Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1470106
P A C H I N K O | P E R S P E C T I V E 5 3 Pachinko is a dense, sprawling, unflinching novel overwhelming in scope and sorrow. It follows one orean family through four generations from early 1900s orea to an international landscape in 199. It examines the banality of everyday life during an occupation and war, and how decisions made in one generation can have direct and indirect conseuences on those that follow. In Min in Lee's novel, the story is told chronologically. The reader follows the main character, Sunja, from her birth to her reign as matriarch and grandmother. In contrast, show runner Soo Hugh chose to weave the various generational timelines together. This shift in presentation allows for a poetry that muses on the conseuence of decisions and patterns in family behaviors across time. Min in Lee's exuisitely detailed prose leaves the reader to draw parallels and correlations between characters upon completion of the chronologically told story. Hugh's scripts distill timelines and allow for a weaving of themes and characters, though links are also not always immediately clear. I knew that my challenge as roduction Designer would be to blend this poetry and proseto try to capture the epic scale but also allow the most subtle detail to trigger contemplation; to delve into the mysterious cloud space that is memory for both the characters on screen, and the audience. Much like the game that is its namesake, in Min in Lee's novel and Soo Hugh's scripts, life is unpredictable in its rewards and losses and it was the production's job to capture the visceral ualities of that journey. "Learn everything. Fill your mind with knowledge— it's the only kind of power no one can take away from you." Hansu never told him to study, but rather to learn, and it occurred to Noa that there was a marked difference. Learning was like playing, not labor."–Min Jin Lee, Pachinko If the task of designing an eight-decade, three- country character drama weren't daunting enough, days before I was to set out on an international scout to determine where and how to make Pachinko, the pandemic closures began, and things came to a grinding halt. A gestation period of remote scouting began in orea, apan and Vancouver while I managed the scouting and began design development from home in New rleans. Unable to travel in person, the show worked with several teams of scouts and researchers in an attempt to determine the formula for how much work would land in each country and what would need to be built. Though the early days of the pandemic were stressful in their uncertainty, I also found them to be a gift, as it gave me uiet time to formulate the cornerstones of the show's design philosophy. The goals were multifaceted; to honor orean culture and history in tactile detail; to represent the pull of patriotic cohesion versus an individual's struggle for independence; to express how power and A. PACHINKO PARLOR. BUILT ON STAGE 2 IN SURREY STUDIO CITY IN BC. SET PHOTO.