When Sunja (Yuh-jung Youn) confronts a new friend (Jun Kunimura) about dark secrets she’s dug up from his past, he reacts with the resignation of someone who’s long since come to terms with them. He does not act out in shock or denial. He offers explanations that are not quite excuses. He accepts that she’s right that his history cannot be changed. But, he asks, “What are we supposed to do then? Spend the rest of our lives chained to it?”

Sunja does not provide an answer, and neither does her series. Down to its very format, which cuts between two timelines, Apple TV+’s Pachinko presents itself as a reflection on the impossibility of finding one. Seeds planted years or decades or generations earlier have a way of shooting up at unexpected times, in unexpected ways. And as she did in the series’ breathtaking first chapter,...