Is Move to Heaven a Real Company?

It's hard to watch "Move to Heaven" without tissues on hand. The tear-jerking 2021 series anthologizes tragic stories related to trauma cleaning, the unenviable job of sanitizing properties left behind by those who passed away unattended.

The K-drama might easily have slipped into ghost-story conventions, yet it chooses not to, letting the dead "communicate" through their belongings rather than through apparitions. It lifts from real-life events, the basis being a book of essays, "Things Left Behind" (떠난 후에 남겨진 것들), by professional trauma cleaner Kim Sae-byul.

Out of respect for the deceased, the author keeps their names and addresses anonymous. Likewise, "Move to Heaven" fictionalizes stories of godoksa or lonely deaths for the screen. 

Godoksa is a very a real phenomenon in South Korea, with 3,924 cases recorded just in 2024. These demises often come with underlying social maladies such as abuse, depression, isolation, and aging. 

Ever since "Parasite" broke out in a big way, South Korea has confronted these societal ills head-on in movies and television. "Move to Heaven" goes even further than its source material, exposing issues like international Korean adoption and domestic violence, from the perspective of a man living with Asperger's, Han Geu-ru (Tang Joon-sang), and Sang-gu (Lee Je-hoon), his unlikely guardian.

While the author's company, Bio Hazard, operates out of a commercial space, its fictional counterpart, also named Move to Heaven, is headquartered in Geu-ru's family home. In real life, the Move to Heaven office is actually the headquarters of a design firm, QNA Urban Architecture Lab. 

Set-jetters, assemble: It's located at 240-47, Yeonnam-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea (서울특별시 마포구 연nam동 240-47). 

Or you can type its current street-name address registry: 4 Seongmisan-ro 29-gil, Yeonnam-dong, Seoul (서울특별시 마포구 성미산로29길 4).

The business of death is never truly finished, and it's comforting to know that people like Sae-byul are helping the bereaved find closure. With All Souls' Day approaching, it's a fitting moment to reflect on life's fleeting nature or, at the very least, watch "Move to Heaven" instead of the usual Halloween horror fare.