Start-Up (2020) [+]
May 22 2024
Start-Up is a South Korean romance/drama of sixteen 75-minute episodes.
Fifteen years ago divorce split up two sisters, Dal-mi (Bae Suzy) and In-jae (Kang Han-na). Dal-mi stuck with her entrepreneurial dad who unfortunately died after getting hit by a car leaving Dal-mi and grandmother Won-deok (Kim Hae-sook) struggling to maintain a lower-income household.
During that bad time Won-deok took in emancipated orphan Ji-pyeong (Kim Seon-ho) -- because in Korea when you're an orphan and become an adult they give you some money and kick you out into the world -- and later had Ji-pyeong become Dal-mi's pen pal friend Do-san, a name taken from a newspaper article.
Fifteen years later Dal-mi is struggling to establish herself, having never gone to college (I forgot if she graduated high school or not). At an entrepreneurial event she runs into In-jae who is a successful CEO due in part to mom Ah-hyun (Song Seon-mi) marrying a wealthy man who unfortunately treats mom and daughter more like property or people to be used. Dal-mi claims she's starting a business with Do-san, who for the past 15 years she's never written to or contacted but whose ideal friendship sabotages all Dal-mi's boyfriend relationships.
In order to prove to In-jae she's doing well Dal-mi has to find Do-san. This is when Ji-pyeong re-enters Won-deok's life and he still feels he owes her for helping him out 15 years ago. Won-deok has Ji-pyeong find Do-san (Nam Joo-hyuk) to convince him to pretend to be Dal-mi's childhood pen pal for the upcoming event. Do-san, who is trying to get his start-up off the ground with his two best friends, eventually accepts and with Ji-pyeong's help impersonates himself.
But things start getting complicated when Do-san starts falling for Dal-mi, who is already infatuated with the old Do-san, and of course eventually Ji-pyeong also starts to have feelings for Dal-mi. All three are kept in contact when Dal-mi and Do-san get into Sandbox, a start-up incubator campus, and where Ji-pyeong is a mentor and partner of the venture capital company that runs Sandbox...
As usual episode one is fifteen years ago setup while episodes two and three are more setup. It's about episode four or five that it starts to get interesting. Bae Suzy is quite charming playing Dal-mi. Do-san character is a bit too pathetic at times so it takes until the last few episodes when he finally grows up and maybe deserves Dal-mi. As is typical the last episode is a bit hurried trying to tell a story and wrap-up various subplots and doesn't really even do that until the end credits.
Overall it's a good romance and I also like the start-up incubator environment.
Fifteen years ago divorce split up two sisters, Dal-mi (Bae Suzy) and In-jae (Kang Han-na). Dal-mi stuck with her entrepreneurial dad who unfortunately died after getting hit by a car leaving Dal-mi and grandmother Won-deok (Kim Hae-sook) struggling to maintain a lower-income household.
During that bad time Won-deok took in emancipated orphan Ji-pyeong (Kim Seon-ho) -- because in Korea when you're an orphan and become an adult they give you some money and kick you out into the world -- and later had Ji-pyeong become Dal-mi's pen pal friend Do-san, a name taken from a newspaper article.
Fifteen years later Dal-mi is struggling to establish herself, having never gone to college (I forgot if she graduated high school or not). At an entrepreneurial event she runs into In-jae who is a successful CEO due in part to mom Ah-hyun (Song Seon-mi) marrying a wealthy man who unfortunately treats mom and daughter more like property or people to be used. Dal-mi claims she's starting a business with Do-san, who for the past 15 years she's never written to or contacted but whose ideal friendship sabotages all Dal-mi's boyfriend relationships.
In order to prove to In-jae she's doing well Dal-mi has to find Do-san. This is when Ji-pyeong re-enters Won-deok's life and he still feels he owes her for helping him out 15 years ago. Won-deok has Ji-pyeong find Do-san (Nam Joo-hyuk) to convince him to pretend to be Dal-mi's childhood pen pal for the upcoming event. Do-san, who is trying to get his start-up off the ground with his two best friends, eventually accepts and with Ji-pyeong's help impersonates himself.
But things start getting complicated when Do-san starts falling for Dal-mi, who is already infatuated with the old Do-san, and of course eventually Ji-pyeong also starts to have feelings for Dal-mi. All three are kept in contact when Dal-mi and Do-san get into Sandbox, a start-up incubator campus, and where Ji-pyeong is a mentor and partner of the venture capital company that runs Sandbox...
As usual episode one is fifteen years ago setup while episodes two and three are more setup. It's about episode four or five that it starts to get interesting. Bae Suzy is quite charming playing Dal-mi. Do-san character is a bit too pathetic at times so it takes until the last few episodes when he finally grows up and maybe deserves Dal-mi. As is typical the last episode is a bit hurried trying to tell a story and wrap-up various subplots and doesn't really even do that until the end credits.
Overall it's a good romance and I also like the start-up incubator environment.