TV Drama: Tree of Heaven

Despite my usual lack of interest to this kind of derama (melodramatic, that is), I went ahead watching this series since it had been said to get good attentions in Japan.

The story was about Hana (Park Shin-Hye): a bright young girl who lost her father (a Korean) at a young age. When her Japanese mother returned to Japan, she came with her new Korean husband and his 19 years old son Yun-So (Lee Wan). While the stepfather was nice and kindhearted, Yun-So was difficult and a bit autistic.

Living most of her life as an only and thus lonely child, Hana was fond of her new stepbrother. She always tried to cheer him up with her new-learned Korean—calling him oppa with a supposedly weird accent. After a while, Yun-So finally willing to open up to Hana and she found out the reason behind Yun-So’s pain and agony: his mother died during his 10th birthday and her death was traumatic to him.

Hana’s late father owned an inn business that had been taken care of by his younger sister when Hana’s mother went to Korea. While giving friendly smiles and kind words in front of them, the aunt was in truth spited them all. So when Hana’s parents were on a honeymoon trip, this aunt and her daughter Maya abused Hana and made plans to sell the inn in order to pay for gambling debts and college. During these hard times, Hana found solace with Yun-So and gradually they started to have feelings for one another. But Hana was doubted and afraid to love him.

Years passed, Hana parents got killed on a traffic accident but the aunt didn’t tell Hana and Yun-So. Hana found herself loosing track of her parents and also without a home—her aunt finally really did sold the inn. Yun-So oppa was also missing after Hana rejected his love. She went to work in her sempai’s (senior) big hotel in Tokyo, regretting her doubt on Yun-So’s love. Ryu Fujiwara, that’s the sempai’s name, asked her to marry him but one day Hana saw someone who’s so very like her Yun-So oppa—a man that was a mafia team leader named Yuki.



Of course the story line of a love-rejected man went joining the mafia was… well, a bit lame, but we have to remember that this was a melodrama after all. Lee Wan did a great job doing Yun-So’s autistic teenage part, but unfortunately, IMHO, sometimes overacted his mafia role—what seemed supposedly to be a cool face or cold eyes ended up made me smirking or helplessly bursting out comment “yeah yeah yeah.” His and Park Shin-Hye’s chemistry was more of a brother-sister thing, rather than burning and undying love. His teaming up with Asami Reina who’s playing Maya in the other hand was very well felt, I even like them together better.

After this derama, I don’t think I will immediately jump full of excitement for another Park Shin-Hye’s derama (And they said she's going to be one of the casts for Goong 2? Arrgghh!). She’s trying to be cute, battering her big eyes, reciting her supposedly broken Korean—as a person who’s newly learning Korean, her accent were too perfect on some of the difficult words that are more likely found hard by beginners—were simply annoying for me. And for a girl who was supposed to be Japanese, her Japanese was too weird—sounded like whoever made her Japanese lines was not a native; she’s using old Japanese that were only used by older woman (not by nowadays high school girls); the kind of speaking heard in the old Candy-Candy’s animation. Weird enough, Yun-So oppa’s Japanese was more fluent.

Although the opening song was nice and memorable, this derama was barely forgiven. Over all, I think the story would probably work out just fine if only they chose different two main casts to play it. Enduring the exploration of characters from those two were like watching high school kids trying to do grown up lines in a school festival. I went on watching only because of Maya (Asami Reina), her scenes when expressing desperate love to Yun-So were worth watching. I wanted to know what would become of Maya and Yun-So in the end of the story.

But I will be lying if I didn’t admit that Park Shin-Hye’s performance at the scene when she found out that the heart that was beating in her chest was her oppa’s was great. And I also like the ending of this derama: very romantic and probably the most appropriate ending for the story.

“We will meet again in heaven, until then I’ll take care this tree of heaven for you.”

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Source: http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Tree_of_Heaven Casts: Lee Wan, Park Shin-Hye, Asami Reina, Uchida Asahi, Mire Aika, Sonim Title: Cheonguk eui Namu Also known as: Tree of Heaven / Heaven's Tree / Trees in Heaven Japanese Name: Tengoku no Ki Genre: Melodrama, Romance Duration: 10 episodes Broadcast Network: SBS/Fuji TV Broadcast Period: 2006-02-08 to 2006-03-09 Language: Korean, Japanese