Stairway to Heaven

Cast:

Cha Song Juh: Kwon Sang Woo (Delicious Proposal/Into the Sun)
Han Jung Suh: Choi Ji Woo (Winter Sonata/Beautiful Days)
Han Tae Hwa: Shin Hyun Joon (Wedding Dress)
Han Yu Ri: Kim Tae Hee
Tae Mi Ra (Tae Hwa & Yu Li's mom, actress): Lee Hui Hyang (Beautiful Days/Secret)
Han Su Ha (Jung Suh's dad, architect): Ha Jae Young (Glass Slipper/Beautiful Days)
Min Suh Hyun (Song Juh's mom): Kim Ji Sook
Han Pil Su (Tae Hwa & Yu Li's dad): Jung Han Yong
Cha Song Juh (as a child): Baek Sung Hyun (Sweet Bear/Damo)
Han Jung Suh (as a child): Park Sin Hye
Han Tae Hwa (as a child): Lee Wan (Snow White)
Han Yu Ri (as a child): Park Ji Mi (Kuk Hee/Cinderella)

Reviewer’s thoughts:

Fresh from my escapades with the infamous Korean soap drama ‘Winter Sonata’, I was surfing the Net for some more good tearjerking dramas when the name ‘Stairways To Heaven’ popped up on my browser, without further ado, here goes my analysis of the drama after spending countless nights and several packets of tissue.

Storyline:

The story starts out with Song Juh and Jung Suh being childhood playmates.

Both of them share a similar fate, that being that both of them each loses a parent: Song Juh his father and Jung Suh her mother through eye cancer.

When Jung Suh’s father remarries Tae Mi Ra, she brings along her children from her previous marriage, Han Yu Li and Han Tae Hwa.

Like most stepmothers in fairytales, Tae Mi Ra is an angel in front of Jung Suh’s father but mistreats Jung Suh whenever he’s not around.

The poor Jung Suh is all forgiving and happy in the fact that she will eventually go abroad for further studies with Song Juh, she vows to bear any type of pain, emotional and physical, as long as her father is happy with her new stepmother.

Despite all these misgivings, she even gives her stepbrother a present on his birthday and cooks for him. Such delicate actions leave an indelible impression in his mind that Jung Seh is indeed in love with him, and he will do anything to show his love back.

However, things take a plunge when Song Juh’s father is unknowingly persuaded by Mi Ra to force Jung Suh to stay in Korea, and Jung Suh’s dream of a beautiful life with Song Juh takes a heavy blow.

Eventually, Song Juh has to leave for the States for his further studies and before he departs, he gives a lover’s necklance to Jung Suh and promises her he will back and that she must wait for him.

Three years pass and despite the mistreatment of her stepmother and stepsister, Jung Seh is now only days from being reunited with Song Juh as the day of his return to arrive beckons.

Tae Hwa is still interested in Jung Suh all these years but Jung Suh sees him only as a brother. On the day Song Juh returns, he calls Jung Suh up and she rushes down to their favourite theme park, coincidentally owned by Song Juh’s family.

However, whilst they manage to spot each other from afar, Yu Li, in a desperate bid to stop these two lovers from reuniting and out of sheer jealousy, despicably runs Jung She down and later hides her with her birth father, who is an ex-convict.

Yu Li even manages to disguise the fact that Jung Suh died in unfortunate circumstances and before long, Jung Suh is regarded for dead by her family and friends

Tae Hwa eventually finds out the whereabouts of Jung Suh and moves in with his birth father. Unfortunately, due to the car accident, Jung Suh has now lost her memory and she is renamed Kim Ji Suh by Tae Hwa and his birthfather.

Five years pass, another Kim Ji Suh is now a successful fashion designer who owns a small roadside stall selling clothes together with another friend.

Han Tae Hwa, on the other hand, is now her boyfriend and constantly hides the truth from her about her true background.

Our hero of the drama, Song Juh is now within months of completely taking over the company presidency, however, through all these years, he has never really accepted the death of Jung Suh as he saw her that very night.

In deep thoughts, he sits by a bench in his company’s themepark, when he spots Kim Ji Suh, who is a stunning resemblance to his childhood beau, Jung Suh.

What he doesn’t know is, that Kim Ji Suh is Han Jung Suh.

So here starts Song Juh relentless pursuit of Kim Ji Suh, which in turns brings a lot of pain and disgrace to both families, anguish and heartarch to all involved...

The Review

If you are wondering why I didn’t disclose more of the storyline than what my compatriot il-mare did, that is because I wish not to spoil the story for you. This is a drama that has very typical tear-jerking plot and very strongly galvanized with a solid cast and good old school acting.

The choice of Choi Ji-Woo as Han Jung Suh is a intelligent one.
The performances that she displaces in Beautiful Days and Winter Sonata were considered to be right up there with the top Korean actress then.

Her eyes, full of expressive gesture and not forgetting her ability to call forth tears as and when she willed, really put the character of Han Jung Suh so well that audience could literally cry along with her in the show.

As for the male lead of Cha Song Juh, Kwan Sang Joo does a remarkable job in creating that chemistry with Choi Ji Woo, the same type we witnessed her having with Lee Byung Hun and Bae Yong Jun, only this time, Kwan is truly a perfect match for her.

Fresh from watching Winter Sonata, I too had my tear ducts well-guarded and am proud to say that I shed no tears until the later few episodes, however there were a few scenes that really touched me down to the bottom of my heart:

a) When Jung Suh learnt that she was going blind due to her hereditary eye cancer condition and she refused to be a burden to Song Juh and left him and faced her fears alone

b) When Jung Suh regretted her decision to leave Song Juh and wished to see one last time before she lost her eyesight forever, then the sky blackened out and she realized it was too late, seeing her crying in futile pain on the beach was simply too much for me to bear

c) When she thought that she was talking to Tae Hwa [who happens to be the only other person in the show that she is willing to share her pain with apart from Sung Juh and confesses her undying love for Sung Juh in front of him, and if you manage to keep your eyes open at this stage, just watch Song Juh cry, quoting a friend ‘Cried like no man has cried before’.

d) When Jung Suh is finally drawing her last few breaths by the beach in the arms of Song Juh, and he keeps telling her: “Don’t forget about me, it may be the first time in your life you reach a destination [Heaven] before me, but I’ll eventually get there too, wait for me.”

Gosh, as I’m writing this review, tears are slowly forming by the side of face and to be honest, I thought I would never cry again as I had actually had the chance to read the synopsis of Stairways To Heaven and I didn’t think of it as a particularly tragic plot.

Yet the ingenious acting of Choi Ji-Woo as a damsel in distress [as always] and the choice of Kwan Sang Joo [who has that femine look in my opinion] was always going to be a drawing factor when it came to the box offices.

And of course, not forgetting the evil roles that were filled up by Kim Tae Hee and Lee Hui Hyang [Tae Mi Ra] , the intensity of the drama was further multiplied as the pain they made Jung Suh go through in the initial stages really wrenched the hearts of most watchers out there.

By the ending alone [although not the desired ending of many viewers out there], this drama is truly deserving of 5 out of 5 star in my humble opinion.

This review would not have been possible if not for the help of Krystalheart! Many thanks Krystal!