Move to Heaven (2021)

A very touching story - a masterpiece drama

At first, I was a bit reluctant to watch this, as I thought it might be a horror drama, when someone told me it was about death. Then another friend, who was a fellow movie lover but rarely watches Korean drama, recommended me to watch this one with two thumbs up. There were only 10 episodes, and each episode was no more than an hour (40-60 minutes).

By then, I haven’t really moved on after watching Navillera, which to me was a beautifully-made drama on deeper issues unrelated to love and romance. Now here was another similar Korean drama. Yes, there was definitely love and romance in it, but not among the main leads. This was more like a family drama, but with many social issues added to it. This was a drama about stories untold by people who had left the world. It shows that each of us has a story to tell, but not always have the opportunity to do so.

Move to Heaven was inspired by a book "Things Left Behind" by Kim Sae-byul, who used to be a “trauma cleaner”, a professional job which I did not know existed before.

In the first episode we were exposed to a story of occupational hazards and a company that does not care. Then we were exposed to stories about Alzheimer's disease, elderly couples, suicide, parents who disapproved their gay son’s love relationship, domestic violence, child adoption and the search for one’s natural parents, deported Korean kids who returned and could not adjust to life in Korea, and illegal gambling and cheating.

But most of all this was a story of a father’s love towards his son, Geu-ru, who had special needs, and how he raised Geu-ru to become an independent, self-reliant person. It was also a story of a rude, uncaring, ex-convict uncle who came into Geu-ru's life, who eventually came to love his nephew so much (this somewhat reminded me of the movie My Annoying Brother).

At the end the whole drama was about learning to let go. Geu-ru was so concerned about other people’s lives and witnessed how they all had to let go of the past and move on. Eventually Geu-ru learned to do the same thing: learning to accept the loss of his father and to move on with his own life.

If there is one thing I’d like to criticise about this drama is that the whole story took place during the pandemic. The dates were specifically mentioned between April 2020 and July 2020, and yet none of the actors/actresses wore masks or kept physical distancing, not even in the hospital (and I think people in hospitals should really observe health protocols).

I know there were many dramas made during the pandemic, but since those stories was not time-bound, it doesn’t really matter. Start Up, for example, had a three-year lag in the story line. So we don’t really know (and don’t really care) in what year the story began and when it ended. This is also the same case with Lovestruck in the City, Run On, Hello Me and A Love So Beautiful. But Move to Heaven specifically mentioned dates which happened in 2020.

Anyway, this is an emotionally-touching drama. In fact, I could say it's a masterpiece. There were so many scenes which brought tears to my eyes, and yet it was not too melodramatic. I give my two thumbs up to the 17-year-old Tang Jun Sang who brilliantly played his role as Geu-ru. I’d like to see more of him in the future, and I’m sure he will be a great actor. Lee Je-hoon also played a great role as the obnoxious uncle.

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