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Start-Up korean drama review
Completed
Start-Up
7 people found this review helpful
by sunny
Dec 28, 2020
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 5.5
Story 6.5
Acting/Cast 6.5
Music 5.0
Rewatch Value 3.5
This review may contain spoilers

Unique storytelling, in a bad way.

This drama was just interesting enough to get me the whole way through, but realistically there’s so much about it that I disliked.

For a start, Jipyeong is set up to be the main love interest and he’s pretty much the male lead, since he’s the most fleshed-out character in the show. Because of this, I found myself really emotionally drawn to him, yet the real Nam Dosan suddenly gets wedged into the story and we are told he’s the main love interest! I wasn’t able to warm to Dosan’s character as his personality just didn’t click with me: sometimes he seemed too selfish + he had a weird temper etc.

I found myself bawling through most of the scenes between Jipyeong and Dalmi’s Grandma, yet the trouble they both through for Dalmi is confusing as I never came to feel like I knew her. She’s written in an incredibly one-dimensional way and becomes more so with time: the opposite of what should be happening. I couldn’t help but wonder why her Grandma would lie to her for so long as, while she may be hanging on to that childhood crush, she is a whole ass adult that I’m sure would get over it. The lack of development of Dalmi’s character also gets me questioning why either of the male leads are interested in her - she doesn’t even have any friends aside from Dosan’s friends so they really gave us nothing.

I also wonder why, when she finds out Jipyeong wrote the letters, she becomes so confused about who she loves. Up until then she treats Jipyeong with a significant distance and I feel like the combination of this and her association of Dosan with the letters would make this revelation seem very alien to her. Especially as the one characteristic she has is her decisiveness.

I’m not about to write an alternative but considering the plot began with her and her sister’s conflict, their story could’ve been much improved.

Another thing I hate is the short and ridiculous side plot of Yongsan’s brother. It really added nothing to the show and it was bizarrely sinister for such a momentary story.

On a side note, pretty much all the business scenes are boring af and I eventually found myself just skipping through them.

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