This nearly 100 year epic family history is set against the fraught background of the Japanese empire’s colonial control of Korea and the subsequent war and post World War II years when expatriate Koreans were second class citizens in Japan. The pachinko machine is not only the focus of the family business in the later generations, but the gambling machine itself seems to serve as a metaphor for their fate, their lives like so many metal balls falling downward and ricocheting off of obstacles, launching again and again, only rarely succeeding in winning a payout against the odds. Fascinating insight into history and a family’s history. Here's a short vid of a pachinko machine: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v= 7RTg89WEsXQ