Starline Reviews

Stairway to Heaven is a Korean drama starring Kwon Sang Woo, who played Cha Song Joo, and Choi Ji Woo, who played Han Jung Suh/Kim Ji Soo. It aired from December 2003 to February 2004.

Cast:
Kwon Sang Woo as Cha Song Joo
Choi Ji Woo as Han Jung Suh
Kim Tae Hee as Han Yuri
Shin Hyun Joon as Han Tae Hwa
Lee Hwi Hyang as Tae Mira (Tae Hwa and Yuri’s mother)
Ha Jae Young as Han Su Ha (Jung Suh’s father)
Kim Ji Sook as Chairman Min Suh Hyun (Song Joo’s mother)
Jung Han Young as Han Pil Su (Tae Hwa and Yuri’s father)
Baek Sung Hyun as young Cha Song Joo
Park Shin Hye as young Han Jung Suh
Lee Wan as young Han Tae Hwa
Park Ji Mi as young Han Yuri

Synopsis: Song Joo is the only son of a wealthy family. Jung Suh is Song Joo’s childhood friend, and they were there for each other when one of their respective parents passed away. They spent a lot time together, playing, and sharing their inner most thoughts. When Jung Suh’s father re-married Tae Mira, Mira brought her children Tae Hwa and Yuri from her previous marriage. That marked the end of Jung Suh’s happy days. Yuri was jealous of the privileged life that Jung Suh led, and vowed to take everything away from Jung Suh, including Song Joo. When Song Joo left for his studies in the U.S., he gave Jung Suh a necklace as a gift of his love.

On Tae Hwa’s birthday, Jung Suh gave him a birthday present. Tae Hwa mistook Jung Suh’s kindness as love, and he fell head over heels in love with her. Jung Suh never accepted Tae Hwa as her heart is with Song Joo, but Tae Hwa became Jung Suh’s soulmate after Song Joo left as she weathers life under the tyranny of Mira and Yuri.

Song Joo returns 3 years later from his studies and calls Jung Suh to meet him. Yuri runs Jung Suh down with her car in a mad bid to stop Jung Suh from her rendezvous with Song Joo. In her state of panic, Yuri sends a bloodied Jung Suh to her own father’s place. Tae Hwa tracks Jung Suh down and takes care for her. Jung Suh survives the accident but forgets everything about the past. Tae Hwa decides to start life afresh with Jung Suh by giving her a new identity as Kim Ji Suh.

(credit: http://www.crunchyroll.com/series-232/Stairway-to-Heaven.html)

Review: I remember this drama as the first korean drama I watched. At the time, I had just begun to get into dramas. I had found A Love to Kill on another website, downloaded it and started watching that at the same time. However, I really became hooked on this drama and dropped A Love to Kill for a while. I remember getting very frustrated with YouTube because the videos wouldn’t load or something like that…Good times! Anyway, I watched it for like a week straight, crying through many parts.

As much as I liked it, Tae Hwa I could not stand. He creeped me out because when they went from him being a kid to an adult, he looked so much older than he was supposed to be. I don’t know if that bothered anyone else, but man, it was weird. I think he was supposed to be a little obsessive and creepy like that mainly because of the feelings he had for his step-sister.

All of the acting was done very well, but I think at some parts it was very much overdone. For example, when Song Joo would be running to find Jung Suh, they would be playing Ave Maria in the background as Song Joo was almost in tears and the camera was spinning. I mean, come on!

Like I said before, at the time, I didn’t really notice these small little things, but I started to become more aware of this as I watched more dramas and as this drama progressed. However, I think the chemistry between Jung Suh and Song Joo was tragic, but magical at the same time. Everything in this drama made me want to burst out into tears, even when there were happy parts because I knew something bad was going to happen. Just knowing that Jung Suh had eye cancer made me cry!!!!

This is a very good drama for women! It will make you cry like you wouldn’t believe, so get your box of tissues ready and enjoy!! I give this drama a solid 8 out of 10.

Also, if you have seen this drama and are looking for something similar, I suggest you try Tree of Heaven starring many of the same actors and actresses of this drama (which would make sense because it was done by the same director).

I have yet to find this drama on online sites like Dailymotion, Crunchyroll, or YouTube. If anyone has a link, please send it to me. However, one site that I know of called aznV.TV (see links section), has it available for streaming. You would have to join (registraiton is free) and download Winamp to view it though.

MySoju-http://www.mysoju.com/stairway-to-heaven/
aznV.TV-http://aznv.tv/?p=d85