Start-Up (2020)

Welp

Like I said before, Suzy bae is one of my favourite actresses of all time along with Nam Joohyuk so you'd think this'll be a biased review but if im being totally honest, this was also one of those kdramas where it was just really a drag to get through. Suzys silly acting and humor along with Joohyuks is what made it a bit more bearable tbh. Seonho as well, I love him as an actor and he did so well as well. Both of the love interests made it hard for me to choose a lane because I honestly liked Suzy with both of them! Really overall well done but it was boring at times!

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Suzy Bae is one of my top favorite actresses and I love when she plays a strong character role but in this drama series, her character was weak. I guess not every drama script is for you. The storyline was cute but familiar with another drama. It seems the storylines of one drama to another drama are starting to be alike. The best part of this story was the halmeoni played by Kim Hae Sook. The other good thing about this drama was the actor Kim Seon, but I kind of felt sorry for the role he played. I feel Han Ji Pyung should have ended up with Dal Mi, he is the one that wrote the letters and the one that spent a significant time with Dal Mi. The focus was supposed to be on starting up a business but their passion was more about romanticism. I know life should have some type of romance in it. Let's be real, I don't blame any of the actors and actresses for the storyline, I have to blame the writer. I hope that Suzy Bae will pick a stronger role to suit her personality.

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Fine, but could have gone differently.

I generally enjoyed this series, but found that some of the story elements and character development took a path that dragged on for several episodes and ended up on a path that wasn't the most gratifying for me personally. The beginning was fun and had lots of dynamic elements with the different characters and story elements centering around the startup world, but as the series went on it slowly got sucked into a whirlpool that was the love triangle, to the point where it was predictable and I was just watching the last few episodes to complete the series. It went from being a series about startups with strong romance elements, to a series about a love triangle with a vague setting of "startups" as a backdrop.

I've watched many series where the main dramatic element was a love triangle (which is honestly super common) and thoroughly enjoyed them, but I find this one lost any excitement after the scheming ended, and it was mostly a pity party with lots of tears and denial of feelings, which didn't exactly match the poppy tone of the rest of the series, characters, and side story lines. The Seo family scenes, Ji Pyung and Mrs Choi's relationship, Dal Mi being inspired about business, the In Jae situation, or the SamSan staff scenes were generally much more interesting to me and were the highlights, and it was always a little dissapointing when it would dip back into a love triangle scene.

To confront my bias, I think that Nam Joo Hyuk did a great job acting as Do San, but he wasn't always a likeable character to me and his character arc didn't help the triangle situation. If the love story and characters had been less stagnant mid-to-late series and Ji Pyung had won out in the end, I'd likely would have been more personally satisfied. But in the end I had an attitude of "sure, okay." about the sudden wedding, and was more interested in Ji Pyung's acceptance of the situation and moving on to find more meaningful things to do, Sa Ha and Choel San's relationship, and other endings.

Overall a fine series, but this is the first one I thought flaked out enough to actually write an opinion on it.

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"Sail Without a map".....BIG NO

Ji Pyeong and Won In Jae should have had a better ending than what was given to them. They had the best character development and it was disappointing that the show ended the way it did. Obviously, Ji Pyeong won people's heart with how much he went through to achieve success. In Jae might have had a life of luxury but she worked hard to get where she was with her step father's company. Both of them deserve better. Seo Dal Mi character did mature along the way. Nam Do San in my opinion is the most selfish character in the show. He had parents who provided and supported him, he's smart and good looking, all he had to do was push himself to succeed yet he is so hang up with one mistake that he is the one ruining his life. If Ji Pyeong had never entered his life and change its course, he would have been stuck with his dead end business. Dal Mi and Do San having their HEA just didn't sense.
As for the story, it started out well, building the start up company and tackling the hiccups that came along the way, but after the time jump, the premise of the story got lost. The success just happened and the problems were just glossed over. I won't rewatch the show. I would still recommend it, just don't expect a thought provoking story.

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A bit sloppy but comforting?

Good:

+Bae Suzy (Dal Mi) is pretty and can act well
+In Jae has a strong personality, is pretty, and I really liked what her kind of relatable character added to Dal Mi and to the story. In the beginning, it was interesting and funny and in the end, it was endearing and entertaining.
+The friendship dynamic between the Samsan guys
+The 2nd couple was cute
+Their loyalty to each other
+I really liked the CEO of sandbox. that woman was really good
+I liked how Dal Mi and Sa Ha became friends as well
+I really liked all the different competitions to win Sandbox (even tho Samsan tech winning everything was kind of really unrealistic)
+Mr. Han kept having to save them from everything and having Dal Mi not even going to college didn't sit right w me. The grandma had already sold her shop why wasn't she just grateful and helped by getting a high paying job *SMH*
+I liked how unique it was in a unique way. It wasn't a totally original plot or something but it showed completely different people in uncomfortable situations that they didn't expect which we don't really see often.
+I liked DalMi's mother in the end bc she regretted everything and was a funny character but never forgot how weak-willed she is and how she willingly left her daughter behind (who gives a child the choice to choose 1 parent like tf) and didnt send money or visit or anything.


Bad:

- Why was In Jae so freaking ungrateful and acted like she was better than anyone else??????? The mother gave dal mi who she didnt see grow up or see in 10 years a bit of attention and In Jae was jealous and even stole Dal Mi's story and didn't feel guilty ??
-It was a forced love triangle if I've ever witnessed one. IDK I just NEVER shipped Dal Mi with Mr. Han or liked him. He felt like an unwanted side character that kept giving them problems. and it has nothing to do with the chosen actor.
- It became really sloppy. Everything in the first half of the show was thrown out of the window. The father's struggle w business, Do San knitting became non-existent, Dal Mi always taking risks (which is understandable since she had experience after 3 years but it was her only personality trait so yeah)
-Call me shallow but I, and other watchers, care about what the actors look like in a show and for me, it affects how much I like it. By no way do I mean this in a bullying or hateful way. I simply as a human being didn't think the Males leads were handsome so that made me not ship the relationships as hard.
-It was a bit boring and cliche. no real character development and there were forced events to move the story. It had a lot of potential but lost it midway. Many problems could've been avoided if they communicated better which is personally a trope i hate

in the end, I did want to watch all episodes and wished most characters the best. most of it was quite entertaining and I'm glad they married in the end lol. I'm glad they grew and became important figures and got more money cause that's important!! it was more of a comforting and safe drama in the end, no real excitement or action or really emotionally moving things but it was a keeps-u-smiling-and-slightly-bored-but-u-keep-watching-anyway-cause-u-can't-stop drama.

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São só meus comentários sobre o dorama

Okay, primeira vez escrevendo nessa bagaça, não comento muito no twitter então vamos aqui mesmo.
Primeiro: eu shippei sim DoDal e também shippei ela com o menino bonzinho, inclusive acho que tudo se resolveria em um trisal. But, that's not important here now.
Eu acredito que o plot foi muito bom e é uma história incrível, mas se perdeu no meio em focando tanto em desenvolver o tal triângulo que se esqueceu de desenvolver outros personagens, o Ji pyeong teve sua conclusão bem no ultimo ep q se esqueceram de fazer um """arco""" para que ele chegasse naquela conclusão, a In jae tinha tudo para ser uma das melhores personagens do drama mas a jogaram de escanteio e do nada colocaram em um arco de redenção e fora que: como nem comentavam com ela sobre a condição de sua avó?, foi tudo muito corrido. E principalmente: que merda de arco sobre o irmão do Yong san foi aquele? Trataram o assunto de um jeito chulo, como que o Yong San chegou na conclusão de que ele so queria culpar alguem? Poderiam ter tratado de um jeito melhor. O que salvou realmente todo esse arco foi o Ji pyeong e o jeito que aquilo impactou ele e como ele tambem superou.
Mas tirando tudo isso, eu realmente aproveitei o drama e foi um dos meus favoritos do ano! Eu gostei do jeito q fizeram todas as questões empresariais e como jovens lidam com isso, o Do San que foi um dos meus favoritos e todo o jeitinho bobinho dele e como eu me identificava com as inseguranças dele, a forma com que a Dal Mi lidava com todas as situações, as cartas, a relação entre o Ji pyeong com a avo dela foi uma das mais bonitas também e chorei sem parar quando o pai da Dal Mi morreu e como fizeram a cena. Com certeza foi um dos melhores do ano e provavelmente se não tivessem focado no triângulo amoroso ate o último segundo ele provavelmente entraria no meu top 10 de favoritos, mas de toda forma as OST's ja estão nele.
Bom, é isso, amei StartUp apesar de tudo e acredito que vale muito fazer uma maratona para assistir tudo de novo.

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It was so good, like the ending how it was.

I'm late reviewing this one, but I really wanted to share my opinion (even if has been almost 3 years since they aired the last episode,). First of all, I couldn't be more disaree with almost all the opinions here I mean, I respect them, but Im disagree and makes me think we weren't watching the same drama and I have the same fight on twt while it was airing.

To all, I'm gonna resume it, this drama has it all, good music (excellent if u ask me, GAHO, Red Velvet and others made it up so well) good acting performance, good characters and even if you don't accept it, good plot.

You gonna feel binged to it since the first episode and gonna start to feel emotional about Dal Mi's story, You gonna feel angry and gonna want to know when everything gonna be revealed and maybe, if you are objective, you gonna accept the ending.

Here we go with the spoilers, everyone was so disappointed in 2021 when Do San got the girl and even now, I can find dissapointed comments on internet about how they just found out Sr. Han didn't got the girl and thats the only reason why people give to the drama a one star review, just beacuse they didn't like the ending throwing the rest of the story.

Yes, its true the relationship between DalMi's grandmother and Sr. Han, was one of the best things in the drama. It melted my heart how she loved him as a grandson and confort him everytime as soon they met again, but for a lot of people this got mixed with Dal Mi and Sr. Han's relationship and they assumed he has to be with her just because her grandmother. For me the ending was what it has to be, even if there were things that killed my braing while watching this drama (like the relationship dalmi have with her mother, I still cant understand why she had leave her and be ok with that, i know he apologized later, but even when that happened I cant still be ok with it), so the ending its the sum of all the things that happend thorough the drama and even if Sr. Han was so sweet, he had a lot of opportunities to be with her, but he didn't dare to say anything and Do San got all the opportunities and did even a little bit more for her... and well, that's my opinion upon to this drama. That's all. ^^

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Forget the hype, the discussions and all that, it's a great K-Drama!

This is the first review I'm writing and I'll try to be brief about it. I started watching Start Up as soon as it premiered in Netflix, and as a fan of Suzy I was really impressed by how much her acting was better and the whole story and atmosphere the drama was created in the first few episodes. It was funny, a little sentimental when it needed to be and there were some great moments of reflection to but without dragging too much the viewers.

The problem started as soon as the drama started getting hype by social media and many new viewers, a whole fan war began over the love triangle they build and it became such a mess that I have to give props to the writers for trying to ease the viewers and please both sizes at the same time. If you don't know what I mean, basically many people were mad saying Seo Dal-mi should be with the boy who wrote the letters, that's Han Ji-pyeong, but for me, these people missed the main focus of the drama itself that wasn't exactly about love but growth and sucess. Because of these fights, I had to stop watching it and only finished a year later when people got over it.

Now, after the whole issue is done I really enjoyed this drama. It's fun, it's heart-warming, the acting is on point and the OST is even better. It's very well-produced, the writers did a good job with what they had and with what they proposed since the first episode and I will rewatch it again in a few years.

I absolutely recommend it and also advise that when watching Korean dramas you don't fall too much into false hopes and don't read too much into it because that takes away the whole magic of your vision and your own experience with the drama.

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Почему стоит смотреть?

Ким Сан Хо в роли Хан Чжи Пёна *_* уву уву обаяшка улыбашка с тяжелой судьбой, но который смог выбраться из дерьма так сказатб.
вообще, на самом деле, дораму стоит посмотреть, чтобы вникнуть в процессы при запуске стартапа и то, с какими сложностями стартапы сталкиваются, даже если уже нашли инвесторов. в дораме конечно все немного (или много) романтизировано, но в общих чертах представление можно составить. радует так же и то, что романтическая линия тут не сильно навязчивая и все-таки больше времени отводится воплощению идеи и жизни стартапа. еще интересный момент и главная идея сериала - искусственный интеллект. хорошо или плохо он повлияет на жизнь людей в обществе?
на удивление даже игра сюзи не разочаровала в этот раз.

➖ Из минусов:
разочаровал выбор главной героини. даже корейцы были сильно разочарованы - аж 86% зрителей =(

вердикт - к просмотру советую)

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Great slice of life of start up in the high tech world

10/10 is my rating. This is a 2020 South Korean Romantic Drama with 16, 72-85 minute episodes.


As young children, Seo Dal-mi (Bae Suzy) and her sister became separated when their mother and father divorced. Seo-Dal-mi chose to stay with her father in South Korea and her sister went with their mother who remarried. Dal-mi's step-father is a wealthy businessman who was able to provide Dal-mi's mother and sister with wealth and status. Dal-mi's father died on the brink of receiving an investment to realize his dream of the next big thing in the tech industry. Wanting to fulfill her father's dream and show her mom and sister that she made the right choice in staying with her father, Dal-mi strives to make a big splash on the tech scene as the CEO to a start-up. Dreams for a successful start-up business start and sometimes finish with admittance to the start-up groomer, Sandbox, which is South Korea's version of Silicon Valley. Nam Do-san (Nam joo-hyuk) was a "math genius" as a young boy and grew up to be a genius coder. He founded a start-up, Samsan Tech, with two close friends. With his business struggling, Do-san agrees to play the role of stand-in as Dal-mi's first love who she "met" as a pen pal when she needs a date to an important event. The young dreamers apply to Sandbox and all are accepted. The situation becomes complicated when Dal-mi's actual pen pal also comes into her life and discovers he has feelings for her. Will these young dreamers realize their dreams and overcome nearly impossible odds to form a successful start-up. Who will Dal-mi end up with, the man who wrote her letters and supported her in her time of greatest need, or this "new" love that is the perfect partner for her aspirations?


Spoilers* At the start we are introduced to Dal-mi's father and it was a sad moment when he died after just realizing his dream of getting investors to start a business. Young Dal-mi had elected to stay with her father when her mother and father divorced. The relationship between the Dal-mi and her father was very heartwarming. Her father's mother, the grandmother, was also a very compelling character and it was understandable why so many people were drawn to her. I love how the grandmother adopted this orphaned young man in spirit and took care of him despite his bristly exterior. The grandmother also took such careful care of Dal-mi not just physically but emotionally after her father died. It was an interesting slice of life to see what a technology based start up might go through trying to get their idea(s) off the ground. The friendships, romances, and just the character development was all very well done and interesting. I really liked 2nd guy but I did not feel too bad for him to lose the girl as it had taken him too much time to realize he liked her and, even then, he was too slow to show her how he felt. I also liked him to the extent that I was glad she didn't wind up with him because she would never have loved him as much as he loved her. The 2nd guy could have been unkind and kept Do-san and Dal-mi apart by withholding information but he cared enough about both that he told them despite it being against his interest to do so. I liked Nam Joo-hyuk in "Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok-joo" and "The Bride of Haeback" he is a very diverse and talented actor. Suzy Bae is just incredible. I first saw her in "While You Were Sleeping" and loved the role she played as a very vulnerable person troubled by visions she could not control. There was so much chemistry between the two leads and they looked very good together. It definitely made me root for their relationship. It was interesting to observe how each team member brought talent to the table and how they moved so many concepts into developed ideas into reality. I highly recommend this and would readily watch it again in the future. One of my new favorites.

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"No pain no gain"

This drama starts with a childhood story, but the journey is there too. The mental of a CEO should be strong from the beginning. The path won't be flat, there would be obstacles, and also failures. This drama has it all, when the FL (Seo Dalmi) wants to build a start-up company. I learned a lot about some management methods here. And the nation's favourite.. Han Jipyeong the good boy. All of his scenes with the halmeoni is really emotional and heartwarming for me. Well, Dosan also has a part in my heart (since Joohyuk is my favourite actor) because he also works hard. I'm very emotional while the Samsans came back from the States and visit their first ever office for the last time. They had gone through lots of things from that small office, until they can work in the States. The "no pain no gain" phrase is the best phrase to describe this drama. In my opinion, this drama isn't only about Dalmi's first love, this is also about self improvement, responsibility, and "good things take time".

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