Hugh said that she knew very early on that she would end season two with this reveal and worked backwards when writing it. That goodbye scene was an emotional journey for Kim, who has played Sunja ever since. Pachinkothe first season of. “The only thing Sunja was always aware of: Noa would know it. That was something she was very, very afraid of,” said Kim, who exploited that fear in her scene with Noa.
In the novel version of Pachinko, Noa confronts Sunja first about the secret. However, in the series, Hugh prefers to confront Hansu and instead chooses to say a gentler goodbye to his mother. Hugh said: “What I like about what Minha and Tae Joo did is that it was the sweetest scene. “In some ways, he loved her so much, and I think we all got chills after that scene, because it felt so sad.”
After Noa’s visit, Sunja goes to meet Hansu. That’s when they realize that Noa has disappeared, and Sunja begins to break down, thinking that she may have lost her son forever because of her own choices. “Soo and I talk about it a lot, and that’s when the audience gets to see Sunja like they’ve never seen it before. She’s going crazy – she’s just losing control,” Kim said.
Sunja returns home to tell the rest of the family that Noa is really gone. She walks into the bedroom, falls onto the bed, and the camera focuses on her face as she closes her eyes. At first, Kim wasn’t sure how Sunja would actually react after finding out Noa was gone. “Honestly, I can’t understand why she ended up feeling exhausted…. I said, ‘Really? Is that what she feels?’ “But Noa, Mozasu and her family,” Kim said [were] the only reason she could live on. So when she lay down, I could feel my body becoming heavy and my eyes closed.”
Kim said she almost fell asleep while filming that scene. “I was quite exhausted. That is the burden of someone who is carrying his entire family. She was exhausted but tried not to collapse,” she said. “She’s trying her best not to break down.”
