eras run side by side.

Drama Reviews

What Is Pachinko About? Family, Place and Language

Q: What do the yellow and blue subtitles in Pachinko mean?

They show which language a character is speaking. TheWrap reports that the series uses colour-coded subtitles for English-speaking viewers, with yellow for Korean and blue for Japanese. The second season opens with far more blue than yellow, a shift TheWrap says was intentional; showrunner Soo Hugh ties it to how much more of the family's Japanese side emerges in later generations. A device set to one fixed subtitle style may hide the cue.

Q: How many seasons and episodes of Pachinko are there?

Two seasons of eight episodes each, 16 in total. Season one premiered on Apple TV+ on March 25, 2022, with three episodes, then released weekly through April 29, 2022. Season two ran weekly from August 23 to October 11, 2024, as eight one-hour episodes. It is a continuing series rather than a limited series, so check Apple TV+ directly for any announcement about further seasons.

After the Credits Roll · Updated 2026-10-11 · 6 min read

What Is Pachinko About? Family, Place and Language

SummaryPachinko is an Apple TV+ drama created by Soo Hugh from Min Jin Lee's 2017 novel. It follows four generations of a Korean family from 1915 to 1989, centred on Sunja, born on Yeongdo in Busan under Japanese occupation. Episodes cut between her early life and 1989, when her grandson Solomon works in New York finance, and the series is told in Korean, Japanese and English, with discrimination against Koreans in Japan at its core.

Contents

What is Pachinko about?
What does the marketing promise, and what does the show actually deliver?
Where and when does the opening setup take place?
How does the series' structure differ from the novel's?
Who is the same person played by different actors?
Why do the subtitles change colour?
How much is there, and is it a limited series?
What does this guide deliberately leave out?
Who is Pachinko likely to suit?
Sources

What is Pachinko about?

Pachinko is an Apple TV+ drama created by Soo Hugh from Min Jin Lee's 2017 novel, and it follows four generations of a Korean family from 1915 to 1989. Its centre is Sunja, born on Yeongdo in Busan during Japan's occupation of Korea, and the series cuts between her early life and 1989, when her grandson Solomon is chasing a promotion in New York finance. It is told in Korean, Japanese and English.

What does the marketing promise, and what does the show actually deliver?

Apple's premiere announcement says the story "begins with a forbidden love and crescendos into a sweeping saga" across Korea, Japan and America. That is true as far as it goes. "Forbidden love" is simply the part of the premise that cuts best to a trailer score.

The part that fills the hours is less romantic. The series' Wikipedia entry frames the run around the discrimination Korean immigrants faced in Japanese society, and the drama keeps returning to what a family gives up, and holds on to, to get through it. Come for the love story if you like; the family is the actual subject.

Where and when does the opening setup take place?

Use this as an orientation card. It covers the first episode only, drawing on the episode summary in the series' Wikipedia entry. The right-hand column is this publication's shorthand for what each thread sets up.

Place	Time	Who anchors it	What the opening establishes
Yeongdo, an island in Busan, Japanese-occupied Korea	1915	Yangjin, Sunja's mother	The series opens with Yangjin consulting a shaman about her childbearing
Yeongdo	The years after 1915	Sunja, Yangjin's daughter	Sunja grows up bright and capable; Hansu, a well-dressed businessman newly installed as broker at the fish market, enters the picture
New York	1989	Solomon, Sunja's grandson	Solomon is passed over for promotion to vice president and volunteers to go to Japan to close a stalled deal
Japan	1989	Solomon and the older Sunja	Solomon visits his father's home and meets his grandmother

NBC News puts the structure plainly: "Interwoven throughout Sunja's narrative is her grandson Solomon's story, which takes place decades later in 1989." So there are two clocks running from the first hour. Keep track of the year on screen and the cutting stops feeling random.

How does the series' structure differ from the novel's?

The novel moves forward in order. Its Wikipedia entry divides it into three books: Book I covers 1910 to 1933, Book II covers 1939 to 1962, and Book III covers 1962 to 1989. The year 1989 arrives only in the final book. The series introduces it in the first episode.

That changes the experience in a practical way. Readers of the book will meet familiar people in a different order, and newcomers meet the grandson before they know most of what came before him. The series is an adaptation (a retelling built for a different medium), not a page-by-page transcription. If you have read the book, expect a familiar story arranged as a conversation between two eras rather than a straight line.

Who is the same person played by different actors?

This is the continuity question most likely to trip up a first-time viewer. Apple's billing gives Sunja three performers: Yuna as young Sunja, Minha Kim as teenage Sunja, and Yuh-Jung Youn as older Sunja. Wikipedia writes the latter two in Korean name order (Kim Min-ha and Youn Yuh-jung) and credits child Sunja to Jeon Yu-na, so search credits under both forms.

Character	Actor (Apple billing)	Who they are at the start
Sunja	Yuna, Minha Kim, Yuh-Jung Youn	One woman, played at three ages
Yangjin	Inji Jeong	Sunja's mother, who runs a boarding house in Yeongdo
Koh Hansu	Lee Minho	A Zainichi Korean (a Korean resident of Japan) who lives in Osaka
Baek Isak	Steve Sanghyun Noh	A Protestant minister from Pyongyang
Solomon	Jin Ha	Sunja's grandson, working at the firm Shiffley's in 1989

Character descriptions follow the series' Wikipedia cast list. The rule for the card is simple: when two timelines share a name, the series is using a different actor, not a different person. The rest of who becomes what to whom is the plot, and it stays off this card.

Why do the subtitles change colour?

Language in this show is information, not decoration. TheWrap reports that the series uses colour-coded subtitles so English-speaking viewers can tell which language a character is speaking: "Yellow subtitles are for Korean and blue are for Japanese." The same piece notes that the second season opens with "far more blue than yellow," and that "That shift was intentional."

Hugh explained the logic to TheWrap: "With the second generation or third generation, you're seeing just how much more of their Japanese side has to come out." In other words, a character switching from Korean to Japanese is a story beat about belonging, not a continuity slip. If your device applies one fixed subtitle style to everything, you may lose the cue, so it is worth checking your subtitle settings. For the difference between the main accessibility tracks, see audio description vs subtitles.

How much is there, and is it a limited series?

It is not a limited series built to end after one run. Apple's announcements give two seasons of eight episodes each. Season one premiered on March 25, 2022, with three episodes, then released weekly through April 29, 2022. Season two ran weekly from August 23 to October 11, 2024, as "eight one-hour episodes." That makes 16 episodes, which matches the total in the series' Wikipedia entry. Check Apple TV+ directly for anything beyond that, rather than trusting a headline about it.

What does this guide deliberately leave out?

Later family outcomes, for a start: who marries whom, who leaves, and how the 1989 thread connects to the earlier one belong to the viewing, not the orientation. This guide also does not grade the series as history. The occupation of Korea and the treatment of Koreans in Japan are the setting, and readers who want that history should go to historians rather than a drama.

Hugh told NBC News that the writers' room talked about "spiritual colonization," and that it "lasts longer than when the outsiders leave." The series deals with colonial rule, prejudice and hardship from its first episode. If particular themes matter to you, here is how to check content warnings without spoilers.

Who is Pachinko likely to suit?

Viewers who want a patient, subtitled family saga, and who enjoy assembling a family history from two ends at once, are the natural audience. Viewers who want a romance that resolves inside a season should take the trailer's framing with a pinch of salt. More reviews sit in the drama hub.