Drama 'Between Steps' Praised for Realistic Prosthetic Leg Portrayal
The Chosun Ilbo · Kim Min-jeong ·
Drama Between Steps Praised for Realistic Prosthetic Leg Portrayal Advisor with Amputated Leg Coached Movements, Series Ranks Globally on Disney+
The drama begins with a man wearing a prosthetic leg, but the disability becomes truly palpable in the scene where love begins. Sunlight falls on the heads of a man and woman sitting side by side on a subway. They have just met. The woman quickly stands and exits, while the man rises awkwardly much later. Only then do viewers fully grasp the man’s disability.
This is the story of the late Director Ahn Pan-seok’s final work, “Between Steps” (ENA·Disney+), which has drawn reactions from viewers praising its “realistic portrayal of disability.” Despite its unconventional focus on a male protagonist with a prosthetic leg, the series has garnered significant domestic and international attention. It consistently ranked 2nd–3rd in Disney+’s domestic viewership and entered the global top 10 shortly after its weekly Monday-Tuesday releases. It also maintained 3rd place in the October 4th week’s domestic TV-OTT buzz rankings (Findex).
The story revolves around Min-jae (Choo Young-woo), a robotics PhD student with a disability, and Yu-jin (Kim So-hyun), a master’s student. Though Min-jae has a disability, it is portrayed as casually as any other personal shortcoming everyone might have. This aligns with the wishes of So Young-hwan (37), who lost his right leg in a motorcycle accident. So participated in the filming process, which took about four months, from the drama’s planning stages. He served as an advisor for the show, which features a protagonist who lost a leg to bone cancer. Every movement of the protagonist was born from his coaching, making Min-jae almost an extension of himself. On October 29, we met So at KT Studio Genie in Sangam-dong, Seoul. He appeared wearing shorts, revealing his prosthetic leg.
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