Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1531774
P A C H I N K O S E A S O N 2 | P E R S P E C T I V E 7 9 Pachinko demanded my attention. So, I jumped. By mid-July, I was booked and a week later, I was scouting in Japan, and by September 1, I was in full-on preproduction in Toronto. Soo made it clear that while this was a continuation of the story, we would begin seven years later in wartime Japan. This meant that the world-building would be new and far more complicated. While I felt a deep connection to the story, I was both excited and terrified of representing two very different cultures, excited for the opportunity to tell these stories authentically, yet terrified of getting it wrong. When Soo and I talked, I was seduced by the challenge, the unknown and the newness of it all. And then there was the opening-title sequence, a piece that brought so much joy and curiosity. Soo wrote in a new 1989 Tokyo boom pachinko parlor for the story and the title sequence. It was impossible to resist the pull, and I was also eager to work with a female showrunner; I sensed it was important for me to have this experience. I'm always excited to read a script for the first time, but Soo's writing is epic in every way. It was equal parts romance, historical and cultural specificity. As a Westerner, I found reading any episode of Pachinko daunting. There was so much history and cultural nuance between South Korea and Japan that I was unaware of, so I really dug into the history. The story itself is about a woman's struggle to survive and make a better life for her family. The ripple of this struggle is seen throughout the generations of her family, and that is the thread I held onto throughout my design choices. There's a lot of contrast and a push and pull within the set designs. Historical accuracy was crucial to Soo's purpose and vision. I love preproduction research and the design process. It's when the Art Department becomes the nexus of the tone, architecture and palette of the story's world. We had a team of historical researchers in the U.S., Japan and South Korea, that often had differing interpretations. Within the Art Department, we had both Korean and Japanese Art Directors, whose expertise was critical in interpreting the historical imagery we gathered. I leaned on them to make the final call with historical imagery. My very first week of work, I went to Japan and bought every book I could find with images of pre- A. GOTO'S PACHINKO PARLOR. OSAKA 1950. SET PHOTO. B. NEW PACHINKO PARLOR. OSAKA 1989. SET PHOTO. B