We had the pleasure of speaking with Soji Arai on the Popternative show about Apple TV+’s latest series, Pachinko, which premiered on March 25, 2022. Based on Min Jin Lee’s worldwide best-selling novel, Soji plays Mozasu, the owner of the Pachinko parlor, and Sunja’s (Yuh-Jung Youn) younger son. Told in three languages (Korean, Japanese and English) the story begins with a forbidden love and dives into a sweeping saga that journeys between Korea, Japan and America.

In our interview, we asked Soji about being part of a series that’s in three languages: “I think the languages and accents and dialects are beautiful. It’s a great tool to communicate with people and I myself had to speak Korean with a Zainichi accent and Osaka dialect Japanese […] I speak Japanese perfectly, so to me, Osaka dialect Japanese sounds French; it was so hard to learn,” he explains.

We also discuss the importance of a project like Pachinko: “Asian hate is still going on and discrimination. Strongly, I feel that Asian Americans have to connect and we have to support each other. […] I didn’t feel it for myself personally, but I went to the [Pachinko] premiere on March 16th [2022], and I saw so many Asian American directors, producers and celebrities and more people who support Asian American movements were all there […] and maybe for the first time, I felt support,” Soji tells us. “I finally felt the fellowship, the connection, the support in this Asian American society, […] Pachinko means a lot to me and to the world I think,” he goes on to explain.

Watch the full interview with Soji Arai below.

Pachinko contains 8 episodes with the first three episodes available to stream on March 25, 2022, followed by new weekly installments each Friday, on Apple TV+

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