Kim Min-ha

Kim Min-ha is a South Korean actor whose international breakthrough came with the Apple TV+ drama Pachinko. In the series, adapted from Min Jin Lee’s 2017 novel, she plays adolescent Sunja, the central figure in a multigenerational Korean family story that moves from Japanese-occupied Korea to Japan and later America. The role demanded that she portray Sunja’s formative years, including her relationship with the fish broker Koh Hansu, played by Lee Min-ho, and her marriage to the minister Baek Isak, played by Noh Sang-hyun. Pachinko premiered in 2022 and made Min-ha widely visible beyond Korea. Its first season intercuts Sunja’s youth with the life of an older Sunja, played by Youn Yuh-jung, giving Min-ha the task of establishing the character whose later history the audience already knows in part. The production uses Korean, Japanese, and English, and its depiction of Korean migration and discrimination under Japanese rule is central to its narrative. Min-ha returned as young Sunja for season two, released in 2024, which continues the family’s story during World War II. Before Pachinko, Min-ha built her screen career in South Korean television and film. Her credits include the 2016 web drama Two Rooms, the 2017 television series School 2017, and the 2020 film The Call. She also appeared in the 2021 Netflix series My Name, a revenge thriller starring Han So-hee. These earlier projects preceded the global attention surrounding Pachinko, but they place her work within contemporary Korean screen production. For Pachinko, Min-ha earned nominations and recognition from international critics groups. She received a nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series at the 2023 Critics Choice Awards, recognizing her work in Pachinko. The nomination placed her in an awards conversation shaped by a performance that relies on Korean-language scenes and on Sunja’s shifting circumstances rather than a conventional star introduction. Min-ha has also taken part in interviews about the importance of portraying a Korean woman whose life is affected by colonial rule, migration, family obligation, and survival. Her Pachinko work remains the defining international reference point of her career, because the series brought Lee’s novel to a streaming audience while centering Sunja across different ages and countries. Her performance gives the early chapters a specific Sunja before Youn’s older character carries the family’s history through later decades in Japan.