Hugh says she knew from early on that she would end season two with this revelation, and worked backwards from it while writing it. That goodbye scene was an emotional journey for Kim, who has been playing Sunja since Pachinko’s first season. “It’s the only thing that Sunja is always aware of: that Noa’s going to know it. That’s the thing that she’s very, very afraid of,” says Kim, who tapped into that fear for the scene with Noa.
In the novel version of Pachinko, Noa confronts Sunja first about the secret. On the series, though, Hugh preferred that he confront Hansu, and choose to instead give a gentler goodbye to his mother. “What I love about what Minha and Tae Joo did is that it’s the sweetest scene,” says Hugh. “In some ways, he loves her so much, and I think we all felt really chilled after that scene, because it felt so sad.”
After her visit from Noa, Sunja goes to see Hansu. That’s when they realize that Noa has disappeared, and Sunja begins falling apart over the idea that she may have lost her son forever because of her own choices. “Soo and I talk about it a lot, and that’s the point where the audience can see the Sunja that they didn’t see before. She’s going crazy—she’s just losing her control,” says Kim.
Sunja returns home to tell the rest of her family that Noa is really gone. She walks into her bedroom, falls down in her bed, and the camera focuses on her face as her eyes close. At first, Kim wasn’t sure that’s how Sunja would authentically react after discovering Noa had disappeared. “To be really honest, I quite couldn’t understand why she would finally feel exhausted…. I was like, ‘Really? Is that the emotion that she felt?’ Kim says, “But Noa, Mozasu, and her family [were] the only reason she could live on. So when she finally lies down, I could feel my body getting very heavy, and my eyes just closed.”
Kim says she almost fell asleep while filming that scene. “I was quite exhausted. That’s the weight of the one who’s carrying their family. She’s exhausted but trying to not to fall apart,” she says. “She’s trying really, really hard to not collapse.”
