Sumith Prasad
The past timeline in Apple TV+’s period drama series ‘Pachinko’ revolves around the intricate relationship between Kim Sunja and Koh Hansu. Even though they love each other, they fail to get together because the fish broker is already married. Despite their separation, Hansu remains in Sunja’s life after she ends up in Japan with her husband, Baek Isak. In the second season, he takes her and her family’s responsibility after Isak’s death, especially when the United States Army drops bombs in the Asian country. They share an intense kiss in the fourth episode, reigniting Hansu’s feelings for Sunja. However, these feelings don’t turn out to be enough for him to share his life with her in Min Jin Lee’s source novel of the same name! SPOILERS AHEAD.
Sunja and Hansu Do Not End Up Together in Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko
As the Apple TV+ series depicts, Koh Hansu’s marriage comes between him and Kim Sunja in Min Jin Lee’s source novel. Since his wife’s father is his boss and adoptive father, the businessman fails to divorce her to end up with the love of his life. In the period drama, Sunja cannot convince herself to be with the husband of another woman, which makes her keep her well-wisher away from her. In the novel, Hansu then waits for his wife to die to reunite with the woman he truly loves. Meanwhile, his father-in-law retires, making him the head of the second most powerful Yakuza family in Kansai, Japan.
Since his wife dies, Hansu does not need to worry about his adoptive father stopping him from ending up together with Sunja. However, her death turns out to be inadequate for Sunja to be with him. The death of Sunja and Hansu’s son, Noa, sever the ties between the two as far as the former is concerned. She cannot accept that the businessman is alive when her child is dead. “You don’t have to explain anything to me. We don’t have anything to talk about, you and I. […] Why are you still alive and my Noa gone?” she tells Hansu when he proposes their marriage after his wife dies.
Sunja and Hansu meet for the last time during the funeral of Yangjin, the former’s mother. She has been blaming herself for Noa’s death, who decides to kill himself for finding it difficult to survive in a world where his ideals have no significance. As she deals with the same, she cannot tolerate Hansu’s presence, the common link between her and her child. “Hansu was living somewhere in Tokyo in a hospital bed under the watchful gaze of round-the-clock nurses and his daughters. She [Sunja] never saw him anymore and had no wish to,” Min Jin Lee’s novel reads toward its conclusion.
Sunja and Hansu’s Love for Noa Keeps Them Connected in Pachinko Season 2
Even though Soo Hugh’s television adaptation of Min Jin Lee’s ‘Pachinko’ deviates from the novel in several instances, the chances of Kim Sunja and Koh Hansu ending up together are little to none. It does not mean that he will disappear from her life altogether. Until Noa stands on his feet and leaves his mother to live on his own, the businessman will possibly remain in their lives. “I think the relationship between Hansu and Sunja also matured further. In Season 1, it’s more about person-to-person emotion. However, in Season 2, now they have this important bloodline — Noa — so it’s going beyond their personal emotion,” Lee Min-ho, who plays Hansu, told Collider.
In the upcoming episodes of the second season, we may see Sunja tolerating Hansu’s presence because he is the only one who can safeguard her family, especially Noa. “It’s more about a relationship where [Sunja and Hansu] can share something and empathize something together. So, in Season 2, rather than just the romantic love or heart, we are trying to express the [greater] sense of responsibility and the pressure or burden they have as parents,” Min-ho added. Min Jin Lee’s novel concludes with Sunja finding comfort in her dreams of Hansu. Even though she does not end up together with him, her love for him does not die completely, which manifests in the form of dreams.
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