''Stairway to Heaven'' () is a 2003 South Korean

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed be ...

starring Choi Ji-woo,

Kwon Sang-woo Kwon Sang-woo (in Korean: 권상우, ''Kweon Sang-u''; born August 5, 1976) is a South Korean actor. He rose to stardom in 2003 with the romantic comedy film ''My Tutor Friend'' and the melodrama series ''Stairway to Heaven''. Career Kwon Sang ...

Kim Tae-hee Kim Tae-hee (; born 29 March 1980) is a South Korean actress. Considered one of South Korea's most beautiful actresses, she is best known for her roles in Korean dramas such as ''Stairway to Heaven'' (2003), ''Love Story in Harvard'' (2004), '' ...

, and Shin Hyun-joon. It aired on SBS from 3 December 2003 to 5 February 2004 on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 21:55 for 20 episodes. The title of the show comes from the Led Zeppelin song of the same name, which is frequently used in the underscore. The drama is the second entry in director Lee Jang-soo's ''Heaven Trilogy'' which included '' Beautiful Days'' in 2001 and ''

Tree of Heaven ''Ailanthus altissima'' , commonly known as tree of heaven, ailanthus, varnish tree, or in Chinese as ''chouchun'' (), is a deciduous tree in the family Simaroubaceae. It is native to northeast and central China, and Taiwan. Unlike other memb ...

'' in 2006. The drama was a hit and received an average viewership rating of 38.8%, and 45.3% for the finale.

Synopsis

Han Jung-suh ( Choi Ji-woo) and Cha Song-joo (

) are childhood friends and have a special bond that blossoms into love. They both share the pain of losing a loved one: Song-joo's father died in a traffic accident and Jung-suh's mother died of eye cancer. Jung-suh's father (Ha Jae-young) marries an actress named Tae Mi-ra (Lee Hui-hyang), who brings her real daughter, Han Yoo-ri (Kim Tae-hee), and son, Han Tae-hwa ( Lee Wan) into the household. Yoo-ri is jealous of Jung-suh, making her look terrible in front of her mother, who begins to turn on Jung-suh. When Jung-suh's father leaves for work, her stepmother assaults her. She thwarts Jung-suh's attempts to study abroad with Song-joo, who then leaves for America alone. Mi-ra plots for Yoo-ri to win the affections of Song-joo who is the heir of his family fortune. All the while, Jung-suh tries to be nice to Tae-hwa, but he mistakes her friendship for something more, and falls in love with her. Three years later, Song-joo (

) comes back from America, and Jung-suh ( Choi Ji-woo) rushes to greet him. A jealous Yoo-ri (

) tries to stop them from reuniting. As they race to the airport, Yoo-ri intentionally hits Jung-suh with her car. Jung-suh is taken to the hospital where a group of people had just died in fire. Yoo-ri swaps Jung-suh's ID with one of the people to fake her death. She takes the real Jung-suh to her biological father's home. Tae-hwa ( Shin Hyun-joon), still in love with Jung-suh, finds out what Yoo-ri has done, but seizes the opportunity to run away with Jung-suh. Jung-suh loses her memory, and Tae-hwa moves them away and changes their names. Five years later, Yoo-ri is soon to be engaged to Song-joo. Song-joo decides that he needs to let go of Jung-suh and goes to the carousel they used to ride as children. He wishes to see Jung-suh just once more, looks up, and sees her on the carousel. Jung-suh, now named Kim Ji-soo, works at a small clothing shop while living with Tae-hwa (now Chul-soo). Song-joo rushes to Ji-soo and tells her that he is Jung-suh, but she doesn't believe him. Song-joo is determined to make her remember her past, and through a series of events, he and Jung-suh become close. Jung-suh regains her memory when Yoo-ri nearly hits her with her car again and rushes to tell Song-joo. She forgives Tae-hwa as she knew he did it out of love. Jung-suh and Song-joo are happy together, until she discovers she has

eye cancer Eye neoplasms can affect all parts of the eye, and can be a benign tumor or a malignant tumor (cancer). Eye cancers can be primary (starts within the eye) or metastatic cancer (spread to the eye from another organ). The two most common cancers th ...

. She asks Tae-hwa to take her away from Song-joo, since she can't bear to see him in pain. Gradually, Jung-suh's vision deteriorates into blindness. Tae-hwa tells Song-joo and his family the truth starting from the accident. Yoo-ri is arrested, and her mother goes insane and is admitted to a mental hospital. Song-joo marries Jung-suh, who is now blind, with the blessing of his mother and her father. Jung-suh tells Tae-hwa that her one wish is to see Song-joo's face one last time. Both Song-joo and Tae-hwa ask a doctor to let them give Jung-suh one of their

cornea The cornea is the transparent front part of the eye that covers the iris, pupil, and anterior chamber. Along with the anterior chamber and lens, the cornea refracts light, accounting for approximately two-thirds of the eye's total optical ...

s, but the doctor tells them that they can't take corneas from live donors. Tae-hwa wants to grant her wish at all costs and commits suicide via car crash in order to donate his cornea to her. After his death, Jung-suh has the operation and is able to see again. However, Song-joo finds out about Tae-hwa's death and later on tells Jung-suh. She starts to feel sick again, and the doctor states that the tumor has spread to her brain and is inoperable; the same incurable illness that killed her mother. Jung-suh, realizing this, forgives Tae Mi-ra and Yoo-ri because of Tae-hwa. Both Yoo-ri and Tae Mi-ra feel remorse for their wrongdoings against Jung-suh, and apologize to her. Jung-suh dies a few days later at the seaside near her childhood home, in the arms of Song-joo. The ending scene reverts to the beginning scene where Song-joo is playing his piano by the ocean of the memorable beach house. He says, "Perhaps, that person (Tae-hwa) might have loved that girl (Jung-suh) more than I. But even though I say this, that doesn't mean that I loved her any less."

Cast

Main

as Cha Song-joo **

Baek Sung-hyun Baek Sung-hyun (; born January 30, 1989) is a South Korean actor. Career Baek Sung-hyun made his acting debut in the 1994 film ''I Wish for What Is Forbidden to Me'' when he was five years old. The child actor practically grew up onscreen, pla ...

as young Song-joo * Choi Ji-woo as Han Jung-suh / Kim Ji-soo **

Park Shin-hye Park Shin-hye (, born February 18, 1990) is a South Korean actress and singer. She gained recognition as a child on TV shows such as ''Stairway to Heaven'' (2003), and ''Tree of Heaven'' (2006). Later on, she would achieve further success when ...

as young Jung-suh * Shin Hyun-joon as Han Tae-hwa / Han Chul-soo ** Lee Wan as young Tae-hwa *

as Han Yoo-ri ** Park Ji-mi as young Yoo-ri

Supporting

* Ha Jae-young as Han Su-ha (Jung-suh's father) *

Lee Hwi-hyang Lee Hwi-hyang (born October 1, 1960) is a South Korean actress. She joined the Miss MBC beauty pageant in 1981, and made her acting debut in 1982. Among Lee's notable television drama In film and television, drama is a category or genre ...

as Tae Mi-ra (Tae-hwa and Yoo-ri's mother) *

Jung Han-yong Jung Han-yong (정한용, born June 22, 1954) is a veteran South Korean actor. He has appeared in many television series, including 2009's ''Iris''. In 1983 he won the Baeksang Arts Awards The Baeksang Arts Awards (), also known as the Paek ...

as Han Pil-su (Tae-hwa and Yoo-ri's father) *

Lee Charm Lee Charm (; born 3 April 1954 as Bernhard Quandt), formerly known as Lee Han-woo (), is a South Korean actor and entrepreneur. He was CEO of the Korea Tourism Organization from July 2009 to November 2013. He stepped down as head of Korea Touri ...

(Bernhard Quandt) as Director Jang * Kim Ji-sook as Min Seo-hyun (Song-joo's mother) * Park Young-ji * Jung Ha-na * Lee Tae-sung

Production

Recreation complex

Lotte World Lotte World is a major recreation complex in Seoul, South Korea. It consists of the world's largest indoor theme park, an outdoor amusement park called "Magic Island", an artificial island inside a lake linked by monorail, shopping malls, a lu ...

in Seoul was used as a filming location, namely the carousel, ice rink and as the seat of Cha Song-joo's family business.

Soundtrack

# Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 Op.11 E Minor 2nd Mvt : Romanza # Memories of Heaven () – Jang Jung-woo # Lethe () – Kang Woo-jin # Ave Maria –

Rebecca Luker Rebecca Luker (April 17, 1961 – December 23, 2020) was an American actress, singer, and recording artist, noted for her "crystal clear operatic soprano" and for maintaining long runs in Broadway musicals over the course of her three-decade-lo ...

# That's the Only One () – Jang Jung-woo # Forever () # Only Me For You () – Kim Hyun-ah # Remember # Sad Love () # To the Beautiful You () – Moon Ji-hwan # I Will Protect You () # I Miss You () –

Kim Bum-soo Kim Bum-soo (; born January 26, 1979), is a South Korean singer who is widely considered one of the country's best vocalists. Kim debuted in 1999 with the album, ''A Promise'', and in 2001, he charted on the '' Billboard'' Hot Singles Sales cha ...

# This is Not the End () # Memories of Heaven () – Park Mook-hwan # Though I Am at the End of the World () # Promise () # That's the Only One () – Park Mook-hwan # Stairway to Heaven # Bania u cygana – Zero

International broadcast

In 2004, the broadcast rights were sold to Japan for appropriately , at the time a record price for a Korean drama export. It aired as part of

Fuji TV JOCX-DTV (channel 8), branded as and colloquially known as CX, is a Japanese television station based in Odaiba, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Owned and operated by the it is the key station of the Fuji News Network (FNN) and the Fuji Network S ...

's "Saturday Hallyu Wide Hour" programming block. The first episode received a viewership rating of 6% to 8% and went on to receive ratings as high at 12%. It also aired on cable channel KNTV from 4 June to 29 October 2005. According to a poll conducted by

TV Asahi JOEX-DTV (channel 5), branded as (also known as EX and and stylized as TV asahi), is a television station that is owned and operated by the subsidiary of certified broadcasting holding company , itself controlled by The Asahi Shimbun Comp ...

variety show ''SMAP Station'' in May 2007, ''Stairway to Heaven'' ranked as the third most popular Korean drama in Japan. It aired in Vietnam on HTV9 from May 2 to June 27, 2004. It aired in the Philippines on

GMA Network GMA Network (Global Media Arts or simply GMA) is a Philippine free-to-air television and radio network. It is the flagship property of publicly traded GMA Network, Inc. Its first broadcast on television was on October 29, 1961. GMA Network (f ...

in 2005, during which it received a peak viewership rating of 41.5% and an average viewership rating of 36.1%, making it one of the highest rated programs of all time in the country. The series became a rerun after 10 years from 28 September to 27 November 2015 which transferred to morning from primetime on the same network. The series was rebroadcast on GMA News TV from November 23, 2020 to January 1, 2021 and was repaired on Heart of Asia, starting mid-week of September 2021. In 2005, broadcasting rights to the drama were sold to eight countries across Latin America including Mexico, Peru and Costa Rica. It aired in Thailand on Channel 3 in 2006. It was aired in Indonesia on

Indosiar PT Indosiar Visual Mandiri, commonly known as Indosiar, is an Indonesian over-the-air television network. It broadcasts nationwide on UHF and can be received throughout the Indonesian archipelago on analog PAL television sets, established on ...

in 2004 and became one of the most popular Korean drama at the time.

In North Korea

The show was popular among North Koreans. Allegedly, the show was seen by North Koreans via smuggling, as they wanted an alternative to watching North Korean state propaganda.

References

External links

* * * {{Works by Logos Film Seoul Broadcasting System television dramas Television series by Logos Film 2003 South Korean television series debuts 2004 South Korean television series endings Korean-language television shows South Korean romance television series South Korean melodrama television series