Translations, exquisite settings and first titles: the first season of “Pachinko” So Hugh Conversations

Almost four years later, development officially began. pachinkoA broad adaptation of Min Jin Lee’s novel of the same name, Su Hugh, the final episode of its first season airs April 29 on Apple TV+.

Evidence of taking a hard work approach Pachinko- An expensive, timely, and multilingual study of the family is evident in almost every context, and Hume knows this pain like everyone else. While no spoilers have been revealed for those who haven’t gotten used to the new drama yet, the showroom has spoken. hollywood reporter About his approach to adapting the novel, what he learned from the translation process, and his confidence to start each episode with these encouraging headlines.

People often praise a TV series or movie because it feels like “life”, which sounds like something inexplicable, but is usually achieved with a lot of work. What conversations have you had about giving that feeling? pachinko?

What I thought was very important for such a show was that it was extremely subjective. We absolutely have to believe in the characters on the show and the world created around them. It’s made up of all the components… not just the choice of shots, but also the design of the scenery, the music. You want to mentally enter the world of our characters as mentally as possible. What we do is very smart. For manual sophistication to work, you can’t believe you’re watching a TV show. You just need to be fully involved in this world. How to make it as livable as possible? How do you think the kitchen you see has used this character for years and years?

Or the room, which you see so complete when yuh jung June version Sunja is looking for a place to put the urn.

We talked a lot about that room. If you’ve ever wanted to freeze a frame, because you have so much time in your life, right? – See the titles on the shelves of these books. This is something most audiences will never do. But since we thought it was really crucial, make sure you build this world as authentic and convincing as possible. We always said: “Mozasu [Soji Arai] He will not be a great reader. “He will not go War and peace. Who are the people who put it on the shelves? So we looked at all the best sellers in Japan in those years: Tom Clancy, Jeffrey Archer, these writers were translators and they were big megastars in Japan at the time. This bookcase is a complete paper bestseller, fitting its character perfectly. I think it’s not just for the audience, but also for the actors. When our actors enter this space, they find their own characters. It really helps them become these characters. It looked important.

What did you learn from the rigorous translation process: translating scripts from English to Korean and Japanese and then back to English for subtitles? And how do you think the learning curve will be different in the coming seasons?

The biggest lesson I learned was how to trust people in this regard. The script is very supportive and I had to rely on that script, something I had never done before. This is interesting. When you’re in the US because so much of the content has been in English for so long, we wonder what it’s like when the dominant language isn’t English. We had many translators who did different things, different dialects, different aspects of translation, but the translator of our dialogue is this gentleman named Hwang Seok-hee. He’s almost a famous person in Korea. Well, why should a translator be a famous person? As much of the English language content has been translated into Korean, they are well aware of what a good translation is. We don’t even think about that in America, do we?

You’re welcome.

I find that fascinating. And, just the terms of the sentences that I think don’t exist in other languages… I was constantly trying to figure out, “Oh, you’re right. This is a language. It doesn’t make sense to you.” How can we find a different way for this character to say something but stay true to that character’s voice?

so huh

I heard somewhere that he was studying poetry.

I mentioned poetry classes. [laughs] I am by no means a poet. But when my brain hurts, I love reading poetry and it takes me to some other energy space. I even put poetry in the writer’s room because I really ask writers to think about how words sound on the page. I’m one of those people who believes that screenwriting is an art form and I will defend it to the death. There are so many amazing writers who understand this and make sure the language is used strictly and purposefully in their screenplay. They are the people I value the most.

Besides the translation process itself, what was the biggest language challenge here? Because you’re part of the show, but you delegate to people and you work with a lot of contributors who speak multiple languages.

I’ve always joked about it, but I’d really like the documentary team to follow our show because it would be the best comedy ever. We had so many translators on set. Every department, be it the film crew or the makeup crew, had their translators, Korean translators, Japanese translators. As soon as you arrive at the facility, all these translators come together and you end up hearing all these languages ​​being spoken at the same time. I just remember the first few weeks of filming, I was like, ‘This is crazy. I found it very frustrating because we figured out how to overcome miscommunication and misunderstanding and really became a family. But it was madness.

Keeping a record of how you were received abroad?

It works where Apple TV works. In Korea, because I probably have the highest intelligence there, it became a phenomenon. This is something I could never have imagined. You see Korean content, amazing. I was very nervous about whether this show would be successful or exciting there. People’s comments and welcome probably mean the most to me. It’s a difficult show, because of the languages ​​and time periods, but if people enjoy the show as warmly as they do, I just hope it shows the audience’s longing for similar shows. They shouldn’t just be Koreans. I hope it opens the floodgates.

At what point in the process did you decide that this should be a multi-season story?

From the beginning I never thought it would be possible to make a limited series out of this. It was always conceived and sold like the current four seasons. The book has 500 pages. You can’t do that in one season. But then as you live with the show, the characters grow and grow, you fall in love with them and start to see their past, present and future. Deadlines multiply. And there are all these characters that I love from the book that we won’t even meet in season one, not because they’re not important, it’s because their time hasn’t come yet.

Did that play with a linear timeline on your parchment like the one in the book?

It felt so intuitive to me. By the time I finished this book, four chapters of the chapter had become a topic of conversation. And this is a conversation I had with my family history that many have with their own family history. To be blunt, the development of the narrative is quite different. It would be a good adaptation, but I think it would be an easier adaptation. I was really interested in the bigger issues that were going on in the side story. Adaptations are such an interesting art form.

This was also quite time consuming. You spent four years in season one.

It took a while, didn’t it?

How do you see the next seasons?

Once I finished post-production, which was also a long process, the Apple team said, “So you don’t think it’s going to take another four years?” I could hear the fear in their voices. I know the responsibility. After submitting a show, it must be repeated, otherwise you will lose your audience. And I think the conception of the series did such a hard job that I hope the second season will go a lot faster.

Can you review the choices you made with the headlines? They’re quite unexpected, alongside the show’s narrative, and really beg the viewer not to hit the “skip” button.

I wrote the title sequence in the script. I wanted people to know from day one that we were going to have a title sequence. Time course. I love title sequences because I think they really create the feeling that you’re going to understand something. And in no way do I want to convey that I recommend that the mother stay inactive. I think this is life. You have ups and downs, trials and tribulations, laughter and tears. But the title sequence for me was a gift to the viewer. What I love about this title sequence is that it’s the only time on our show where past and present meet.

Yes, it creates dialogue between different generations.

We are not religious. We walk for a moment outside the fictional world. And in the title sequence, there are photos of our actors with their royal family. We tried to fit as much of our lives into this title sequence as possible. I would say this to myself, to the actors and to the many members of the crew, this show is more to us than just a TV show. This is the culmination of what we’ve been working on for so long. It makes sense to restore our identity. So the title sequence is not just for the public. It’s for us, we wanted to celebrate the show.

For everyone saying it’s gross and different, I think it starts with a very different mood and feeling as the episodes go on. And in the eighth episode we do something different in the title sequence. But for this to work for the eighth episode, you have to live with the title sequence in the previous episodes.

Last question: What’s the best thing to eat during the Korean part of filming?

This is a really important question. I am partially in my hometown of Busan. This is a horrible, horrible comparison, but I’m still going to do it. Think of Seoul as New York and Busan as Los Angeles. New Yorkers get really mad at me because I’m from New York, but I still think LA has the best food. Because I really like street food, it’s cooking every day. Busan has this rich variety of cuisine and I like seafood a lot. The best thing I’ve ever eaten…actually, this is the show. Pajoon de Dongnae. I love pajeon, but in Busan it’s made with all the seafood you can imagine and we put all the spices in it. It’s just hot and fat and crispy and amazing.