J V – Google

Impressed by the writers on the Korean and Japanese language used during the 1910 to 1989! They did not use the 'modern' terms or colloquial language of the 21st century. It is also good that they really built up the characters (such as how they portrayed the story of Hoonie and young Sunja) and give them more life for the viewers to relate to them not just on the issue of colonialism contrary to how they were written in the book. For me, the artists were chosen well for their roles. I cannot wait for the remaining episodes and hopefully Apple will give justice to the characters of Isak, Hansu, and Noa, and bring element to the interactions and relationships of Sunja and Isak, and Sunja and Hansu. Also, good job to the scene fillers they added to give light on how Koreans were perceived during Japanese colonialism, such as when a Korean artist sang a Korean anthem which made the Korean people beneath the upper class deck sang in unison, sadly she then killed herself in front of the audience. And the story of the Fisherman (I forgot his name) who was killed by the Japanese 'police' for bad mouthing them.

I liked the story overall but the book or details of the story per chapter and character build up could've been written better. Each chapter felt like it has to be cut short and will not give further information. There was no element that could give importance to every moment of interaction of characters. [SPOILER ALERT] Such as when Sunja and Hansu had their first dinner together with Mozasu, Solomon and Haruki, the conversation mostly focused on Haruki and his job. I find this lame and somehow this moment could have been what readers would like to know more about Sunja and Hansu interaction after how many years of not talking to each other. Some characters were cut-off immediately and open-endedly, such as when Isak died and Yoseb's death. Isak's death was only mentioned briefly on another chapter with 'After Isak died, ...' This made Isak's character as a minor one and had nothing to do with Noa growing up as his father. Their father and son interaction could've been an additional storyline or information for the readers on why Noa killed himself. It is still a puzzle why Noa killed himself. There was a little percentage of the story between Sunja and Isak as they lived in Osaka. Did they really loved each other? What has become of them as they were together? Why did Isak have let it happen that the three of them (the sexton and the minister) be imprisoned? Also found some loopholes on the conversation between Yumi and Sunja--Sunja mentioned about her mother's miscarriages, however, she could've mentioned her own miscarriages before Mozasu was born. Disappointingly, I could even find more details on the sexcapades of Noa and Akiko, and Solomon and Hana, which made the last chapters of the book a lowkey porn. The high details could've been made on the early chapters of the book to represent 'Pachinko'. Lastly, why was there no offspring that inherited Hoonie's discrepancies? This made the story unrealistic, and for me, this made an impression that the author is also discriminating the likes of Hoonie, being unwanted.