Pachinko

Pachinko tracks one family's life over decades as they leave Korea and try to build something stable in a new, often hostile place. Starting with Sunja as a young woman, the story traces how choices, secrets, and relationships ripple across children and grandchildren. The series moves through different eras and settings, showing everyday struggles around work, love, prejudice, and belonging. It keeps the focus on human details rather than big plot twists, letting performances and small moments reveal how history and circumstance shape lives across generations.

Created by Soo Hugh, Karen Chee, and Haruna Lee, Pachinko adapts Min Jin Lee's novel for television and debuted in 2022 on a streaming platform, bringing the book's scope to a serialized format with a strong international cast and high production values.

The show earned notable critical recognition and picked up multiple award nominations across television guilds and critics groups, with particular attention on its ensemble acting. While it didn't sweep major prize lists, many reviewers highlighted the cast when naming year-end favorites.

Pachinko has had an observable cultural effect, boosting visibility for stories about the Korean diaspora and sparking conversations about identity in postwar East Asia. Its title, tied to an arcade game and family economics, became a useful shorthand in reviews and discussions for the series' themes of chance, perseverance, and cross-generational ambition.

Critics generally responded positively, and the series holds a vote average of 7.846 out of 10 from 234 votes, reflecting audience appreciation. Reviewers praised the layered performances, period detail, and somber tone. The show returns again and again to themes of family obligation, social exclusion, survival strategies, and how memory and shame travel through generations, asking what people keep and what they pass on.