Start-Up (Initial Thoughts)

After being convinced by a close junior of mine, I bumped the massively popular Netflix Original K-drama Start-Up to the top of my watchlist. Headlined by Bae Suzy (Uncontrollably Fond, Vagabond) as female lead SEO DAL-MI and Nam Joo-hyuk (Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok-joo, The School Nurse Files) as male lead NAM DO-SAN, this drama revolves around youths struggling in the mercenary world of startup companies as they try to make their mark in the industry. Initially, I thought that I would be swimming in coding-related jargon and whatnot but as it turns out, I don't think that'll be the case at all. So let's get started (no pun intended). 

INITIAL THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS (SPOILER ALERT)

The moment you start the drama, you are sure to be instantly blown away by the impressive drone light show above Sandbox, which the synopsis describes as "South Korea's fictional Silicon Valley". While it's probably CGI, I can't help but marvel at how detailed it is and not only wonder at whether this feat is possible in real life but also how far in the future could we see such technological advancements. That sense of wonder is probably what the screenwriters are trying to instill in viewers and as far as I'm concerned, they're succeeding.

Following a very common K-drama trope, our female lead Dal-mi comes from a modest upbringing and is now struggling in life to make money as well as eventually create her own startup company. Her backstory immediately invokes sympathy from us because she just can't catch a break. Her parents are divorced, her sister and mother end up abandoning them after the latter remarries with a rich man, and worst of all, just as her father's startup company finally gets investments, he dies due to brain injuries due to a car accident. Within that one spring, our heroine lost everything and is now all alone. Thankfully she had the support of her grandmother, who raised her, and some letters from a strange source gave her the motivation and encouragement to push on through life's struggles. 

Based off episode 1 alone, most people would probably be fooled into thinking that HAN JI-PYEONG [Kim Seon-ho (Strongest Deliveryman, Welcome to Waikiki 2)] is our male lead, considering how much emphasis is placed on his backstory. This is actually a pretty good move by the screenwriters because it keeps viewers guessing as to who's going to eventually end up with our female lead Dal-mi. Ji-pyeong is an orphan without a place to stay and he is sheltered by Dal-mi's grandmother. Together, they devise a plan to write letters to cheer Dal-mi up, with Ji-pyeong using the name of someone on a newspaper's front page, you guessed it, Nam Do-san. While initially thinking it a chore, the pair eventually become "pen pals" of shorts and while nothing's confirmed, this is probably the start of Ji-pyeong's feelings for Dal-mi. Along the way, he also plays with stocks using his investing skills and ends up with an exorbitant amount of money. 

Eventually, the letters stop after Ji-pyeong leaves for college in Seoul but the feelings linger, with him having made his mark on Dal-mi's life, helping her through that dark time in her life. Unfortunately, in the present day she's still struggling to make money, even having to resort to colouring in scratches on her shoes with black marker. At a Sandbox seminar that Dal-mi attends, we see that her sister WON IN-JAE [Kang Han-na (Rain or Shine, Familiar Wife) has become a successful businesswoman with her stepfather's support and the tension between the sisters is thick enough to cut with a knife. It's made all the more apparent how far they've drifted apart when In-jae has taken her stepfather's surname and continues to talk down to her younger sister, making their social class differences very clear. Dal-mi talks up a big game and lies about creating her own startup, invoking Nam Do-san's name as her partner. The lie snowballs out of control after In-jae invites both of them to one of her company's events and Dal-mi now has no choice but to search for her missing pen pal who she's never met in real life, not realising that his name was just borrowed by Ji-pyeong. 

Speaking of our second male lead, by this point he's used his strong investment skills to become a skilled venture capitalist. As fate would have it he ends up at the same seminar as the sisters, once again meeting the girl he developed feelings for and it's very clear that he's still somewhat smitten with her. With his identity and whereabouts a mystery, we finally get to see Do-san at the end of the episode, where it seems his past as a math child prodigy hasn't panned out, with him now being cooped up in a dingy apartment, working on facial recognition software with his startup partners-cum-roommates. While it seems as though he has some coding skill, his company clearly isn't taking off if he's in such a living situation. 

This drama marks the second time I've seen Suzy acting and despite her tragic backstory, I don't really have much attachment to her yet. Maybe as the series progresses I'll end up wanting to root for her more. While we didn't see much of him, I'm also hoping that Nam Joo-hyuk will play a far more interesting character than his last role in The School Nurse Files. I've seen him play some whimsical characters before so I have full faith in his ability here. Most importantly though, I must say that contrary to Kang Han-na's innocent fairy-like visuals (which continue to blow me away), she's quite good at playing characters that tilt me off the face of the Earth. She was a great villain in Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo, she played a bitchy character really well in Familiar Wife and now, I really dislike In-jae so Han-na is definitely doing something right. It's also nice to see lots of recognisable actors and actresses, like Kim Joo-hun (It's Okay to Not Be Okay) and Kim Hae-sook (Hospital Playlist) as Dal-mi's father and grandmother respectively, Yoo Su-bin (Crash Landing on You) and Kim Do-wan (Seventeen) as Do-san's startup partners, and Seo Yi-sook (Hotel Del Luna) as Ji-pyeong's boss. Perhaps most interestingly, this drama sees the reuniting of child actors Nam Da-reum and Lee Re as young Ji-pyeong and In-jae respectively, having both previously portrayed younger versions of the leads in Radio Romance. 

I'm very intrigued to see how the relationship between our two male leads and Dal-mi will be developed on as the series progresses. Considering the fact that she doesn't know that it's in fact Ji-pyeong who has been writing the letters to her, that misunderstanding is going to lead her towards Do-san, who is completely unaware of her existence. I'm also curious to see if the sisters repair their relationship after all the struggles they've been through and hopefully by the end, they'll rekindle their friendship. I think the general consensus is that many viewers like Ji-pyeong more than Do-san and Kim Seon-ho's popularity has surely skyrocketed following this role. Like I mentioned earlier, the fine line this drama treads between which one of these characters is the actual male lead will leave us in suspense and draw us further into the drama. 

While this drama might not necessarily have the most unique basis, I don't think I've come across a drama revolving around the concept of startup companies so in that aspect this is fairly intriguing. This series has planted itself in many people's hearts and I'm curious to find out if it'll end up wowing me as well. So I guess it's time for me to Start-Up my engine and finish the rest of this drama.