South Korea · Drama · 2002
Glass Slippers
유리구두
Also known as Glass Shoes
Binge Brief
- Aired on SBS from March 2 to July 28, 2002, across 40 episodes (Wikipedia).
- Directed by Choi Yoon-seok and written by Kang Eun-kyung.
- Native title is 유리구두 (Glass Shoes), also known as Glass Shoes in English.
- Content rating is 15+, for teens 15 or older.
- TMDB id 105451.
Synopsis
Glass Slippers (유리구두) is a 2002 SBS melodrama about two sisters separated as children and the men who love them. Directed by Choi Yoon-seok and written by Kang Eun-kyung, the series ran for 40 episodes between March 2 and July 28, 2002.
The story opens on Ha Tae-hee and her infant sister Ha Yoon-hee, whose father Hyun-ho raises them alone after their mother's death. When Hyun-ho dies years later, the sisters are separated: Tae-hee is taken in by her wealthy grandfather Kim Pil-joong, while Yoon-hee, left behind and believed to have lost her memory, grows up in poverty under a new name, Han Seon-woo, unaware of her real identity.
As adults, Tae-hee becomes an executive at Jeha Group and falls for Jang Jae-hyuk, a man secretly plotting revenge against her grandfather for an old wrong done to his own family. Seon-woo, meanwhile, works her way up from janitor to employee at the same company and is loved by Baek Cheol-woong, a small-time gang member trying to go straight for her sake. Neither sister initially realizes the other is her long-lost family, and Kim Seung-hee, a young woman posing as the missing granddaughter for her own gain, works to keep the truth from surfacing.
Over the course of the series, the two family lines collide through corporate rivalry, a stolen inheritance, and a fatal car accident that forces long-buried secrets into the open. Tae-hee and Seon-woo are eventually reunited, but the drama does not end happily for everyone: Cheol-woong is killed protecting Seon-woo from kidnappers hired by Seung-hee on her wedding day, and the survivors scatter to rebuild their lives in China and the United States.
Glass Slippers cast
Main cast
Guest appearances
Episodes
| Ep | Title | Air date | Status | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | When Hyun-ho (Ha Jae-young) hears that his wife died after giving birth to their second daughter, he can't believe it. The moment he pulls back the white cloth to see his wife's face, Hyun-ho plummets into a deep abyss. Ten years later, he arrives just in time for his second daughter Yoon-hee's recital, where she plays Cinderella and throws a tantrum, refusing to wear the glass slipper because it is too stiff. | 2002-03-02 | Aired | |
| 2 | Tae-hee bursts into tears as she receives her father's urn, while Yoon-hee tries to protect their father's desk as the landlord repossesses their belongings for unpaid rent; meanwhile Kim Pil-joong, back from Japan, is shocked to read of Hyun-ho's death in a newspaper. | 2002-03-03 | Aired | |
| 3 | Believing Yoon-hee has lost her memory, her guardians abandon her at a market; Tae-hee, searching for her lost sister, walks right past her without recognizing her, and Yoon-hee is eventually taken in by Hwang Guk-do's family while Tae-hee prays at church for help finding her. | 2002-03-09 | Aired | |
| 4 | Kim Pil-joong confirms from a photograph that Tae-hee is his granddaughter and vows to find her missing sister, while Jae-hyeok reveals he has known Tae-hee's identity from the start and asks to work for Kim Pil-joong. | 2002-03-10 | Aired | |
| 5 | Seon-woo, now grown, gets into a fight defending a broken bowl and meets Cheol-woong, who immediately asks her out despite her contempt for him. | 2002-03-16 | Aired | |
| 6 | Worried that Tae-hee has gone alone to see a private investigator, the family clashes over it, while Cheol-woong learns Seon-woo is saving money only to buy work clothes for a future office job and vows to look after her. | 2002-03-17 | Aired | |
| 7 | Seon-woo misses the deadline to submit her job application to Jeha Group after Jae-hyuk holds onto it too long, and turns down Cheol-woong's blunt declaration of interest, calling him a thug. | 2002-03-23 | Aired | |
| 8 | Framed for a theft she didn't commit, Seon-woo is slapped and thrown out by her adoptive family; Cheol-woong, enraged, trashes their shop and warns them that Seon-woo is his. | 2002-03-24 | Aired | |
| 9 | Tae-hee, desperate for anything that might jog Seung-hee's memory, unknowingly narrows in on her, while Seon-woo's ring goes missing after Seung-hee spots it. | 2002-03-30 | Aired | |
| 10 | Seung-hee shows Tae-hee the ring engraved with her mother's name and lets Kim Pil-joong believe she is his real granddaughter, even as Seon-woo lands a cleaning job at a Jeha Group franchise with Cheol-woong's help. | 2002-03-31 | Aired | |
| 11 | Every time they cross paths Jae-hyuk teases Seon-woo about being a magnet for trouble, and she tells him to remember her name because they will meet again at Jeha Group. | 2002-04-06 | Aired | |
| 12 | Seon-woo starts work as a janitor at Jeha Group and has an awkward first encounter with Jae-hyuk, while Seung-hee, caught stealing a necklace from Tae-hee's room, flees the house and turns to Seon-woo for comfort before Tae-hee finds her. | 2002-04-07 | Aired | |
| 13 | Cheol-woong is crushed to see the plant he brought Seon-woo thrown away, while Tae-hee grows suspicious after catching a lingering look between Jae-hyuk and the cleaning woman she doesn't yet recognize as Seon-woo. | 2002-04-13 | Aired | |
| 14 | Seon-woo keeps Cheol-woong's discarded potted plant patched together in her room even as Chairman Kim's declining health sets Seung-hee scheming about inheritance, and Tae-hee's suspicion of Jae-hyuk deepens over his attention to the cleaning staff. | 2002-04-14 | Aired | |
| 15 | Worried for the hospitalized Cheol-woong, Seon-woo keeps her distance from the thugs guarding him, while Chairman Kim orders a background check on Seung-hee and Jae-hyuk insists on driving Seon-woo home, further straining his engagement to Tae-hee. | 2002-04-20 | Aired | |
| 16 | Chairman Kim learns from Driver Park's documents that Seung-hee has a different biological father, while Tae-hee lends the cleaning-crew Seon-woo a book after noticing her interest in telecom manuals, deepening Seung-hee's unease. | 2002-04-21 | Aired | |
| 17 | Seung-hee's ruse over stock shares is exposed and, in a moment of despair, she kisses Cheol-woong, while Jae-hyuk secretly moves to buy up Jeha Telecom shares and brings Seon-woo back to work as his assistant. | 2002-04-27 | Aired | |
| 18 | Chairman Kim hands Seung-hee ownership of the rice-soup restaurant to keep her quiet, unaware that mob money is behind the stock buyout he suspects Jae-hyuk of orchestrating, while Seon-woo's transfer to Tae-hee's office hints the two women's paths are fated to cross. | 2002-04-28 | Aired | |
| 19 | Driver Park discovers Jae-hyuk is secretly plotting revenge on Chairman Kim for his grandfather's death, and Cheol-woong is horrified to realize the man he attacked out of jealousy over Jae-hyuk's confession to Seon-woo was his own father. | 2002-05-04 | Aired | |
| 20 | Devastated by the violent confrontation between father and son, Cheol-woong takes Seung-hee's incriminating diary and warns Jae-hyuk off Seon-woo, while Seung-hee, newly and suspiciously kind, hands over the restaurant deed to the delighted rice-soup family. | 2002-05-05 | Aired | |
| 21 | When Jae-hyuk refuses to be cowed over the diary, Seung-hee finally hands it to Chairman Kim, who slaps Jae-hyuk hard enough to split his lip once he learns of the scandal engulfing the company, and Tae-hee and a distraught Seon-woo are both kidnapped on their way home. | 2002-05-11 | Aired | |
| 22 | Cheol-woong's crew frees Tae-hee and Seon-woo in time for Tae-hee's first big presentation, while Seung-hee steals the missing diary from a drunken Cheol-woong and learns Jae-hyuk's secret, and a returning, exhausted Jae-hyuk nearly kisses a sleeping Seon-woo. | 2002-05-12 | Aired | |
| 23 | Jae-hyuk rushes out to negotiate a hostage swap for Seon-woo using Seung-hee's diary, which forces Seung-hee to hand the diary to Chairman Kim, who collapses in fury on learning Driver Park hid its existence; freed, Jae-hyuk embraces Seon-woo and admits his real target for revenge is Chairman Kim. | 2002-05-18 | Aired | |
| 24 | Now conscious, Chairman Kim orders his staff to press charges against Jae-hyuk, who is arrested by prosecutors just as he was preparing to run away with Seon-woo, leaving her waiting alone at the train station. | 2002-05-19 | Aired | |
| 25 | Tae-hee raises bail and gets Jae-hyuk released despite her grandfather's fury, and Cheol-woong quits the gangs for honest day labor while a homeless Seon-woo starts a threadbare life alone, as Chairman Kim vows to Driver Park that he will find the real Yoon-hee. | 2002-05-25 | Aired | |
| 26 | Cornered by the impossibility of the situation, Jae-hyuk offers to marry Tae-hee out of duty rather than love, and a devastated Seon-woo spends the night in the rain outside his apartment before falling seriously ill. | 2002-05-26 | Aired | |
| 27 | Jae-hyuk publicly declares his intention to marry Tae-hee despite the family's opposition, while a feverish Seon-woo is hospitalized with Cheol-woong's help, and Tae-hee, learning where Seon-woo is, still asks Jae-hyuk to go through with the wedding to spare her grandfather more pain. | 2002-06-01 | Aired | |
| 28 | Tae-hee's engagement to Jae-hyuk is formalized despite his visible unease, while Cheol-woong and his family redecorate Seon-woo's tiny room for her, and Hwang Guk-do, now homeless himself, tips off Chairman Kim's driver that Seon-woo is actually Tae-hee's real sister. | 2002-06-02 | Aired | |
| 29 | Chairman Kim's car is struck in a hit-and-run he doesn't survive, and a horrified Seung-hee, who witnesses the crash, ignores his plea for help before racing to remove Driver Park's life support out of fear he might identify her involvement. | 2002-06-08 | Aired | |
| 30 | Seung-hee is caught nearly disconnecting Driver Park's life support, and back home a lawyer reads Chairman Kim's will; Tae-hee is installed as chairwoman, and Seung-hee shows her the diary revealing Jae-hyuk's plot for revenge, turning Tae-hee against him. | 2002-06-09 | Aired | |
| 31 | Jae-hyuk grows suspicious of Seung-hee's repeated hospital visits to check on Driver Park, while Cheol-woong forces a doctor to confirm Seon-woo has leukemia and begs on his knees for a bone marrow test, even as Seon-woo delivers her final business pitch believing she is dying. | 2002-06-15 | Aired | |
| 32 | Rumors of a company crisis send Jeha's stock tumbling after Chairman Kim's death, but Seon-woo's rain-soaked product launch is a triumph even as she submits her resignation, and word of her leukemia devastates both Cheol-woong and, later, Seung-hee. | 2002-06-16 | Aired | |
| 33 | Told Seon-woo has leukemia, Tae-hee is shattered, while Jae-hyuk, having confirmed from Hwang Guk-do and the recovering Driver Park that Seon-woo is the real Yoon-hee, confronts Seung-hee and calls her charade over. | 2002-06-22 | Aired | |
| 34 | In despair, Seung-hee nearly strangles the unconscious Seon-woo in her hospital bed before recoiling in horror at herself, just as Jae-hyuk tells Tae-hee the truth and the two rush to Seon-woo's side, where she loses consciousness before they can properly reunite. | 2002-06-23 | Aired | |
| 35 | Seon-woo wakes to a tearful reunion with Tae-hee after sixteen years apart, and Tae-hee finally confronts Seung-hee over their mother's ring, slaps her, and throws her out of the house for good. | 2002-06-29 | Aired | |
| 36 | Cast out and blaming Seon-woo for her ruin, Seung-hee is taken in out of pity by Cheol-woong, while a recovered Seon-woo moves into the family home with Tae-hee, feeling out of place amid its wealth even as Jae-hyuk offers to leave the company to give Tae-hee and Seon-woo a chance. | 2002-06-30 | Aired | |
| 37 | Seon-woo's aunt objects to her working alongside Jae-hyuk, but Tae-hee insists she return to the company regardless, and Cheol-woong, despite others' doubts, resolves to propose marriage to her. | 2002-07-06 | Aired | |
| 38 | Learning that Seon-woo has been secretly meeting Jae-hyuk, a heartbroken Cheol-woong confronts her, but relents when she promises never to see Jae-hyuk again, and the two become engaged. | 2002-07-07 | Aired | |
| 39 | On the eve of Seon-woo and Cheol-woong's wedding, a desperate Seung-hee begs Cheol-woong to call it off and is coldly rebuffed, so she pays thugs to kidnap Seon-woo from the ceremony. | 2002-07-13 | Aired | |
| 40 | Cheol-woong rescues Seon-woo from her kidnappers but is fatally stabbed defending her, dying just after their wedding day; Seon-woo scatters his ashes still grieving, while Jae-hyuk leaves for the U.S. and Seon-woo eventually departs for a posting in China after a last visit to her family's hometown. | 2002-07-28 | Aired |
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