‘Pachinko’ offers a sweeping family saga that earns your tears

Boasting a terrific cast, the story begins in Korea during the early 20th century with its colonization by imperial Japan, proceeding into the 1930s and the looming specter of World War II. That alternates with the challenges faced by the grandson of the central character, who returns from America to Japan in 1989 in pursuit of a major financial deal, but whose experiences will force him to revisit the family’s history as well as his own.

With her poor family laboring under Japanese rule, Sunja quickly falls for Hansu (Lee Minho), whose pointed stares demonstrate that the feeling’s mutual. Yet a cruel twist in the relationship places her on a different path, one that, juxtaposed with the future version of her, raises tantalizing questions about what happened during the intervening years.

Written and produced by Soo Hugh (“The Terror”), with Kogonada and Justin Chon splitting directorial duties, “Pachinko” is peppered with heartbreaking situations and brilliant dialogue. As a little girl, Sunja’s father tells her, “I would do anything to keep the ugliness of the world from touching you.” Later, when the older Sunja cries, a contemporary chides her grandson, saying, “Don’t look down on her tears. She earned the right to those.”