Start-Up (2020)

A resounding 10 for Han Ji Pyung, Halmoni and their love story

I had so much overwhelming excitement for this drama after watching the first two episodes. I held on to that excitement and waited till the drama ended before I binge-watched it these past two days. What I thought was a brilliant concept of story turned into a complete dud. Disappointment is an understatement.

From the beginning, I rooted for Ji Pyung to be the hero who would win Dal Mi' heart in the end. As I watched the succeeding episodes, my mind never wavered as Ji Pyung shown himself to be a selfless gem of a human being. I cherished his scenes with halmoni. They adored each other and the love between them was so pure that Dal Mi's and Do San's pathetic romance paled in comparison. I still believe that he should have been the main character. After watching 12 1/2 episodes, I conclude that he is too good for the likes of ditzy, strong girl turned damsel in distress Dal Mi. She and equally, stupid, cry baby, whiney with anger management issues Do San, deserved each other.

Why the writer thought that Do San was every girl's ideal of a boyfriend was beyond comprehension. There were zero redeeming qualities with this man. He's got loving parents who continued to support him through thick and thin, two very loyal friends, opportunities that opened to him and I might add through Ji Pyung's effort , the fact that the main girl fell for him, and yet, he continually crowed about "poor, nothing me." The love triangle that this writer dragged on for the entire drama was just tooooooo boring and irritating. It's laughable that the only reason Dal Mi fell in love with Do San was that he's got big hands (double entendre). How very shallow and that's how the writer portrayed Dal Mi's feelings for Do San. Dal Mi fell in love with Ji Pyungs letters that sustained her through the death of her father at a young age, the abandonment of her mother and the feelings of being lost and lonely. It's unbelievable that she'd throw all those memories for someone like Do San, who she hardly knew except that he's got big hands. This writer insulted the audiences' intelligence with this ludicrous trope. The fact that most viewers rooted for Ji Pyung and thus, the sudden popularity of Kim Sun Ho attests that they're not stupid after all.

The most dangerous message of this drama, especially to young audiences is that bad behaviour like punching your mentor, insulting him, disregarding his advice, being an inexperienced know-it-all is perfectly acceptable even if it's not based on reality. First of all, punching your mentor will land you in jail and you will be dismissed from the company, second of all, you don't negotiate a 3 billion won contract without seeking the advice of said mentor and a competent lawyer specializing in contracts, third, you don't whine and complain and act like an immature person after signing a bad contract through no one's fault but yourself for being that stupid. Somehow, the writer glossed over these realities and painted a romanticized. la la land version.

Did I say that Do San's two best friends were just so irritating? Whenever they're in a scenes, it's like watching fingernails dragging across a chalkboard. Their screeching and stupidly emotional outbursts should have been toned down.

I was ready to hate Won In Jae but surprisingly, I liked her better than Dal Mi. She's got a good head for business, not driven by emotions in her business decisions and actually a good person. She was given a bad rap by the writer to make Dal Mi's character shine through but it was a poor attempt. In Jae endured the way her stepfather treated her in order to protect her mother. She developed a cold facade to protect herself from being hurt but towards the latter episodes, her good character appeared when she owned up to her lies. I wished that the drama revolved more around her and Ji Pyung because that would have been more realistic than the shallow, romanticized version of Dal Mi and Do San.

Will I watch it again? I will finish watching the rest of the episodes only for Ji Pyung and halmoni and then relegate this drama to the dustbin of history. I will forever cherish the scenes between Ji Pyung and Halmoni and maybe, watch them over and over again when I feel a need for a picker upper, especially the scene in the train station, Ji Pyung presenting himself to halmoni after 15 years, Ji Pyung crying his heart out when he found out halmoni is losing her sight and halmoni lovingly cradling his face, and every scene with the two of them. Did I say I love their bickering?

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A Show with good and strong start but disappointing ending

When i watched the first episode, i really liked it and was very happy and sattisfied with it. A pretty good plot, lovely soundtrack and an overall good cast. Although as the show went on especially after 9 or 10 episodes, the show became worse. The second lead Han Ji-pyeong soom beocme my favourite character as well as actor on the show. This should have been a show where the writers should have given the second lead the girl but they followed the basic stereotype that the main lead will always get the girl no matter how much better the second lesd is. The writers started of strong but soon the plot weakened. Even apart of my bias towards the second lead, my sister also had the same opinion about the show.

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Downhill

Started great but progressed downhill. What a waste of potential, absolutely terrible writing. Giving it 1/10 just for the unsatisfying finish. ..........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

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Dramas don't get any better than this one!

One of the best dramas I have seen in a long time. It ranks with the best of K-Dramas and is sure to make many top 20 lists. Not only.is the storyline interesting, but the acting of the two male leads and the grandmother is terrific and they give emotinally charged, award worthy performances. Going inside of the tech world and seeing the behind the scenes efforts of start ups was eye opening. The personal drama in the lives of the characters added to unfolding plot. The romantic aspects woven throughout the episodes gives romance lovers a huge dose of what they watch dramas for. I consider it a not to missed winner!

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Potential Coming of Age Drama in the Business World Fell Flat

I just wanted to start out that I watched all the episodes in hopes of some sort of redemption in the plot. Why I still had hopes? I do not know, but I hoped for it to do better than what they gave to us. The reasoning to how I reviewed this is that I saw this drama as a coming-of-age story, but it was not really one, hence the disappointment.

STORY (slight spoilers on general events in plotline)
Can I say that this drama had so much potential to go the distance? We have been seeing a trend lately in the K-drama realm with the coming-of-age theme. This one had such a great premise of the underdogs in life pushing to succeed in today’s society where it seems like you have to have the right connections. I guess they were trying to push it here that the right connections meant that you had to be rich. Also, money was a prevalent theme. Ji Pyeong and his money at the beginning, Dalmi’s father and mother divorcing because of money. Grandma’s money being what gets the family through hardships. Dalmi betting on 10,000 won(?) with In Jae. We see that money does not mean much as we get deeper into the plot. Obviously, the rich stepfather does not treat Dalmi’s mother and sister with respect. Ji Pyeong is rich, but still feels lonely. Sa Ha has a great paying job but dislikes it.

I liked the theme of family and friendship in here though. Probably why I could push myself to finish the series. First, we have our Samsan Tech trio of Nam Do San, Kim Yong San, and Lee Cheol San. They have created Samsan Tech together and as they grew up together, helped each other out the best that they can with their abilities. They make life goals together to make sure that they stick together, and they know each other well. They balance each other out with their strengths and their weaknesses and make a funny trio once they are together.

We have Dalmi’s grandma and dad who fight so hard to keep her happy with what they have. Then Dalmi’s grandma is the sweetest human being who just wants to shower Ji Pyeong our “good boy” with all the love he should have received from a family member.

Then we have Nam Do San’s dad who is kind of toxic and overbearing. He who wants the best for his son and expects his son to be the best. I think this portrays a common Asian parent, at least in my life it rings true. My favorite part of their relationship is when Nam Do San finally confronts his dad and tells them to stop being each other’s pride and joy and instead be father and son in episode 10. I think we as human beings have a hard time fulfilling those huge shoes that people expect us to wear and then run with.

I do want to say that there was not much chemistry between the main lead, female lead, or the second male lead at all. They should have just scraped the triangle love story and just made it an epic story on the cutthroat business industry.

ACTING/CAST/CHARACTERS (some spoilers)
SUZY did a great job acting as the resilient Dal Mi that did not let anything stand in her way. Her character is strong, upfront with what she wants, and does not stand down. Yet, what threw me off was the start of her character when she was all grown up. She worked many part-time jobs and seemed like a pushover. I would have loved to see her character already trying to pursue her entrepreneurship journey like her father. Why did it take the appearance of Won In Jae to make her want to pursue her dreams? Why use the premise of revenge when it was never really revenge in the first place? She just wanted to prove In Jae wrong that she can also do well in life without a rich father. I think her character was one of the main ones that fell kind of flat with character development. As the main focus of the show, I expected more. She had her quick-witted moments, but I did not see any overarching development. She stays pretty stagnant except for the fact that she was able to forgive her mom and sister.

I could bypass anything in their relationship and how they came together and stayed together. However, I did not quite understand her fetish with Nam Do San’s hands… like at all. It was not cute and it was just weird.

NAM JOO HYUK did as well as his character had the capacity to. In fact, I think he did great as the awkward nerdy guy who does not know how to communicate well. His crying was great, and I do not think his acting fell short. Nam Do San though… man how can this guy be the main lead? There was little to no character development with Do San. Yes, he confessed his “sins”, became a little stronger, and less of a pushover. However, his whole backstory and his development just fell short of Kim Yong San.

I do not understand a lot of things about his character and I am quite disappointed how the writers decided to just slap and through things together and called it good. For example, him wanting Dal Mi more than his business. This girl was literally introduced to you through a person and some letters. You saw her once and then it was like “she is the one” and “I have to have her forever”. This logic just does not make sense to me. Especially when his character does not care too much for a woman. And there was just not enough push to make me see why Do San feels like his ultimate goal is Dal Mi. Samsan Tech on the other hand was something he and his friends built together. It was something he felt like he had to prove to his father that he had to do and succeed in to remove that barrier of being a failure. Like he had to redeem for his past mistakes because all those other moments were not enough.

I feel like his character could have easily been my favorite out of the show if they wrote him better.

KIM SEON HO was everyone’s favorite “good boy”. His crying is phenomenal, it's top tier tears. I did not care much for him as a second lead and did not have second lead syndrome. However, I liked his backstory the most and his side story with the grandma. I liked how they continued to develop his character until the very end, although I feel like it was kind of awkwardly/suddenly thrown in with Yong San. Like, "we need to give Yong San a backstory. How about we tie it back when the drama is almost over". (Btw, those little clips of the hoodie guy did not give me any suspense as to what could have happened/will happen. Hence, why I feel like it was poorly done.)

KANG HA NA is such a great actress, and I am upset that she did not appear much in the drama, even as a “main role”. I love how her fight was never with Dal Mi, instead, it was with herself. I think that is the most beautiful type of development in a person when you stop fighting with others and fighting your own demons. She realized that early on while Dal Mi was still being immature.

I could go on, but I do not want to drag this, so honorable mentions to KIM HAE SOOK, KIM DO WAN, YOO SOO BIN, and STEPHANIE LEE!

MUSIC
They had a great OST soundtrack and artist line up. Our Gaho, Kim Feel, Ailee, Davichi, Jamie, BOL4, Eunji, Kassy, K.Will, Red Velvet, Oh My Girl, Jung Seung Hwan, CHEEZE, Sandeul, etc.

RE-WATCH VALUE
I probably would never re-watch this at all. It did not have any moments where I feel like would make me have to revisit it.

OVERALL (Spoilers)
I am just sad that there was not enough cutthroat business, real-life situations that were thrown in. I feel like the whole stepfather butting in could be applicable in some situations but not in all cases. The whole Ji Pyeong being a ruthless mentor/judge is very true out there and I appreciate that they brought that up. I guess as an entrepreneurship student, I hoped they could have done better.

Can I just mention that I was upset that Yong San, Cheol San, and Sa Ha did not show up to walk side by side with them in the ending scene?! Like that was such a huge slap in the face to their characters and hard work. They really pushed the show for me and were pivotal to the story. While In Jae and Ji Pyeong were important characters, I thought that the “teamwork” and “underdogs” were going to walk to greatness together.

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Mindblowing

Absolutely love it. If you want to enjoy this drama, don’t read the comments although you probably are since you are reading this (lol). Even though the first few episodes are very misleading when it comes to romance; Second Lead feels like Main Lead and it's also easier to emphasize with the Female Lead and Second Lead more (past connection - hope) than the Female and Male Lead. But this drama show you that you have to move on from your past and live in the present as Female Lead does even as she struggles to face reality (lies) in the beginning. But still, Han Ji Pyung [our SL] was the best character in this show: Caring, Self-Made, and a Realist. This drama was really interesting and it showed an essential part of a “Start-Up” business and character development which I really loved.

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Failed to end the story

In the first few episodes, I was so impressed with the story, cinematography, and acting. But on the last two episodes, I feel bored at all.

The letter which was the start of everything just vanished in the end. I don't really like the attitude of Nam Do San and one of his friend (the vlogger). Tbh, I really wanted to skip all of their scenes because it makes me cringe so hard. But I can't because I am looking forward for the next scenes coming.

The story was a fresh breath of air for a K-Drama fan like me who watched too many genres.

The writer did dirty to Hang Just Pyeong, who beat the main couple and steal the hearts of the viewers. Why did they start from creating a Han Ji Pyeong who always been good to Dal Mi. Unlike Do San, who's a cry baby, Ji Pyeong should be the one that Dal Mi chose.

That's it, I was just frustrated in the end and by Nam Do San's character but overall, I enjoy watching this drama.

OST's are sooooooo good!! I love it

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My ratings breakdown

I give this drama a 5 rating... to justify, this is my breakdown:
Seo Dal mi - minus 200 pts for choosing Dosan
Nam Do san- minus 300 pts for being a crybaby
Screenwiter- minus 495 pts for being such a cruel bitch!
Han Ji pyeong- 1000 pts
Breakdown: acting- 500 pts + dimples- 500 pts

Total rating- 5 pts
Apparently I need to rant more because my review needs 500 characters. So here it is... JUSTICE FOR JIPYEONG...JUSTICE FOR JIPYEONG...JUSTICE FOR JIPYEONG...JUSTICE FOR JIPYEONG...JUSTICE FOR JIPYEONG....JUSTICE FOR JIPYEONG...JUSTICE FOR JIPYEONG...JUSTICE FOR JIPYEONG

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