Lazy Unnie’s Couch: Move to Heaven

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There will always come a drama that you connect to on a level that is deeper than most. A drama that can make you look within and evaluate. It can heal you or even just put you on the path to healing. For me, that turned out to be Move to Heaven. I knew going in from the synopsis and from other’s reactions, that this was going to be a heavy watch emotionally. What I didn’t expect was how authentic it would be in it’s social commentary. Each episode had layers to unpack without being preachy. I could easily sit here and go through it episode by episode, but who has the time for that. Instead I will highlight the things that touched me personally.

The first thing I need to congratulate this show on is the acting. Tang Jun Sang’s Han Geuru was out of this world. He could have easily given a satire performance of a young man with autism. However, his performance was an authentic portrayal without coming off stereotypical. Personally, I live with a child who has autism and some of the behaviors that Han Geuru had, I immediately identified with and it honestly made me more connected to the character. There was a scene where he was obviously upset and immediately to self sooth himself, he started to repeat himself. To people who have no experience with children who have autism, this may seem like an outburst but it’s actually trying to not upset themselves. Even though no two autistic children are the same, there were mannerisms that Geuru did that felt extremely on point.

This show wasn’t carried just by Tang Jan Sung either. Lee Je Hoon did his thing! Cho Sang Gu as his ex-con uncle who is now Geuru’s guardian since his father died, was a dick. From the moment he is introduced, he is basically put there to stress Geuru out. But as expected, while he is doing this guardianship for a 3 months probation, he is unknowingly healing himself. Having lived with so much anger and guilt within him since he was a child, who knew taking care of this different kid and cleaning up after dead people would actually make him a better human. The scenes between him and Kim Su Cheol, played by Lee Jae Wook, had me SOBBING.

What this show does the best is showcase the grieving process in its different forms. Myself being a person who has lost a parent unexpectedly, it’s a hard thing to process. Through their business, they are cleaning up but they are also helping their clients through one of the most difficult parts of grieving. On top of all that, each episode basically tackled a different social issue. From domestic abuse to Homosexuality and homophobia. Each was done in a way that just had a level of realism but not in a documentary way.

Everything about this show was beautiful. From Geuru’s relationship with his parents, best friend and his newly found uncle to something as simple as the cinematography of when they go to clean a deceased home. If I could handle it, I would rewatch this show over and over again, it was just THAT good. And let me not lie, the eye candy in the form of Lee Je Hoon and even Hongseok as a neighborhood police officer, was yummy. I can cry and lust at the same time.