Pachinko translator Hwang Seok-hee details tough translation process involved in creation of the series

While Apple TV+’s Pachinko just recently made it to our screens, the translation involved in its making took over a year. The acclaimed drama depicts Korea’s history as it tells the story of immigrants who had to leave their homeland behind after Japan annexed Korea in 1910 and travel from one place to another. As a result, their dialect was significantly altered.

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The complicated process of creating Pachinko

On the surface, the cast speaks three languages throughout the series — Korean, Japanese, and English. But as the immigrants traveled through different countries — Busan, Osaka, and New York — to find a place they could call home, the different dialects of these languages came into play. Many translators and dialect experts were hired to make sure that the authenticity of how these languages were spoken was reflected in the drama,

One such translator was Hwang Seok-hee, who is known for translating films like Deadpool, Venom, Warm Bodies, as well as the hit HBO series, Game of Thrones. In a recent video interview with AllKPop, he shared that the script of the series was written in English initially because screenwriter and producer Soo Hugh is not a fluent Korean speaker, despite her Korean-American heritage. So, the task of translating the script into Korean fell upon Hwang Seok-hee.

He discovered that the Korean dialogues in the script were direct translations from English and hence they sounded weird. Like in a scene where Kim Min-ha’s Sun-ja shies away from Lee Min-ho’s Go Han-soo when he tries to pick up her bag, his original line in English is, “You must know it. I mean no harm.” But the direct translation into Korean turned it into, "Don't worry, I won't eat you."

According to Seok-hee, he wanted to make the transitions sound more natural.

"In English, 'I won't eat you' is very awkward. In Korea, we know what that phrase means and the line is more natural using that expression. So I had to communicate these things. When there were English sentences I couldn't find the exact Korean phrase to do justice, the writers would change the English sentence. It was a unique and fun experience."

He also collaborated with theater actors, Jung Ma Rin and Byeon Jong Soo, to fine-tune the usage of the Busan dialect and the Jeju dialect in Pachinko. The effort has paid off well in the long run as the series has garnered much praise for its perfect usage of the Jeju dialect. Seok-hee opined,

"I think the production team for 'Pachinko' made a bold decision...We were going to soften the dialects if the actors had a hard time memorizing the lines but the actors also said they would practice. And in fact, they did a wonderful job expressing the dialect."

Pachinko airs weekly on Fridays on Apple TV+.