I believe most people who disliked this drama try to put the blame on the main leads but it is because they are disappointed the SML did not have the trajectory they expected for him.
The writers made the HJP the perfect cliché tsundere male character. A guy temperamental and rude and haughty who hides a warm side and only slowly open himself to others and wins the heart of the girl. It is understandable that many people seeing this they were expecting him to turn the tables. But it does not happen. He does not win the girl and worse, his cold, rude, disrespectful and scheming side is pushed too far vs Do San, SST or his own underling he treats like a pawn he places where he wants when he wants.
His warm side in the end is triggered by his own understanding and awareness about Dal Mi and Do San but professionally it takes Grandma to visit and tell him to stop trying to repay her kindness but to go and be kind to others. It takes his CEO to force him to manage the investment in CheongMyeong. This leads him to smooth and improve his relationship with In Jae, NDS and SDM . They should have fleshed him out earlier to make him less extreme and stopped the love triangle earlier to develop other sides of his character and maybe point out at a love prospect for him.
Overall HJP was very cliché and really not a likeable character for me but I understand that many people fell for his flayed side and the difference between his harshness and his oversensitivity about his own flaws and failure revealed to him thought Grandma. For me, I just saw no development in his character till ep 16 and I agree his ending is far from satisfactory.
I found the other characters better with endings that they earned. They were more subtle. More nuanced. For example Chul San that I found very annoying in the beginning. His evolution was credible: not a great guy and still annoying at times but more cool and a bit smarter. Another example is In Jae. Her evolution does not make her a good nice woman. No she is still herself with her strong personality but she does what it needs to improve her family bounds. Do San also does not completely changes. He is still crying too much and not assured but he is stronger and more assertive regarding his choices. Dal Mi did not became the perfect career woman but she is more confident and professional as a leader. None of them is perfect but their development is credible.
Writing him like a First male lead but using him as a Second male lead was a mistake from the writers. In the end it was prejudiciable to the drama as its biggest flaws ( the wrong grotesque mentoring and the draggy fake love triangle) are the doing of his character. All the other characters have a proper evolution. Only him had a very cliché development happening only in the last ep.
I actually didn't love this drama but this doesn't deserve a 1 or 3 honestly like their was good plot I would…
If you don't root for the SML to end up with the FL, this drama is very fun and entertaining, Based on the new rating system, I would say this one deserves 8.1 overall
KSH did a pretty good job. It is just HJP who sucked big time. lol.
KSH portrayed perfectly a guy flayed because of his difficult past and the need for him to show that he is perfect and a boss who knows better. The contrast between him being harsh and rude and disrespectful and the moments he is plagued by the consequences of his own mistakes and flaws makes him the most endearing character. But the problem is not who he is. It is what he does.
HJP was the typical cliché male character temperamental, hotheaded and rude who hides a warm side and becomes good in the end. But they pushed the cliché too far and too long. He was abusing and inefficient and unprofessional as a mentor. He was scheming and pathetic as a third wheel in the fake love triangle. He only developed in the last ep.
To each his own. But for me HJP was the character I liked the least. His sad past was no excuse for his misbehavior and harshness. I liked another orphan better with only one scene. Mr Hong of the Ko Gil Dong project, an orphan who grew to find success and founded a start up to help others.
What the heck happened? What's with the rating and numerous bad reviews? Almost downloaded all eps and were waiting…
Leave this comment section and just binge watch it. Maybe you will like it maybe you will not . But at least, you will know you made your own opinion and no one influenced it. Then you should come back give your own two cents about it.
Thinking of watching this but kinda hesitating because of the dumpster fire going on over here.Without spoilers,…
It is controversial because many people thought the SML might be the ML but no it is not the case. If you wan't to watch this don't fall for that war of ML SML. Just forget this comment section binge watch it by paying attention to everyone and their individual evolution.
"CEO like yelling at a dishwasher of a restaurant who slacked is just grotesque." So apt!"It is his loss. "" does…
You are right these advices are common advices to follow when watching a drama. I never wrote them in my former reviews because I thought people can enjoy the way they want. But for this drama I thought they needed to be stated.
In particular because the first ep was very confusing regarding the ML. I myself was questioning the order of the cast and I had to pause my viewing to go to the Internet and look for additional infos to figure out who was ML. I was still unsure so I decided to not chose sides and wait to have a clearer view of the situation. Only at the end of the ep. 1 when the petal was flying in the sky to reach the actual ML, I understood this drama was not going to be: "two former penfriends reunite and find love". Too easy for a kdrama which talks about destiny. I was 100% sure it would be :" Two kids fated to be lovers by a grandma and her good boy".
Thank you for taking the time to write a few words on my review. I wish you to have fun watching new incoming dramas. Have a good day and take care.
I won't enter a discussion with you to underline what TOTNT did so well that Start up did so bad. I don' t even think Start up did bad. I think it is a good drama if people are not focused on the second male lead but accompany all the 10 something main characters during their journey.
I won't try to convince you regarding HJP. I will just stick with my final assessment about him that he is a good person deep inside but he did not act like one. He was reduced to an annoying, nagging and rude third wheel in a fake love triangle and we only have ep16 to see the full potential of his character. When he started to put things right, to act positively and open himself to others, he really went from bad guvnor to great guvnor.
I was just saying I enjoyed Start up more than TOTNT.
Kim Seon Ho did an excellent job portraying Han Ji Pyong but the character was only involved in a lying scheme…
He agreed to be in a scheme to write to someone pretending to be someone he is not (a 12 yo kid). 15 years later he went to Do San to ask him to enter the scheme of the fake letters by pretending to be the kid of the letter to "help" someone. He made and pushed that scheme at times to keep it going. Later he lied to Dal Mi he wrote the letters on his own. I am not sure it was intentional now but it sure made her doubt her feelings. Only in ep 16 he puts an end to all this and says it: He is not Do San from the Letters.
It is too bad all his involvement in the drama was reduced to his. With such a good actor and an endearing character, it could have been so much more . Ep 16 showed it when he started acting positively to people. If he was like that sooner it would have given him another dimension and it would have put a different light on the Love triangle.
On the surface TOT9T is watchable and I don't mind the fate of the main characters but in the details, it is quite messy with many inconsistencies, plot holes, loose ends, weird turn of direction in some characters. Also I did not like the romanticizing of villain. Rang killed people just for the enjoyment of it but they made him complex to the point he became good.
I never liked that kind of characters. This is why I rarely watch drama with a ML who is a Mafia guy doing prostitution and drugs but he is a nice guy deep inside. It is the same problem I had with Han Ji Pyeong. Inside you know he is a good person but outside he is an absolute jerk and nice only to the people he likes.
I was not really rooting for the ML of Start up even if I liked the character as a person. I was rooting for his romance with the FL. From episode one it was clear that Destiny made a pair of them and that they would be together after a long journey. I regretted his main roadblock was HJP and that it lasted for so long but in the end Destiny was completed.
Apparently TOT9T was entertaining for many people but I can only judge based on my own assessment. For each, his own.
Just a quick review as so much has been said about this drama. I personally enjoyed it, and the parts that I appreciated…
Kim Seon Ho did an excellent job portraying Han Ji Pyong but the character was only involved in a lying scheme which triggered a fake love triangle where he never had any chance with the FL. They could have done a lot better with such a good character.
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The writers made the HJP the perfect cliché tsundere male character. A guy temperamental and rude and haughty who hides a warm side and only slowly open himself to others and wins the heart of the girl. It is understandable that many people seeing this they were expecting him to turn the tables. But it does not happen. He does not win the girl and worse, his cold, rude, disrespectful and scheming side is pushed too far vs Do San, SST or his own underling he treats like a pawn he places where he wants when he wants.
His warm side in the end is triggered by his own understanding and awareness about Dal Mi and Do San but professionally it takes Grandma to visit and tell him to stop trying to repay her kindness but to go and be kind to others. It takes his CEO to force him to manage the investment in CheongMyeong. This leads him to smooth and improve his relationship with In Jae, NDS and SDM . They should have fleshed him out earlier to make him less extreme and stopped the love triangle earlier to develop other sides of his character and maybe point out at a love prospect for him.
Overall HJP was very cliché and really not a likeable character for me but I understand that many people fell for his flayed side and the difference between his harshness and his oversensitivity about his own flaws and failure revealed to him thought Grandma. For me, I just saw no development in his character till ep 16 and I agree his ending is far from satisfactory.
I found the other characters better with endings that they earned. They were more subtle. More nuanced. For example Chul San that I found very annoying in the beginning. His evolution was credible: not a great guy and still annoying at times but more cool and a bit smarter. Another example is In Jae. Her evolution does not make her a good nice woman. No she is still herself with her strong personality but she does what it needs to improve her family bounds. Do San also does not completely changes. He is still crying too much and not assured but he is stronger and more assertive regarding his choices. Dal Mi did not became the perfect career woman but she is more confident and professional as a leader. None of them is perfect but their development is credible.
HJP was the typical cliché male character temperamental, hotheaded and rude who hides a warm side and becomes good in the end. But they pushed the cliché too far and too long. He was abusing and inefficient and unprofessional as a mentor. He was scheming and pathetic as a third wheel in the fake love triangle. He only developed in the last ep.
To each his own. But for me HJP was the character I liked the least. His sad past was no excuse for his misbehavior and harshness. I liked another orphan better with only one scene. Mr Hong of the Ko Gil Dong project, an orphan who grew to find success and founded a start up to help others.
In particular because the first ep was very confusing regarding the ML. I myself was questioning the order of the cast and I had to pause my viewing to go to the Internet and look for additional infos to figure out who was ML. I was still unsure so I decided to not chose sides and wait to have a clearer view of the situation. Only at the end of the ep. 1 when the petal was flying in the sky to reach the actual ML, I understood this drama was not going to be: "two former penfriends reunite and find love". Too easy for a kdrama which talks about destiny. I was 100% sure it would be :" Two kids fated to be lovers by a grandma and her good boy".
Thank you for taking the time to write a few words on my review. I wish you to have fun watching new incoming dramas. Have a good day and take care.
I won't try to convince you regarding HJP. I will just stick with my final assessment about him that he is a good person deep inside but he did not act like one. He was reduced to an annoying, nagging and rude third wheel in a fake love triangle and we only have ep16 to see the full potential of his character. When he started to put things right, to act positively and open himself to others, he really went from bad guvnor to great guvnor.
I was just saying I enjoyed Start up more than TOTNT.
It is too bad all his involvement in the drama was reduced to his. With such a good actor and an endearing character, it could have been so much more . Ep 16 showed it when he started acting positively to people. If he was like that sooner it would have given him another dimension and it would have put a different light on the Love triangle.
I never liked that kind of characters. This is why I rarely watch drama with a ML who is a Mafia guy doing prostitution and drugs but he is a nice guy deep inside. It is the same problem I had with Han Ji Pyeong. Inside you know he is a good person but outside he is an absolute jerk and nice only to the people he likes.
I was not really rooting for the ML of Start up even if I liked the character as a person. I was rooting for his romance with the FL. From episode one it was clear that Destiny made a pair of them and that they would be together after a long journey. I regretted his main roadblock was HJP and that it lasted for so long but in the end Destiny was completed.
Apparently TOT9T was entertaining for many people but I can only judge based on my own assessment. For each, his own.
For me this drama deserves a 8.1 overall along side My Holo Love.