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 s...
