Reviewer Rating: 4.5/5.0
4.5
Dear fans, we are finally taking off!
Pachinko Season 2 Chapter 3 opens a new chapter for the characters as they leave war-torn Osaka for a rural idyll.
Well, as idyllic as wartime evacuees living in a barn with no kitchen.
Noah witnessed their narrow escape from the Osaka air raid from the back window of Takahanshu’s car. What he saw was a terrifying panorama: a smoke-filled sky and the muffled sound of bomb explosions, forming a line of fire on the horizon. .
This will be the final kick in the first season of Pachinko.
Yet it still serves its purpose here, serving as a clear visual break between the Sunja family’s precarious life in the city and their new life of relative comfort and security in the countryside.
However, this is a new life completely dependent on Koh Hansu.
What can a desperate person do?
Sunja worked hard to convince her family that they could trust Go (Lee Min Ho) to get them out of the city, but now she’s finding it difficult to do so.
What Shunzi (played by Kim Minha) is most worried about is that Noah, who often spends time with Gao, will figure out his true identity.
But it might also help if she stopped suddenly asking Noah (Kim Kang-hoon) not to forget his father Isa, who is like this:
Well… sure, but why would I forget him?
Sunja’s cryptic request didn’t seem to make Noah curious about anything specific, so maybe Gao was right about him never discovering their genetic connection.
Koh isn’t exactly subtle either, giving Noa a reading assignment to groom him for a place in the family business.
change of scenery
Sunja finally understands that she is now a widow and not just a woman alone because her husband is in prison, as she has been for a long time.
She also returned to this country for the first time in fourteen years, and everything she felt was the person she was in the past compared to the person she is now.
Thanks to Xu, the family lives in relative comfort, but they still work on the farm, complete with disgruntled women and chickens seeking freedom.
The scene where Noah and Mozzie chase after a runaway hen is funny in itself, but it also shows the boys’ different attitudes toward their new living situations.
Moz (Kwon Eun-sung) is as optimistic as he was in Osaka, but now the sunny background reflects his cheerful personality even more.
He was happy chasing chickens in the summer countryside and couldn’t think of anything he would rather do with his life.
Even the ever-sullen Noah is powerless against his brother’s joie de vivre, but his good temper evaporates when Mozzie wishes they could live in the country forever.
Noah certainly has a lot going on emotionally, but you might think that being in the sun and away from the bullies at Osaka school would make his prospects a little better.
Speaking Noah’s school bully…
Put stolen eggs in the same basket
The massive nighttime surveillance conducted to detect egg thieves is both harrowing and enjoyable.
Of course, Moz gets excited at the thought of seeing the chicken coop at night: “This place keeps getting better and better!”
Mr. Kim (played by Kim Sung-kyu) is paid to go there.
Noah wanted to avenge the hen and protect his brother. Kyung Hee wants to escape boredom and maybe spend some quality time with Mr. Kim.
They lined up in the dark and learned Mr. Kim’s tragic backstory, including the theft of his family’s farm, his father’s suicide, and how he met Go Han-soo.
It’s an astonishing amount of biographical and emotional information, delivered in the gentlest of tones, like a respectable college literature class lecture.
Mr. King poetically omits his father’s final scene in a way that makes it clear what happened while still being entirely appropriate for his young audience.
Everyone escapes except one egg thief, and it’s Noah’s bully at school! Mr. King asked Noah to choose whether to hand over the boy or let him go.
Noah didn’t hesitate. Echoing the theme of Pachinko Season 2 Episode 2, he shows mercy to his father, Isak, telling Mr. Kim to let the boy go.
Motha displays a surprisingly vindictive streak—or, more likely, he just doesn’t want tonight’s drama to end—because Noah squandered his chance to get revenge on his tormentors.
Mr. King offered a pragmatic view of mercy, saying it was better to make your enemies in your debt than to punish them immediately.
Noah seems to crave Mr. King’s approval, which is understandable since he’s the only consistent adult male figure around.
It will be interesting to see how Noah combines Mr. Kim’s dangerous undercurrent with Isak’s teachings.
Kyung Hee’s shining moment
The theme of this episode is equality, which is exemplified by Noah realizing that his bully was just another withdrawn, not someone with power over him. We see this in Kyung Hee’s storyline as well.
Kyung-hee always strives to make her home as comfortable as possible, but she’s also often able to avoid the obvious dangers Sunja takes on her business ventures around the world.
Kyung Hee’s rigid sense of etiquette is incompatible with the countryside. Still, while she may have acknowledged her family’s need to live with a strange man for protection, her devotion to her absentee husband, Joseph White, remained unchanged.
or… Do it?
When Kyung-hee and the handsome, age-appropriate Mr. Kim meet on the night they escape Osaka, it becomes clear that they will eventually become a couple.
Kyung-hee can knit Joseph White’s sweater all she wants, but she also seems to recognize the inevitability of this romance with Mr. Kim.
Kyung-hee’s integration into village life comes from being on a more equal footing with Soon-ja, as they both do the exact same job in the fields.
The flip side is that Sunja is uncomfortable with this new dynamic with her sister-in-law, and Go has effectively replaced her as the family’s provider. Having had to be vigilant for so many years, it was hard for Sunja to let down her guard a little.
Kyung Hee, on the other hand, may have just discovered how to be free.
Solomon takes action
Yes, Solomon (Kane River) is already laying out his pieces, getting Tom involved in the deal, and using his snazzy car phone to confirm Mr. Abe’s purchase of the Halmoni house.
Still, Solomon really only has to spend this episode on a sexual-tension-filled elevator ride with Naomi (Anna Savoie), as they wait not-so-patiently for layer upon layer of harrowing floors, were left alone together.
The episode’s theme of equality plays out here in the way these two corporate warriors candidly express what they want, if not join forces, then have the freedom to choose not to get in each other’s way.
And, just perhaps Allow for the possibility of a romantic future.
There’s also an underlying romance in the egg section of the grocery store, as older Soon-ja (Yoon Yeo-jung) becomes smitten with a customer wearing a smart bow tie and suspenders.
Praising her grandson’s bravery is clearly key to Sunja’s heart at this stage in her life.
Later, the new friends sat on a park bench and chatted. The theme of the chat was also about equality. This chat described that life is never easy, no matter what period a person is born in.
visual enjoyment
The episode opens with orange-hued, firefly-like lantern lights swaying in Osaka’s evacuated darkness, and ends with cool blue-and-white lightning in dark clouds.
The first image juxtaposes the warm, comforting light with the dangerous reality of the air raid, while the final, dazzling, deafening light is a direct, unmistakable harbinger of doom.
There’s also a gorgeous shot of a flock of park pigeons being chased away by Mr. Bowtie, which transitions seamlessly to a soaring shot of a lone crane flying over a rural field where young Sunja’s family are flying kites.
The entire series is a visual feast, but these scenes are particularly striking in this episode.
Looking to the future
The third episode is very rich in character development and action scenes.
The atmosphere was heavy in the past, but more lively than what we’ve seen so far this season. Even within the 1989 timeline, it’s filled with palpable promise.
The series really has a sense of shifting and moving into the future without forgetting that war is never far away.
What did you think of the episode’s move to the countryside? Let us know in the comments!
