In Japan, millions of people are addicted to the pinball-like arcade game pachinko. Around the world, millions more may soon find themselves addicted to a soapy, bittersweet television series called "Pachinko.” Just as pachinko-parlor owners delicately adjust their devices’ pins and cups to keep gamblers in the seats, the makers of "Pachinko” have expertly tweaked the machinery of their story to produce a guaranteed crowd-pleaser.
The Apple TV+ series, which premiered Friday with three of its eight episodes, is based on the 2017 bestseller by Min Jin Lee — sometimes faithfully, more often with a tenuous connection, if any, to the book’s events, themes and tone.
Opening with the portentous line "History has failed us, but no matter,” Lee’s novel chronicles the harsh existence of four generations of a Korean family living in a fiercely racist Japan, relegated to poverty and unable, because of discriminatory laws and international politics, to return home. Their fortunes, if not their status, finally begin to change when one of them becomes a pachinko man — a business open to ethnic Koreans because of its unsavory associations.