Heaven & Earth is a 2007 South Korean television series starring Park Hae-jin, Han Hyo-joo, Lee Joo-hyun, Kang Jung-hwa, and Hong Soo-ah. It aired on KBS1 from January 15 to August 31, 2007 on Mondays to Fridays at 20:25 for 165 episodes. The daily drama was a hit, maintaining an average viewership rating of 30% throughout its nine-month run. Its peak viewership rating of 36.1% made it the third highest-rated Korean drama of 2007.
Plot
Jung Mu-young was left by his birth-mother under the care ofKim Tae-shik and his wife Park Myung-ja when he was very young. His mother promised to come after him later but she never did. The Kim family raised Mu-young like he was their own son but never changed his family name because they thought his birth-mother might later come to pick him up. Despite a lack of money, Myung-ja has managed to keep the family together; moreover, she never once treated Mu-young any differently than her biological son, still having a different family name with his older brother Kim Sang-hyun made him escape home several times. Mu-young is outwardly rebellious, unforgiving, and in constant conflict with his family; he keeps an emotional distance from them, for fear of getting hurt one day. At school he meets the cheerful and kindhearted Seok Ji-soo, who not only values her family greatly, but goes out of her way to help others. Thinking too highly of Ji Soo and too low of himself and aware of the possible negative reaction her family might have toward his confession to her, he tries making a distance between himself and Ji Soo. As a grown up, Ji-soo begins working for Myung-ja's stepsister Park Myung-joo, and learns that she and her single father Seok Jong-hoon are in love and she fully supports her father's newfound romance. She is also seeing a rich family's son who wants to propose to her. Heaven & Earth tackles the issues the modern family faces, such as the difficulties faced by stepparents and stepchildren; conflicts between biological and adoptive parents; the aftermath of a remarriage; and the high divorce rate among the younger generation, and resulting involuntary childcare from their grandparents.
Cast
Main cast
Park Hae-jin as Jung Mu-young
Han Hyo-joo as Seok Ji-soo
Kang Jung-hwa as Yoon Eun-joo
Lee Joo-hyun as Kim Sang-hyun
Hong Soo-ah as Yoon Eun-ha
Supporting cast
;Kim family
Jung Han-yong as Kim Tae-shik, Sang-hyun and Mu-young's father
Jung Ae-ri as Park Myung-ja, Sang-hyun's mother
Ban Hyo-jung as Han Bong-rye, Myung-ja's mother
Jung Jae-soon as Lee Soon-im, Myung-ja's stepmother
Yoon Hae-young as Park Myung-joo, Soon-im's daughter
