Korean Drama : Start Up

Year Released

2020

Genre

Business

No. of Episodes

16 - running time of 1 hour 25 minutes per episode

Starring

Suzy, Nam Joo-hyuk, Kim Seon-ho, Kang Han-na

Storyline

Han Ji-pyung (Kim Seon-ho) and Seo Dal-mi's (Suzy) relationship go all the way back to 15 years ago during their childhood days. When Dal-mi's father Seo Chung-Myung (Kim Joo-heon) passes away due to a car accident, her grandmother Choi Won-deok (Kim Hae-sook) requests Ji-pyung to pretend as Dal-mi's admirer.

Dal-mi is accompanied by Nam Do-san's (pen name used by Ji-pyung) letters which encourage her to go through her tough childhood. She is separated from her mother Cha Ah-hyun (Song Sun-mi) and older sister Seo In-jae (Kang Han-na) when her parents divorced not long ago.

Fast forward to present where Dal-mi decides to look for Do-san to attend a party organised by In-jae. Dal-mi does not wish to be looked down upon. Ji-pyung eventually searches for the real Do-san (Nam Joo-hyuk) who is founder and developer of Samsan Tech.

Shortly after, Do-san, Dal-mi and In-jae join Sandbox (a company which assist start-up businesses in getting funding) to start their own business. Ji-pyung happens to be the team leader of Sandbox and also mentor for Dal-mi and Do-san's team.

A series of events and misunderstandings put Dal-mi and Do-san's relationship to test. They overcome them together in the end.

My View

As a fan of thrillers, mysteries, crimes, comedies, fantasies, romantic and historical period dramas make Start Up a rather slow and boring plot for me. Nam Joo-hyuk and Suzy's chemistry is somewhat lacking, I don't know why. 

Suzy was so good with Kim Woo-bin in Uncontrollably Fond and Lee Jong-suk in While You Were Sleeping. Nam Joo-hyuk was great with Shin Se-kyung in The Bride of Habaek and Seohyun in Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo.

I know there are still lots of Suzy and Nam Joo-hyuk's dramas but they are currently queuing on my list.

The only plus point about Start Up is their business ideas to help visually impaired people and the song, Day & Night by Jung Seung-hwan.

There was also another part which made me cry when Suzy's father finally managed to secure funding for his business idea of having online F&B order and delivery developed as an app on mobile phones (that was 15 years back). When he called Suzy on the phone and asked her what she would like to have and the answer was fried chicken.

Their family was so poor that they could not even afford to have proper good meals. 

Rating

3/5 Stars