Start-Up (2020)

Story Fell Victim to Indecisive Focus

A drama that started off strong with a clear purpose and a fresh premise, but alarmingly spirals out of control, lost in its own plot. It's initially exciting, until it veers off on a tangent and falls victim to the usual clichés, half-baked subplots, too many flashbacks, and the most offending — a main character who doesn't quite belong in the plot. Besides that, great cast and pretty cinematography. All actors portrayed their roles well, but this is what I can't let go: the narrative progression was so horrendous, I'm actually dumbfounded at how bad it was.

The resolution presented at the end of the drama is unrecognizable from what I was lured to expect in Episode 1, which is rightfully bizarre. The writers fool us into thinking this is Dal-mi's story, when it really ends up being Do-san's. The latter 10 episodes of the drama focus too much on Do-san's internal conflicts. And for what? Winning Dal-mi's heart? Is this really what the incredibly in-depth, emotional first episode was setting up for? How odd.

Because of this drama's obsession with Do-san, the determined Dal-mi ended up being somewhat of a ragdoll, Ji-pyeong's potential complexity was completely watered down, and it feels like In-jae wasn't even given more than 10 minutes of total screen time.

I love Samsan Tech's story by itself, the boys are endearing and fun, but when I look at this drama as a whole, I fail to see any point to Do-san's character past the first few episodes. Making Do-san such an "important" character made the writers lose their initial focus. The choice to split "Nam Do-san" into two characters (Ji-pyeong, the original "Do-san," and Do-san of the present) was huge narrative mistake, done for the sake of pointless drama.

The story really should've anchored on Dal-mi and her circle (In-jae, Ji-pyeong, and Halmeoni), aka the characters we get to know in the first episode. But instead, past the midway point, it starts running like a super emotional soap opera, aimless and confusing. The last three episodes had such random, irrelevant plot elements. I was shell-shocked.

This is not a critique on the actors themselves; they did well with what they were given. But the story writing... underwhelming would be an understatement. Dal-mi's ambitions and her unusual, complicated relationships with Ji-pyeong and In-jae would've been a great story by itself. "Nam Do-san" could've remained just a name. That's my firm opinion.

I don't recommend this drama. But I will give kudos to Nam Joo-hyuk and Kim Seon-ho, as their emotional scenes were out of this world. Suzy, Kang Han-na and all supporting characters were also lovely to watch, all impressive actors. But the writers needed to rein it in and be more decisive about their focus. It had so much potential, but failed to deliver. Truly disappointed.

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Great Drama.

This Korean drama is a total package you will laugh, cry, feel excited, and motivated at the same time. It's not your typically office romance because you will learn every episode it teaches us about life, friendship, family and what are the ups and downs in starting a business. I really loved the intro of this show the colorful palette and how they present the "swing girl" and reveal her meaning throughout the show.

And what I've learned in watching this show is:

1. It's okay to fail. In life whether you're in your 20s or 40s we always encounter failure. Just like Nam Do Sam the computer genius but not a perfect CEO, and Seo Dal Mi she started a business at first, then she fail. We tend to consider mistakes as a closing door but sometimes life is very tricky, just like in a competition there are two types of losers. One that accepts that he/she lost and moved on because they learned that its not their endgame and the one that see it not a lost but an opportunity to build another and at the end they both become successful.

2. Family is everywhere. Han Ji Pyeong don't have a family and living by himself but he finds a family with Halmeoni (Choi Won Deok).

3. Perfect does not exist. What you really see is not what really is, the characters of Won In Jae, Han Ji Pyeong, Won Doo Jung, and, Cha A Hyun at first you see that they have everything but deep inside there all incomplete and not happy.

4. Building a business is like riding a roller coaster, It only goes up and down my friend. Winning a contract is not your always, criticism is everywhere that brings you down in a blink of an eye. And not all the time you are stable, remember the sea is not calm all the time. Based on the show in starting a business you need to be brave in order to take risk in any given situation.

5. Always learn to forgive. Forgiveness can be the hardest but at the end it will take you to peace.

6. Learn to Connect and Reconnect. Have you realize that what if your story is connected to other people stories? Its one of the things I like in this drama how they present the "storytelling part" how the characters is connected to one another. I admired how they write the story of Han Ji Pyeong and Halmeoni they left off in a bad state but through Seo Dal Mi, Han Ji Pyeong learns to reconnect to Halmeoni once again.

7. Be the 'Good One'. Whatever happens always choose to be the good person and help other people it doesn't matter if its big or small doing one good deed at a time gives a great impact to our society and humanity.

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Honestly can't get over how cute this show was.

Very memorable, loved the cast and acting and ost and the characters! It was funny and cute and sweet and real. LOVED!

PLEASE watch this show. It's great acting by all the actors, interesting story, and the lead couple is SO fucking cute together, its insane. All their moments, from holding hands, to the first kiss, to the piggy-back rides, ALL OF IT IS SO CUTE.
It's a simple story of how a passionate and ambitious girl Dal Mi, and a nerdy and sweet boy Do San meet initially as a lie, but then fall for each other-HARD.
And even when the lie is revealed, the girl still chooses the boy right for her.

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A great watch … worth it!

I. Story
a. Episode stories: The stories per episode were mostly good. Out of 16 episodes, I like the story of 9 episodes.

b. Series story: From the title, "Start-Up" (or "Sandbox"), it gives the impression that it is primarily about starting up a business or about joining a, well, sandbox program. However, overarching story is more about [1] a love triangle and [2] sibling rivalry. The impression from the series title only takes tertiary importance. It would have been better if the importance was as follows: [1] sibling rivalry; [2] start-up/sandbox/business; and [3] love triangle.

Regardless… the way the overarching stories were delivered and the choice of story per episode were enough to pull up the score for this rating.

However, avoid introducing important facts and then never mentioning it again. For example, Ji Pyung and the sisters have met when they were kids. It was also weird that a bloodied person can pitch his company, that does not happen in real life.

II. Acting
Acting! This is where I had to give a low rating. There were too many crying scenes where the facial expression was neutral. It was obvious they were only "acting" instead of actually feeling and letting their emotions out.

I'm a fan of Suzy but I have to mention this: relax more during kissing scenes, make us feel it, and it doesn't need to be "wild". The kissing scenes can still be romantic even if there wasn't too much lip action. A room for improvement. I love her acting and the way she brings life to the characters she plays but the kissing scenes needs improvement. Relax, take it slow, don't make it wild -- rather make it romantic. Don't act, imagine he's your boyfriend or some secret desire. You want to enjoy the moment, to just let him feel your desire.

As for Joo Hyuk, great job in portraying what appears to be an eccentric, possibly even an autistic, character. It is never easy if an actor is not in the autism spectrum--in particular asperger syndrome. Very geeky, logical, all about facts, and clueless about everything else, especially fashion and social skills. Those scenes where Dal Mi was sending signals and Do San missed it all--those were all great. Sometimes annoying but all of it were relatable. Neutral face, going back to the discussion he was focused on, definitely a character with aspergers syndrome. Well done there.

For Han Na, excellent job in keeping the character mysterious. It was not easy when the character In Jae had a change of heart, especially when it comes to her sister. There were clues but the next moment it's the total opposite. This happens in real life and so it's great to see it on screen.

III. Music
This one is hard. I can not remember any memorable music other than the theme songs. It was probably because the acting and dialogues were great that any music playing were not reaching me, or it simply does not fit. Listening to the tracks directly, many are very good to listen to.

IV. Rewatch Value
Definitely in my list of series that I'll choose to re=watch.

V. Summary
Overall, the production, story, and acting were awesome. The inclusion of business terminologies and explaining each, that was a very good idea. Explaining the processes, the whys and the hows, definitely a plus. It would have been better if they toned down the "young adult" giggles because that very rarely happens in-real-life. They should've used sandbox and showed the idea behind it and what's happening in it more as well, instead of just providing a free office and free funding.

The "revolutionary" ideas were well thought out especially the app helping those with vision challenges. I do hope such an app exists but we haven't achieved that speed of AI recognition still something to look forward to. Great choices on scenes and I wish they added more, like a team building session where they could feature the beauty of Korea instead of the exact same office.

From a dramatic episode 1 and funny episodes later, to the building up of the trials and tribulations, to the eventually resolution in the latter episodes. it was enough to pull up the overall rating to 9 out of 10 stars.

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I like ...no I love everything in this drama the actors the story ♥️ How they act Suzy and Nam-Joo yuk were so sweet just love them. I will watch it again on Netflix that is for sure ! Thank you! and for those who writes bad reviews ...just find another drama which will match with your taste ONLY LOVE ❤️ Again thank you all team Start up!!!! ..................................................................................................................,....,,..,............................................................................................................................................……….............................................................................

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Honest Review

I'm going to be completely honest and state that what made the show insufferable to watch wasn't exactly the show itself. It was the drama behind the scenes that ruined the show for me. This is by no means one of my favorite dramas as I tend to hate love triangles however I truly don't believe there ever was a love triangle to begin with. If you take the show for what it is there isn't a love triangle at all- Dalmi's feelings are clear from the start.

This drama started off strong and then slowly declined as the weeks went by. I think they missed the mark by emphasizing HJP's character so much in the beginning rather than NDS's. I think a lot of the ML confusion stems from such a strong focus on HJP only to use his character as a means to get the story going. In comparison to While You Were Sleeping, Woo-Tak is used as a plot device similarly. However, we don't really dive as deep into him as we do HJP. I think that's the reason so many were unable to accept HJP not being the ML. Although I don't think he ever had a chance, I personally felt they wasted such a strong character.

Start-Up is by no means a bad drama. Sure, it could've been executed better however, everyone did such a fantastic job portraying their characters and it was an overall enjoyable drama. The emphasis on family and friendship were easily the best parts of the show. I loved the SST crew and they always showed up for each other. I loved the reconciliation between DM, IJ, and their mother. I especially loved Sa-Ha's character.

By reading a lot of the reviews here you would think Nam Do-San is an antagonist. He is by no means an antagonist. Does he have flaws? Yes. But so does HJP. As well as everyone in the show! It's realistic. I think if you go into the drama fully understanding NDS is the lead, you'll like it just fine. Do some characters deserve better? Yes. At the end of the day, it's fiction and I don't believe it's worth the bashing of the show especially when the direction of the romance was clear from the start.

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While watching Start up I read some reviews on various sites about the show that disappointed me. So here's my opinion.
Start up was a really nice drama. The whole start-up company theme was always interesting to watch and sometimes it was so thrilling to watch how and if Dal Mi, Do San and the others would face the challenges in their way.
The thing that disappointed me in some reviews, as said earlier, is that some people who liked the second male lead would attack the main actor and they would make some questionable statements about the storyline, e.g. there was a comment where it said that only the actions of Ji Pyeong were the writer's doing and not all of the other characters. Surely I wasn't always agreeing with how the main leads were acting but it's a drama you can't expect that the writer has the same opinions as you, something that happens with all dramas.
Acting was good and the chemistry was there. Loved Sa ha's and Cheol San's relationship, cuteness overload really. The music was lovely and it's one of the dramas I would go back to watch.

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Everything a Rom Com should be

This drama exemplifies why I watch KDramas more than any other TV shows, and why I say that South Korea does RomCom better than anyone else.
The story takes us into a field (startups, tech companies, etc) and gives us a glimpse of what that's like. But make no mistake, this story is a ROMANCE. and the two leads (plus our second lead) live up to that wonderfully.
The premise is interesting (the letters - it's very much lifted from Cyrano de Bergerac) and highlights a major weakness in the second lead - it was the girl's GRANDMOTHER who asked 'Good Boy' to write them - in order to cheer up her granddaughter. Good Boy there had no real interest in the girl other than to please the grandmother.
This is apparent when later on, when he COULD have just admitted he was the one who wrote the things, he instead hires the guy whose name he stole to represent him. So he complicated his own life, which bites him in the derriere later as he comes to care for the girl.
I loved the romance, the actors, the secondary characters, the ending. Fun, logical, no major angst, decent ending that made me smile, a WEDDING photo!!!!
I'm sure there were inaccuracies about the computer industry, and that these kids had a much easier, more polished path than your average person in the industry. But it's expected from a romcom - this wasn't a show where you wanted gritty reality at all. Most of us watching these shows want enough reality to actually believe this kind of thing might happen, and then we just want to enjoy the romance. For those of you wanting grit etc, don't look to romcoms LOL

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It's good but it's not for everyone.

I guess I am one of those few people who actually liked this show. It's not the best but it's a good watch. The acting was great and everyone acted their parts really well. However, the lacking thing with this drama comes from the writing of its story. I think I kind of get why a lot of people were frustrated with this drama. Before this show began, it is obvious that if ever there is going to be a love story in this drama it will be about the characters of Nam Joo Hyuk and Suzy and how their characters will end up together. However, when the actual drama started to began, the character of Kim Seon Ho was fleshed out a lot more and better than the character of Joo Hyuk that it became a lot harder for some to digest the romantic couple that was made out of the main characters. Second lead syndrome is real and this drama does that quite well. Additionally, I think another disappointment that some people may have comes from the fact that they expected this drama to be about the business world and yet that became just a setting and a plot device for a love story. Obviously this drama doesn't offer anything new nor it tries to present one. It's a love story that some may find entertaining and some do not. Furthermore for those who finds a love story to be entertaining enough, this drama posed another challenge to be lauded and not panned by giving the second lead guy a lot more opportunities to be beloved by the audiences. As I said earlier I liked this show, it's not perfect but it's entertaining. It's good but it's not for everyone.

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Great drama if you’re not looking for romance

My first review just to give my voice to negate the bad comments.

I am a start-up co-founder, working in the IT area, and I studied computer science, so I am familiar with AI. One review said that this is not about business or AI... well, I disagree with that as I can relate to some stories in the drama. So for me, this is not a romance drama.

They tell us how they create a team, how they come up with an idea, how their products can succeed, how hard it is to find an investor, how you can be conned and mistreated by some big companies. This drama tells us a lot about starting a business from zero, so I would not say this drama focuses on the romance.

I agree that the leads lack in chemistry, but since I don’t watch it for the romance, I don’t mind it. I deduct most of 1.5 points for the chemistry between the leads. But for the story itself, I think it’s a great one.

Of course, I am also that-guy team, and I am sad that he is not the one being with the lead at the end, but hey, as Dal Mi said, you don’t need a reason to love someone; you just found someone that is “clicked” with you. I don’t deduct any point just because my ship doesn’t sail.

As for the characters’ development, I think both FL and ML have their character development. ML was someone with no confidence, but he gains his confidence because of FL. Similarly, FL has this insecurity in her because she always compares herself with his sister, but no more towards the end. Character development does not always about evil side become angel side; the second lead character’s development is more significant, I agree. But it doesn’t mean that the drama lacks character development.

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Youth Inspiring KDrama (Fresh and Informative Concept)

A MUST-WATCH KDRAMA

Story:

Main Plot: Start-Up follows the journey of young innovators who want to make it big in Korea Silicon Valley.
*But to expand its target audiences, other than entrepreneurship, it also tackles life, family relation, love, and friendship.

Start-Up has a fresh concept among KDramas. It incorporated business terminologies in layman's term in each episode for the viewers to easily understand. It is an informative type of drama. It does not solely focuses in business aspect, but also dwells on family, love, dreams, growth and friendship. The relatable main characters make the series inspiring which make the audience root for their growth and success.

Cast/Acting:
Seo Dalmi (Bae Suzy): the main female lead of the story. She is shown to be persistent and confident which is usually propelled by her bluffing. Even without business experience, she dared to enter Sandbox in hopes to make her choice, choosing her father, the right choice.

Nam Dosan (Nam Joo Hyuk) : the main male lead of the story. He is shown to be an aloof, odd, awkward, but genius programmer and initially the founder and CEO of SamSan Tech along with his two friends Yeongsan and Chulsan. He has a low self esteem caused by the undue pressure from his parents and childhood trauma. Samsan Tech entered Sandbox to attract investors.

Han Jipyeong (Kim Seon Ho): the 2nd lead. He is seen as successful investor, business minded, but have a cutting knife frankness. He is seen as empathetic to those he has no interest thereof but caring to the people he liked. He became a mentor in Sandbox.

Won Injae (Kang Hanna): 2nd lead. Seo Dalmi's sister who chose to stay with mother who married a rich businessman. She is independent and experienced businesswoman through the privilege given to her by her stepfather. But the betrayal of her stepfather forced her to enter Sandbox to prove that she can be successful without that privilege.

Seo Dalmi and Nam Dosan 's fate intertwined through the letters written by Han Jipyeong 15 years ago. Jipyeong, who was ordered by Seo Dalmi's grandma to be a pretend penpal with Seo Dalmi to help her cope up from losing her sister, used the name of Nam Dosan, who was a math prodigy. After 15 years, Seo Dalmi and Nam Dosan met and together with Yeongsan and Chulsan, and Saha, formed SamSan Tech in Sandbox. They were face with Won Injae's company as competitor.

This is Bae Suzy's all time high of acting prowess in all of her dramas. She brought to life the character of Dalmi wonderfully. Nam Joo Hyuk also delivered a phenomenal acting skills. Both of them can pull off the crying, funny, and romantic scenes really well. They have a great chemistry. All the supporting artists also did justice to the role they played.

MUSIC
10/10. StartUp has 15+ wonderful OSTs. Each has its own distinct flavor which can uplift you or gets you emotional out of nowhere.

STARTUP IS ONE OF THE BEST KDRAMA THIS 2020 AND IT OPENS A NEW GENRE OF KDRAMAS. IT ALSO HAS THE HIGHEST KDRAMA CPI DAILY POINTS ON NETFLIX WITH A RECORD BREAKING 202. AND HAS BEEN ONE OF THE MOST MENTIONED KDRAMAS DURING ITS AIRTIME.

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