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Cast and crew from Apple TV+’s “Pachinko” pose on the red carpet for the Critics Choice Awards in Los Angeles on Jan. 15 (local time). (AFP/Yonhap)

Apple TV+'s series “Pachinko,” which depicts the hardships of Koreans and overseas Koreans over four generations from the Japanese colonial period to the present day, was named the best foreign language series at this year's Critics Choice Awards.

The Critics Choice Association — composed of North American film and TV critics — hosted the 28th Critics Choice Awards at Los Angeles’s Fairmont Century Plaza Hotel on Sunday (local time).

“Pachinko” swept aside the other nominees for best foreign language series, including fellow Korean drama “Extraordinary Attorney Woo,” “Borgen,” “1899,” “Garcia!,” “The Kingdom Exodus," “Kleo,” “My Brilliant Friend” and “Tehran.”

Streaming service Apple TV+’s “Pachinko” is an eight-part series that depicts the history of a family over four generations in Korea, Japan and the United States, based on the New York Times best-selling novel of the same name by author Min Jin Lee.

The series weaves together the history of the Korean diaspora, with the hardships of Sunja (Kim Min-ha) — who must suddenly leave her home of Busan in 19302 colonial Korea for Japan — and the struggles of her grandson Solomon (Jin Ha) to succeed in Japan of the 1980s.

“Pachinko” might be a US series made by American company Apple, but Korean Americans produced and directed it, and it stars Korean actors like Kim Min-ha, Youn Yuh-jung and Lee Min-ho.

Directors Kogonada and Justin Chon, executive producer Theresa Kang-Lowe, producer Soo Hugh and actor Jin Ha are all Korean Americans.

Exceptionally for a US series, it cost over US$100 million to produce.

It’s slated for a second season after the first season received rave reviews.

“Pachinko” became the fourth work about Korea to receive a Critics Choice Award.

Bong Joon-ho’s film “Parasite” received awards for best foreign-language film and best director in 2020, second-generation Korean American director Lee Isaac Chung’s film “Minari” won best foreign-language film in 2021 and the Netflix series “Squid Game” won the best foreign-language series and best actor award (Lee Jung-jae) in 2022.

The Critics Choice Awards recognize films and TV series selected by North American film and TV critics and was first held in 1996.

Meanwhile, Park Chan-wook’s film “Decision to Leave” unfortunately failed to win the best foreign language film award, for which it was nominated.

Instead, the award went to the Indian epic, “RRR.”

By Suh Jung-min, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]