Start-Up (2020)

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE THIS DRAMA AND NO ONE CAN CHANGE MY MIND.

This drama has a special hold on me. I've rewatched this for so many times and every time still feels like the first time. I know this drama gets a lot of hate and well, I guess it's really a hit or miss but it's definitely a hit for me. I do understand the negative sentiments but no other drama has spoken to me in such a personal and emotional level like this one. While watching this, I just felt like it knew me. It knew my struggles, it knew my pain. It put into words my emotions and feelings which I can't even begin to express. I felt understood. I felt seen. I felt valid. When a drama do all those things for you, you just know that you will forever hold it close to your heart.

Tackling the love elements, I did like Dalmi and Dosan together. Unpopular opinion but not for one second did I feel that she'd end up with Jipyeong. I loved Jipyeong's character as an individual character but it wasn't just written to be with Dalmi. They were so awkward, to be honest. They had good dynamics as mentor-mentee, but a romantic relationship just doesn't feel right. People were holding on to their history together but it's history. It's in the past. They grew up. It had potential to develop into something more but that didn't happen. It is what it is. Dosan and Dalmi were meant to find each other, in my opinion. They aren't perfect, especially in the beginning, but being together made them become better people and I loved seeing them grow and win together. Whereas Jipyeong always had doubts and second thoughts, Dosan always was sure of his feelings with Dalmi. Falling for each other inspired them to reach for their dreams and they did reach it together. I could go on and on but I know most people don't share the same opinions and it's definitely alright, but this was how it was for me.

I saw myself in Dosan. He's like a mirror and seeing him rising up against all his struggles were very inspiring to me. To others, it may seem inconsequential but for people like me who knew how it was to be someone others see as "special" but deep inside is just a broken soul full of doubts and fears and lacking confidence, it's so much more. I knew how it felt to feel the pressure of all the expectations and feeling like a fraud because you just can't live up to what people expects you to be.

The family and friendship in this were also top-tier. Jipyeong's relationship with Won Deok was so beautiful. Found family always touches my heart in all the right places.

The OSTs, too, were among my most favorite OSTs ever! Keeps playing on my mind even years after my first watch!

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE THIS DRAMA AND NO ONE CAN CHANGE MY MIND 🥺

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A Good Drama that with some flaws

Start-Up is a a really interest drama that across the board that plays well into the concept of start up tech companies and the different troubles and trials that they face, that special unique concept was enough for me to start up this drama. It starts off pretty well with the drama moving along the story pretty well at a good pace but quite a few issues arise in the middle of the drama which really hamper the overall story of the drama.

The very first episode does a great job in establishing the entire drama's main cast backstories like Dal Mi, In Jae, Do San, and Ji Pyung which allows you to get to know each character's personally. The following first few episodes do a great job in building upon those characters while introducing new characters. However the drama suffers from a really bad midseason slump where some episodes seem to drag on and some characters make some quite annoying decisions. However the show is able to regain its focus in the last two episodes which help put things back together which finish off the drama in a good way.

The two main characters, Dal Mi and Do San were portrayed perfectly by Suzy and Nam Joo Hyuk, with Nam Joo Hyuk putting on an absolutely fantastic performance, probably one of the best performances I have seen from a male lead ever. However Ji Pyung's character despite how much the drama tries to make the viewer sympathize with him, all the actions and the way he acts comes off completely sociopathic some times. Han Na plays a perfect ice cold business woman with her character In Jae, with her character growing immensely at the end, its a shame the drama didn't have more scenes with In Jae. The rest of the cast was great with the Samsan Tech crew all being portrayed perfectly. Also I very special mention for Kim Hae Sook, she did a perfect job with her portrayal of her character's disability, as someone who also has a grandmother who has lost a good portion of her eyesight, the portrayal was spot on.

The cinematography was great, the production did really fantastic job all around with the presentation of the drama. The locations were perfect and felt just right for the story. The soundtrack itself was great with the theme song being easily one of the best drama theme songs ever in my opinion. Future by Red Velvet was a fantastic song and the rest of the OST was great as well.

Overall, a good drama that I would recommend people to watch but warn about the midseason slump.

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So, who is going to create a start-up with me?

Start-up blew my mind!
I watched Start-up while it was airing, and I am still thinking about it. It was/is one of these dramas where you just need more of it.

STORY:
The Story evolves around Seo Dal-mi, a girl from a low-income family. Her father always dreamed about having his own company, which lead to major fights at home. Her parents divorced, and her mom took her older sister with her and married another man with loads of money. Dal-mi stayed with her grandmother and father. Her father dies after a car accident, and she remains with her grandmother. Because she is a lonely girl, her grandmother makes up a pen pal named Nam Do San (based on a proper person in Korea). A boy who lives in her grandmas shop helps her with that. He is an orphan and does not know where to go.
Fast-forward to the future. The orphan boy Han Ji Pyung is very successful and own some companies and works at sandbox. Her sister is also very popular because of her step-fathers social background. Dal-mi could not go to university because of money issues and works several part-time jobs.
In Seoul, there is this fictional space "sandbox". There, start-ups get the chance to find employees, resources and connections.
Every year, Sandbox offers a competition for young entrepreneurs to find within 48 hours a team and develop an idea and pitch for a start-up. The best 4 teams will get financial support, an office and employees for free for several months. When Dal-mi meets her sister, which has everything she ever dreamed about, she tells her that she and her pen pal Nam Do San will join Sandbox. Her sister will also participate in the competition. This leads to Dal-mi searching for the real Nam Do San.
Nam Do San is one of the smartest boys in Korea, and he works with his two best friends on their own start-ups. However, they never seem to work out and want to join Sandbox, too. Through these overlapping, all the main characters meet at sandbox, and Han Ji Pyung recognizes Dal-mi. He does not want her to know about him being the pen pal and makes a deal with Nam Do San to pretend like he was her pan pal the entire time.

CAST/ACTING:
The cast was outstanding, I believed everyone that they were the character that they portrayed. Notably, Suzy stepped up her game. She was brilliant, just like everyone else. I was drawn into the story by the great execution and screen writing. In my opinion, the cinematography was amazing, too. I wanted to join their team so bad.

MUSIC:
The soundtrack was on another level, Red Velvet and Ga-ho really carried the most significant scenes, but there were also other excellent songs.

EMOTIONS:
The show made me feel some type of way. I laughed, cried and got angry. Even now, I still feel the pain of some characters. The show managed to develop the characters in a good way and explains their previous behaviour.
I really want to watch it again soon. So thanks to everyone involved in this. You did an amazing job, and I am looking forward to your future works.
Also, the turns and twists did not bother me. I liked them very much.

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Why I liked Start Up

I watched the drama when it was first airing and I liked it alot, but I didn't feel I had enough enough of an option to write a review. Today I was listening to one of the OSTs and decided to write one.

Why Nam Do San and Seo Dal Mi worked. When I was watching many didn't like the pair. Personally I was fine with it, but I think why they work is because of two reasons. They started their journey together and second Nam Do San was a real person and the one from Seo Dal Mi's childhood wasn't. To elaborate on my second point, the Nam Do San in Seo Dal Mi's childhood was a collection of words on a paper who's intention was misinterpreted by her childlike imagination. I'm sure many if not all have imagined their crush or someone who they've taken an interest being their prince or their princess. We constantly expect the best in people we like, we like to be swept off our feet like in a fairy tale. But when I came down to it, that Nam Do San was all in her head. she had never actually interacted with him. Yet the Nam Do San she met later was someone real, with faults and insecurities just like her. He may not have been the knight in shining armor, but he was definitely someone Seo Dal Mi could actually touch and interact with. He was real, it wasn't her escapism. No matter how great a fantasy is, and no matter how ugly a reality is, one has to accept reality.

Why Han Ji Pyung letting Seo Dal Mi go was a good choice. Firstly Seo Dal Mi actually liked the real Nam Do San we can see her remembering him, and almost depending on him even after years pass. Seeing that dedication and love wouldn't any person realize that trying to force something was cruel not only to oneself, but to others as well? Secondly Han Ji Pyung almost antagonized Nam Do San, he was human and anyone would have done the same, but he did antagonize Nam Do San. Yes Nam Do San acted almost childish and it seemed unfair for Han Ji Pyung to be like a thrown orange skin. Yet Nam Do San wasn't really as Antagonistic back, he beat Han Ji Pyung up before because he hated his own weakness. He tried to separate from Han Ji Pyung because he didn't want to be a shadow. He never did something to actually directly hurt or do something to Han Ji Pyung if I remember right, it was just a lot of messed up context killing Nam Do San. Anyway later when Han Ji Pyung and Nam Do San have a drunk night and he wakes up and overhears how Nam Do San wanted to do something for him, he realized 'What is this guy doing? I'm his love rival, but here he is caring about me. Why is he so stupid? I wouldn't do that,' and that is fundamentally why Han Ji Pyung let Seo Dal Mi go, because he wasn't capable of being a normal person with her. He had turned from an adult into a child trying to push someone away into getting something he wanted. It show's his growth and his desire to reach his own happiness without Sacrificing what made him good.

The secondary characters had pretty interesting storylines aswell, except that guy who's brother died. It just seemed his growth was weird in my opinion.

Osts were bomb!

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Experience it, don't just trust the comments

This drama had so many people said it was the worst development ever but... I DON'T SEE IT.

I think that some got so stuck in the love triangle aspect and that ruined everything for them, while I didn't and I got to enjoy everything else. Not to say that this drama doesn't have good romance, cuz it DOES.

I seriously didn't get the second lead syndrome at all... and I usually get it, but with this one, it felt like who would actually be the ML in most dramas was the SML here and it was quite refreshing, I wasn't mad at all. It's not like he didn't have anyone at the end either. Most SML have no one at all, but this one, he had a whole family waiting for him, he just needed to open his eyes. It happens to us all, tbh, sometimes we get so focused on what we don't have, we miss on what we do have. But he did open his eyes at the end, he saw what he had and we got shown that.

Was this show guilty of dragging a misunderstanding out in the most annoying manner? Yeah, it was. But it only gets like too much in one or two episodes, and then it gets resolved... does the way it got resolved feel a little anticlimactic? yeah, maybe a little, but it doesn't ruin the show at all. At least, not for me.

There are so many reasons to watch this show apart from romance: grandma being a BIG PART of it, along with family dynamic/development and friendships.

But the romance also gives us things... how it can make you hide yourself behind a mask because you don't think the other one will love you as you and how when you take out that mask and they still choose you, you still get confused as to WHY... the FL taught the ML so many things, it's no wonder he can't let her go and the FL always felt supported in a breathtaking way around the ML... it's also no wonder to me that she chose him.

At the end of it all, there's a line the SML himself said that explains it all... after reading her letters, he took 15 years to seek her out (and he actually kind of stumbled upon her) while the ML read a letter and went to her immediately to help her out, even though the letter wasn't even directed to him.

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Well-rounded, polished, A-grade drama

I have waited so long to rate another K-drama a 10, and this one is it! I just feel so satisfied with the overall production of this show. I loved the characters, the story was good, and it made me both happy and sad. There were also a lot of comical moments that made it fun and light-hearted when the story was serious.

I was super satisfied with the ending! Usually dramas end and I don’t really feel anything for them, but this one had me! As Dal-mi said to Do-san, ‘do I need a reason to like [something]?’

I really can’t fault it - my only criticism would be around the initial plot. I didn’t like how Dal-mi was being fooled by Ji-pyeong and Do-san, let alone by her grandma! It really sucked for Dal-mi, but then obviously she wouldn’t have had that moment of wavering and the complications that followed with Do-san.

Moments that made me sad:
This show had me cut up from the beginning - I swear I sobbed for a good half hour when Dal-mi’s Dad died on the bus. The scenes from when he went to the investor meeting, to calling Dal-mi, to bringing home the chicken on the bus for them, and then for the man to say he was drunk, it upset me so much. Maybe I watched this when I was feeling too emotional, but it was a very heartbreaking moment.

It made me so sad in the respective scenes where Do-san and Dal-mi found out that Dal-mi’s grandma was going blind. I loved the grandma - she was very cute and a kind soul.

I was SO distraught when the ‘Alex’ dude came in after Dal-mi and Do-san signed the contract, and he said that they wouldn’t all be going to America. This made me SO angry and sad for the characters.

It also tore me apart when Do-san said to Dal-mi that he didn’t want to see her ever again, and I was like, ‘Sir, this cannot be the case!’ XD

Moments that made me happy:
I thought it was so honourable how Do-san decided to work on the recognition app because of Dal-mi’s grandma’s vision loss.

I liked how Sandbox was named after Dal-mi’s idea of spreading the sand to keep her safe after falling off of the swings. This made me tear up more (happy tears XD).

The ending when the camera panned across the photos of everyone and then it’s like HELLO your girl and boy, Do-san and Dal-mi got married! I was hoping this was going to be the case at some point.

I loved the interaction between Sa-ha and Chul-san. They were perfect for each other and their kiss scene was GOLD. Chul-san was honestly so cute ngl.


I didn’t really care for Ji-pyeong at all until maybe halfway through the drama. I guess it was kind of sad because he wrote the letters to Dal-mi, but he did have three years without Do-san around where he could have made his move but didn’t, so… Also, Dal-mi didn’t show any interest in him so I don’t know why viewers ever thought he had a chance. No second male lead syndrome for me XD It was quite obvious Do-san was endgame from the beginning.

Can we get a mention for Red Velvet’s song ‘Future?’ It was the perfect tune and the perfect words!

There are just SO many good points to discuss, but if I did that, I would be here forever!

I will definitely be watching this one again! 10/10!!!

-E

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ignore the bad reviews

I don't normally write reviews but I had to this time. Have been putting this drama aside for a long time because of the negative reviews. But turns out it's really good so it really depends on the person. so go ahead and watch it. this is a LOt more than just romance don't expect too much of it.it has all the elements you need like family, friendship, romance , dreams and comedy.


************************SPOILER ALERT****************************
first of all, those people who are sad that han ji peyong was the 2nd lead I get how you feel. I've had 2nd lead syndrome before it sucks. But in this drama, his role was A LOT more than just a 2nd lead. his relationship with the grandma, the way he kept helping them for their start-up and stuffs his character was great. funny too.

the 1st episode of this drama is really well-written and is enough to keep you hooked. it was really impactful considering so many events happened in the first ep.the drama is really focused on their work which I don't really expect myself to like but I did this time. the cast was both visually and in terms of acting perfect. comedy peaked whenever they wanted to. many of the osts are going into my playlist. overall it was a great watch. not gonna believe public opinion anymore lol.

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Refreshing, Heartwarming & Inspiring

Start-Up is a well-thought & a very heartwarming show! Cinematography is stunning! Production design is awesome! Its OSTs are all great! It is a well-written and well-directed show. Its lessons on life, love, family, business, & friendship are clear & impactful. I love everything about the show, flaws & all. Even the minor characters got full story arcs. It has a well-balanced cast in a well-balanced story. The characters are humanized (including the AI speaker) that made all of them more relatable to the viewers. Suzy & Nam Joo Hyuk’s chemistry is impeccable! All the actors & actresses excellently portrayed their roles. Special mention to Nam Joo-hyuk for giving life to a complex character like Dosan! Brilliant acting by Joo-hyuk as a genius, shy, awkward, naive, insecure, mature - name it all, he nailed it! He is definitely the future and Suzy is the best!

Start- up is one of the best Kdrama shows I’ve ever watched. Everyone had a happy ending. Every character learned what they had to learn. Highly-recommended! This show made the last months of my 2020 more bearable! Thank you Start-Up cast and crew! Thank you Netflix for bringing this show to your platform for the world to enjoy it during this time of pandemic.

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Love triangle hell

Nothing can be more infuriating than a series that was great losing its potential due to a long drawn out love triangle, and also a 16 episode run time instead of a 12 episode run time. While I love Seo Dal mi, Nam do san and Han Ji pyeong all as characters, some of the way that the story has been handled was extremely unsatisfying.

I also believe there should have been more about Seo/Won in jaw in the story- the parts of the female lead making up with her sister were probably the most compelling in the show. I also feel like she should have been given a larger screen time.

I would have liked to see the series end with Han Ji pyeong moving on from the female lead, but it doesn’t.

The story is decent, but I don’t feel it’s the masterpiece that everyone has made it out to be. At least two episodes worth of material could have been shortened.

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Below average melodrama with a great production team

The story/plot here is daytime soap level bad. Love triangles, coincidences, misunderstandings and missed connections, plus unnecessary violence and self-sabotaging behavior (very non sexy though for otherwise having such bad b-movie plotting!)

I wouldn't, however, IMHO say it was particularly red flag worthy or triggering anymore than any other drama. You have your classical deception followed by regret plot (see cyrano de bergerac or taming of the shrew). Violence breaks out in two fights where the less powerful character explodes at what he sees as bullying by powerful people.

Plus, Nam Do -San genuinely finds Seo Dal-mi inspiring and respects that she has many of the qualities he lacks. He doesn't put his fantasy of who she is on a pedestal only to debase her when she turns out to be a real woman. When he finally apologises for the deception, he doesn't try to minimize what he did or make light of it.

The actors here are good, and while there is a lot of crying, I am all for normalizing men crying! I also liked that both romantic male leads genuinely were cheering on the female lead professionally. Also, that the women bond over career and interests and family more than they do about men. I liked the at ease puppy love of the younger couple and the suspense of whether that could mature into something lasting.

The music kept with the modern, pops of color of the show. There is nothing here to rewatch.

I grade on other criteria as well:

Complex Themes: 6.5
Family is who shows up not just who provides blood or money. The show had an excellent theme going about pure hearted enthusiasm of youth v a jaded cynicism of older age, but transitioned it to a lack lustre theme instead of sell-out for a few years, and you too can be a commercial success! All the weird insistence that they were doing something inspiring and changing the world with a self-driving car start-up was a bit bizarre.

Character Growth: 7.5
The older sister ends up having the most interesting career trajectory. I truly enjoyed her slow transition and switch from living her adopted father's values to her own. The others don't have so much growth as time brings experience, money and power behind them.

Complex women/relationships between women: 8.5
This was truly one of the genuinely great aspects of the show. The older sister has no love interest! There's an older female investor mentor. Multiple women are genuinely interested and passionate about career growth. There is a great subplot between the grandmother and her daughter in law, and the older women have a lot of scenes and character development that you usually don't see.

Production values/cinematography: 8
I really feel like this team got let down by the script and director. Every single time the show could have had a sublime moment, it would instead go with the worst possible literal take ever. As a result, it's very prettily filmed, wealthy characters feel decently wealthy etc., but you rarely got that eerie, transported feeling.

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