This review may contain spoilers
10 STARTS ONLY FOR GOODBOY
I'm giving 10 starts to "Start-Up" , reason I'll reveal at the end of my review.After completing 16 episode, I took some time to look back into previous episodes and write this review.
This drama is about young generation who have dreams to achieve something in their life from null and how they fulfil their dreams with the help of mentors, guide, friends and family.
👉Seo Dal-mi (character played by Bae Su-ji) wanted to start a business to follow her father's dream.
👉In-jae( character played by Kang Ha-Na) is elder sister of Dal-mi, who chooses her mother after divorce of their parents and later point of time became successful business women with the help of her step-father.
👉Han Ji-pyong(character played by Kim Seon-Ho) is successful investor who struggled a lot in his childhood due to an orphan.
👉Nam Do-san( character played by Nam Joo-hyunk) is a genius software developer, who won gold medal in mathematics olympiad in childhood and started a start-up with his two friends and his family members invested in that start-up.But couldn't succeed.
After watching first episode of this drama I cried because of the story. How halmoni(dal-mi and In-jae's grandmother) gave shelter and food to jipyong who kicked out of the orphanage, their bonding and trust, how jipyong wrote letter to dalmi to make her feel less lonely(though halmoni forced him to write 1st letter but rest were written by him), but Han Jipyong choosed Do-san's name as pen-name for those letter ( he picked up that name from news article of youngest gold medalist) and became friend without even meeting her. As time passes Jipyong shifted to Seoul with the help of money he saved in halmoni's account and dalmi lost his father.
From the next episode onwards you'll see how Jipyong found halmoni and dalmi again after 15 years later. And how he helped halmoni and dalmi to pay his debits to halmoni.
To pay his debit jipyong even found the real Do-san( which he used as pen-name) but grown up version of Dos-San tuned out as lacking in confidence and the business he started almost shut down. However, jipyong convinced dosan to act like dalmi's pen pal and tried to groom him. At this point the love triangle started, where dosan fell for dalmi on the other hand jipyong who had feelings for dalmi couldn't able to admit that. On the other hand In-jae left his step father's companion and planned to start her own business. Do-san along with his friend started a company with dalmi and In-jae started another company within a Start-Up accelerating company named "Sandbox" and jipyong became investment mentor of dalmi's company.
Everything was fine till this point. This could be a business drama where we could expect some real life story and struggle to establish a start-up. But as time goes on I felt it's like other K-drama where romance is main ingredient and that "love triangle" which writer Park Hye-Ryun use in her drama to create 1st male lead and 2nd male lead war among viewers.
Some positive points:
1. Jipyong's relationship with halmoni which I enjoyed most. How halmoni was there for jipyong till the end . Emotional scenes where jipyong confess his mistakes and his anger through the dialogue "why it can't be me?"😭…..even after that halmoni hold umbrella for his "good boy" . It's just like mother and son warm relationship. Their bonding is the key point to watch this drama.❤️❤️
2. Bromance between dosan and jipyong 😂😂….. I really enjoyed those parts where jipyong was trying to groom dosan. They were like real brothers.
3. Dalmi and jipyong's untold love story. Though dalmi loved the person from those letters only, not jipyong in reality…..it was a one-sided love story from jipyong's perspective. How jipyong protect dalmi in any kind of situation. Small but sweet gestures without any skinship. 😪
4. Dosan's character growth from beginning to end. Nam Joohyunk gave his best to potrait this character 👍
5. Heartwarming OST, cinematography, quotes to motivate youths.
6. Jipyong's sacrifice for dalmi's happiness 😭
Some disappointing points are like:
1. In-jae's screen time is less.
2. Dalmi's first love was jipyong ( though in letter it's dosan as per the pen-name ), those letters comforted each other in their tough time and for those letters only dalmi used to reject boys .When she get to know that fact that Jipyong was her real pen-pal not Dosan, everything became meaningless to her. Dalmi and Jipyong never talked over that even after Jipyong's confession and after spending 3 years together.
3. It's a story for motivating youth to pursue their career choice and the message tried to convey in the entire story is "Follow your dream". But in reality Nam Do-san make dalmi as his dream to fulfil and for that reason he joined dalmi's company.What kind of message writer actually tried to convey I couldn't understand. How a person become someone's dream to fulfil his career path?
I started watching this drama because of Nam Joohyunk and Bae Suji but never expected that I would fall for Kim Seonho and Halmoni's acting skill ❤️❤️❤️….. Though Kim Seonho is 2nd lead but his acting skill nailed everything else…...after episode 10 I thought I shouldn't watch this anymore but I finished this only because of Kim Seonho and Halmoni's chemistry. I found Nam Joohyunk and Bae Suji 's chemistry is a bit forced…. I wish writer could focus more on business perspective rather than love triangle so I could say it's a drama of the year.
The reason I gave 5 stars only because of "good boy" HAN JIPYONG ❤️, screenplay, Fabulous OST( day and night is my favorite) and Halmoni. The way Kim Seonho executes the character of Han Jipyong, I bet no one could do better than this. Thanks for creating a memorable character in kdrama history ❤️. But the ending wasn’t promising because the writer ruined her own creation (Han Jipyong) for nothing.
I recommend these drama only because of these points that's it.
P.S- I tried my best to give an unbiased review but I can't help it because of the character "HAN JIPYONG/GOOD BOY"❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️☺️😊😊☺️
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