And I wish they had more story to show rather than dal mi and do san's romance. Haha. My eyes were set to cry every time Ji pyeong and Grandma is on the same screen. Haha.
The issue I had was that after Dal Mi found out the truth about the letters, there was never a point where it was discussed. Dal Mi and Ji Pyeong never talked about their past "relationship" or reminisced on their younger selves. DM never gave JP a chance. Her whole life she compared every guy to the boy who wrote the letters and when she discovers it was actually JP, she didn't even give him a second glance. He was her "first love" and she didn't have any mixed feelings about it? Unrealistic Edit - Whether you agree or disagree, are on team Do San or team JI Pyeong, it's all good. There are no rights and wrongs here. I am loving all this (mostly) friendly discussion though! :) For me, it really didn't matter who Dal Mi ended up with. Both DS and JP had redeeming qualities and I think she would have lived a happy life with either one. I was just missing what I thought were some key scenes. IMO this was a decent k-drama. It started off really strong then weakened a but but still pretty good. It kept me entertained which is why we watch these things. right?! Oh, and did anyone else want more Chul San and Sa Ha? It would have been nice to see their relationship develop a little bit more. Love Chul San, he's hilarious! What is everyone watching next? I need some suggestions! :) Happy Holidays Everyone!
sometimes we fall inlove to those people who we didn’t expect to tho like if you set a standard in a guy it turns the other way around my aunt is the same like dalmi and do san, she had high standards in men and didn’t want the guy who is trying to court her but they ended up together in the end. plus even tho dalmi kept denying that she wants the guy who wrote her letters she obviously fell inlove to dosan because she could’ve walked away from him when she already sensed that he is not the dosan from the letters but she didn’t but I agree that jipyeong deserves better instead of being alone and a punching bag for people. but I wouldn’t want him to date dalmi cause he kinda knew it was coming that the moment dalmi knew that they were lying behind her back these scene would happen... she would’ve have fallen in love to jipyeong if he had been honest to her the whole time.
Dal mi did hive HJP a chance. Did you forget all those years she waited on him juat for him not to even care to show up even when grandma told him to date her but he didnt want to get involve all those years!
@@deela02 in case u didn’t notice, jipyeong spent 15 years in college, getting a decent job, move to US & returning becoming one of the successful investor in the country hes been worked hard all those years, he is not proud of his young self he is very lacking totally opposite of dosan, he is embarrassed by himself, & when grandma asked him to date her he refuse, cuz he doesnt like dalmi since 15 years ago, he started to like her when they meet each other through dosan, he admitted her letters comforted him so from here i can see them only friends who depending on each other when they were young, we are talking about Dalmi didnt give jipyeong a chance after he confessed, like she dont even reject him??? rejecting men were so easy for her in the past why she cant do it to jipyeong if she has no feeling towards him? he legit wait for 3 years waiting for her to open up for him & also im questioning writer on why jipyeong didnt make a move on dalmi for those 3 years its just illogical to me, jipyeong is aware of dosan’s 2sto contract shouldnt he make move already???
No for real! I was only interested because I’m also thinking going in that direction in the future. But they keep going on and on about the boring love triangle based off of some fking letters lmao tf?
@@allsies7890 if they actually used the letters properly it would have been interesting. But we get like one letter actually being used in the show and then it's just a throwaway thing they use for the damn romance plot
It was too focus on the love triangle. The real love story should of been the sisters reunion. They really wasted InJae character. So much they could of done. I do think a lot of the situation is just luck. It’s the kdrama formula. The hard working poor girl who gets by.
I was team Han jipyeong but yk after I watched the last ep i felt like you really don't need a specific reason to like someone, i mean maybe just the feeling of dosan's presence was enough to make her like him. Lol 😂
Funny how when she thought he was the one who wrote the letters which was basically Ji Pyeong , she could actually tell why she liked him but now she suddenly realizes she doesn’t need a reason to like someone lol I call bs.
Tbh the Do san and Dal Mi break up didn't even make me sad. What made me cry my eyes out was Mr. Han and halmeoni's "i'm not a good boy" scene. That was amazing. The break up scene was meh. 😅
Me too, because they will be together again later. 😁 Actually the drama plot is simple, a boy meet a girl, they fall in love, they have to break-up, some misunderstanding issues, but then they reunite again. The end. I like that scene too. When he grow self awareness. He at last being a real good boy in the end of drama. bitchesoverdramas.com/2020/11/24/start-up-ep-12-on-jps-growing-self-awareness/
I can still remember that scene when grandma asked Dal Mi who will she choose: The Do San 15 years ago or the Do San that he met recently. She answered "Do San from 15 years ago" and what happened? 🤷♀️
When Do San brought Dal Mi and her grandmother to the beach, they talked together and Dal Mi told her she realised how much she loves the Do San of now too.
She actually said that she prefered the DoSan from the letters, but at the same time she is attracted to the present DoSan's sides that are different from the letters. Meaning that she has not yet fully let go of the ideal man she created in her mind based on HJP and Grandma's letters, but she has already begun falling in love with the real DoSan because of his personality, not because of the supposed link to her childhood penpal. It was clear from the beginning that the bond they formed, as it grew, it had nothing to do with the letters. And that's exactly the realistic part of the writing. The whole drama was about maturing and growing up. DoSan left his insecurities and became more confident. HJP realised that he needs other people in his life and let his soft side shine. DaMil matured emotionally, she was no longer attached to some idea she created, she formed relationships with real people and finally she let go of the competition between her and her sister and found her own dream. Her sister found authenticity in herself. Her mother also found her right path. Grandma was cool from the start, although she did admit that the whole letter thing was a bad idea because it created a fake happiness.
Dal mi was never supposed to be with jipyeong according to the script. Any one who was watched a few k dramas can tell this from the start. However the problem was no one was expecting jipyeong to be this fucking good. Holy damn dol San felt like a wooden dummy next to him
Nope. Great cast. All of them did good. I'm glad dal mi ended up with nds who isnt a coward. Hjp realized his feelings for dal mi when? When dal mi and nds were doing great together. He got jealous and wanted her back?? Even nds wanted to tell the truth and he doesnt. He fucked himself up 🤷♀️
His back hurts from old age and being a coward not carrying the show pls 😭 Imagine disrespecting Samsan Tech the heart of the entire show just bc you have a fat crush on some tsundere. Embarrassing!
@@coldebleus so "taking your time" is cowardice?? because for me he wasn't coward he was sensitive to give Dalmi space and time unlike for Dosan who literally stalked her and obsessed with her, manipulating her and grabbing all opportunity that wasn't even for him in the first place 🤣
100% big facts...injae have one of the best if not the best character development in the show...from the start i dislike her but throughout the show i'm starting to love her a lot meanwhile dalmi is the opposite 🙃
I really hate the fact that her screen time is too low while her character is potential to be digged out. Why would they put injae in the poster then, just erased it hhh🙂😭
It’s so funny that when I started the show I was rooting for DM and DS, I disliked WIJ and still wasn’t sure what to think about Ji Pyeong but at the end Ji Pyeong had my whole heart, I really liked InJae’s development despite her not getting enough screen time and I absolutely despised DM and DS and their childish attitude.
When Jin Pyeong talking to In Jae, I actually can see the chemistry between them. I think JP deserve a matured woman like In Jae. Look how professional and matured she is
Han jipyeong is such a gentleman! I was honestly shocked to see that in a character. He was literally such husband material and communicated his feelings so well. One moment that sticked with me so much is when he kinda insinuate that him and dal mi were dating to nam do san. He calls up dal mi to let her know that he might have given nam do san the wrong impression. I JUST WANTED TO GET DOWN ON ONE KNEE FOR THIS PRINCE!!!!
Omg right!!? ...I understand that maybe we needed context about the letters since they were supposedly the important and main reason leading up to how the "real" dosan meets her, but like it just didn't add up on how things unravelled.
Han Jipyeong is my favorite character in kdrama history. and Kim Seonho did a really good job in playing the role, he suits the character so well. now i’m head over heels in love with Kim Seonho
In other KDramas, the ending of Ep 9 would have been a beautiful start of the romantic love story between DalMi and HJP when she discovered that he was actually the writer of those letters :)
actually, that would be kind of forced too. If she did that, i think she would be criticised for changing the entire script to just please the majority. The dynamic between JiPyeong and DalMi has never been romantic, it has always been mentor-mentee. The letters 15 years ago comforted Dal Mi a lot, but it was not a real person. It was just a time capsule in the letters.
@@kristenlam7858 i don't get how is that not a real person, jp may have started the letter as per grandma request but he continued replying to her letter, they wrote to each other for a year, there was also a scene where young jp was reading dm letter and smiling. If writer wanted to show that the letter was all fake and had no feelings to it at all then why show young jp reading the letter and replying. Jp at the end admit to dm that the letter was his only friend and it was really comforting to him too but dm just stands there saying nothing. I'm not saying that dm should have choosen jp right away after the reveal but at least she should have given some thought about it, she didn't had any mixed feeling at all. Just a few crying in ep 10 and then kissing ds in the next scene doesn't make sense at all. It would have been a lot better if dm would have taken time, just focused on the business and dream for time being instead of the two guys. What is the purpose of showing her crying her heart out and getting drunk after finding out the truth to going gaga over ds in tye nest ep.
Can u not Cry @Sonam Sherpa no doubt they had chemistry and tension, but it’s not enough to justify a long term relationship. i’m not saying her rship w Dosan was justifiable too, just saying if she were to end up with Jp, it won’t fix everything. bcs the problem is the characterisation of DalMi, it became really flat. if she were to end up with JP, it would make SDM into a mere trophy too to cure JP’s loneliness or what not. this is not an attack against JP, even JP fans agree with me. (on mydramalist.com at least) and yes, the letters were real i’m not saying they aren’t. but you can’t say that the letters written FIFTEEN years ago represents completely who JiPyeong is right now right? JiPyeong has changed a lot too. Besides, even though the letter “DoSan” has some semblance with JP you have to rmbr that it is still just a version of JP crafted out by a careful selection of words and ideas. a good example is how he didn’t even know how to play Go-Stop but he saw it on tv and liked the idea of it and said that was his birthday wish. point is, SDM loves the idea of JP, that JP himself created, not JP as a whole in the present time. Bcs that JP she met in the present, was just a mentor to her.
The second lead character ( ji pyeong ) was way too strong for the lead ( dosan ) to shine. I tried to like the character dosan but just couldn't. Dalmi didn't even have feelings for her first love Han ji pyeong even when she found out who wrote those letters 15 years ago. She was whinning for years about her first love. How's that even possible? The writer gave dosan so many chances but han ji pyeong not even one. In 3 years of time, they could have atleast showed Han ji pyeong trying to win dalmi's heart when dosan was away. It seemed like they were forcing us to see dosan as the main lead. This drama was just not fair for the character ji pyeong.
Nope better to not show how he cared for her in the 3 years, in the drama true beauty they show how the second lead care for the girl for 3 damn years while the first lead wasnt there for here, and it hurts even more when she left him at the end 😭😭😭😭
Jipyong:* giving a realistic business advice * Dalmi: Yeah, that makes sense. Sounds logic... Dosan/Samsantech: He’s mean, rude. We’re offended. He only wants to discourage us and belittle us. How dare he. Let the fate guide us, forget about wasting money, investors, manpower, energy and time. Let’s just improvise and things somehow work out. Dalmi: Omg Dosan is so inspiring, that was deep. I feel enlightened. He’s so amazing and cool.
Jipyeong was not always just giving "realistic business advice". He did tell them they will never ever succeed, and after Samsan Tech won the demo day, even he realised that he was wrong. I'm not saying a mentor should only give compliments, but it is important that when you give someone feedback you mention BOTH positive and negative sides. HJP was very rude at times and totally neglecting the good sides of Samsan Tech. If not for Dosan's determination, the whole team would probably just quit and there would never be any NoonGil. C'mon people, I am sure if in your life, someone would just shit all over you, you'd just get demotivated and you'd not appreciate it.
violetc violetc He wasn’t that wrong, technically the company Samsam Tech did not really succeed. And at that time when he said it, it was kinda true. They were stubborn, naive and didn’t have much experience. Also it’s a drama, Dosan had to make it at the end even if he just sat at home doing nothing, benefit of being the main lead. Jipyong also went to that guy to ask to continue NoonGil, so it may not be as good, since Dosan was emotionally invested in it, but it would still somehow exist, I guess.
@@violet.c well JP is telling the truth samsan tech will never succeed with DS as the CEO that's why he suggested to get a competent CEO when DS asked him for adviced. If it weren't for DM they won't even get into sandbox.
"Disney drama" made me laugh so hard because it's SO true... the story doesn't have to make sense, the characters don't need to be consistent, and everything rides on luck.. because the target audience is 15 year old girls who just wanna see the kiss scenes.
Now it all make sense lol, I did wonder why these people were OTT about the the leads first kissing scene when it’s so rushed and without substance, and couldn’t understand a lot of their perspectives of the drama. Yeah very fitting calling it Disney drama!
I really wish they focused on Dalmi and Injae’s relationship more. They lowkey hated each other then all of a sudden they’re cool and working together after three years? Nahhhh, they had some deep-rooted feelings towards each other. It would have been great to actually see how they went from enemies to friends again. Overall though, I enjoyed the drama. Loved the determination of the female characters and the relationship between the Samsan Tech employees. And of course Han Jipyeong and grandma 😭😭
Fr tho! These writers wanted to give Dalmi and Dosan a push that I actually felt its being shoved down our throat like naaahh they don't even have the chemistry at all and their relationship is pretty meh. I cant believe their kissing scenes was the driest part of this drama.
The relationship between this two sister is having really shallow ending, Dalmi talk about who's choice is right after their parents divorced all the time, but there is no emotional conversation about this two sister after 3year jump. And the letter they brush it off so easily. So many problematic plot holes in this drama
Tbh, when they first showed Dalmi and Injae on ep1 I was kind of convinced that the story line would move between the two. Halfway, I was thinking that HJP might help Dalmi to reach her dreams just like how he helped her when she's down (whic he did BTW). If I'm being honest, I was more bitter to the fact that Injae wasn't shown more. Like why give me the idea?
And the fact that injae just know that her grandma getting her eyesight more worse after three freaking years???!! Like her mom lives there, her lil sis lives there like what????
I really forced myself to finish the drama because of HJP, but tbh I'm so mad, the poor dude started with no parents, no one, like super alone dude. And he ends up alone like, come on give the man some love, DM didn't even had the smallest feeling for him that's super unfair. Same goes for Injae. She grew so much and changed for her better self and homegirl has so little screen time??? And same as everyone, I wished they focused more on the start up, the first episodes were hella exciting
@@avidlearner799 honestly i agree, injae was not a villain in this drama, she worked on herself and improved so much. also she was breathtakingly beautiful and a badass bitch. so i'm 100% with you on this one
In my mind the drama ended on that elevator scene where jipyeong saved dalmi from that guy, no words were said, but it was nice to see them smile at each other.
Agree with you on business side, writer gave misleading ideas to viewers on how business works, this is very dissappointing. Cant writer see what is happening now with pandemic? Did writer really thinks sailing without map is the answer to it? I mean, even if you have plans, it wont go 100% as planned, thats a harsh truth about life. Imagine having no backup plan at all? -_- For love story side, I was neutral on early episodes until (i forgot on which epi) Dosan said "I have nothing" to Jipyeong. Dosan has 2 supportive parents, big family, 2 loyal bestfriends, a landed house, yet has the audacity to say "i have nothing" to an orphan who definitely has no one and worked his ass off since kid to finally owned a han river view apartment. This was the BIG RED FLAG to me. He is disregarding everyone for a girl. His way of thinking annoyed me. Sane human being will NEVER EVER works together or even worst to fall in love with Dosan's character in real life. Conclusion, the purpose of this drama is misleading.
Goodness, I didn;t pick that up at that moment, and you are right. I do remember thinking "Jipyeoung had nothing, why doesn't he point that out?" I felt that Dosan was actually saying that whatever he appeared to have, in himself he had nothing - and most of us have felt like that at some points. Yes he had his tech ability, but even that felt like a fraud because he cheated when he was a kid, and even though he had confidence in his tech and coding, he had absolutely no ability to make it relevant in the real world. Those lacks were perfectly real and perfectly crucial to why Samsan were failing - the only time Samsan had any hope was when they found a real-world person to find their direction and communicate for them.
Did i missed something but i think Dosan didnt know that Jipyeong is an orphan. And in your note Jipyeong always show off his belonging and put down Dosan for not having the same resources as him
say it louder! the writer could've plotted the storylines better than this if she insisted to keep DoDal the endgame like, the "proof" for those two romances could've be clearer, and should've focused more on businesses as that is the theme so that more outsiders could learn abt business too
Technically, he didnt "throw" it. He smashed it onto the table and I would have done the same thing to a douch bag guy too. Idk why some asians just wants to let their heirchary culture make it seem okay for pple with status to talk down on other people like that. Yall wanna just shut your mouth and take in the shit when those people probably has done worat things then smash a stupid name board.
True haha, that doesn't even solve the problem but adds more problem. If he acts aggressive towards people he's pissed off with without thinking, who knows what he'll do when he's pissed off inside a marriage 🚩🚩 also it's not the only time he acts aggressive
start up’s pilot episode was probably one of the best kdrama pilot episodes i’ve ever seen and it made me hope that this drama would come even slightly close to the quality of its okay to not be okay (which for me is the best drama of 2020). we were introduced to such great complex characters and plots-jipyeong and grandmas relationship, jipyeong and dalmis memorable letter exchanges, and the story of two once-tightly-knit sisters turned rivals. most of these got thrown out in the second half of the story as if the writer forgot the whole essence of the plot and disregarded the things that made viewers connect with and love the characters. so much to say and complain about but my biggest issue is probably the poor representation of struggling youth in the business world which was apparently meant to be shown through the samsan tech team (dalmi, dosan, yongsan, chulsan, saha). to put short, they made impulsive decisions, were ungrateful to their mentor and everything was kinda just handed to them on a silver platter???? i simply could not root for them during their little triumph moments and i wasnt moved at all when they proved that they could succeed as a team. nothing they did felt earned.
also justice for injae because her character had SO MUCH POTENTIAL :( yet they gave her 3 secs screen time per episode and completely wasted a female character who couldve shown to be really empowering. same goes for dalmi bc all she did for the second half was blindly follow dosans immature business decisions which was definitely not the dalmi we knew earlier on.
I have never felt so happy with a review, it's so weird how Ji Pyeong was almost touted as the main lead in the beginning and we were basically slapped into seeing Do San as the main lead, OH MY GOD! Do San's character wasn't even as developed, all we knew about him was that he was a developer, that was literally all... He cried when things got hard and sulked till the end, Ji Pyeong on the other hand had to fend for himself, thankfully met an old woman who took him as a son and even then he had to leave her and build himself to the man we all fell in love with and still was able to separate his feelings for Dal Mi and his business with Samsan Tech. Honestly, Ji Pyeong deserved more than falling for a character deficit Dal Mi, no harm meant here to teal Dal Mi (If you guys actually exist). The characters that made us cry, Ji Pyeong, Grandma and even In Jae, are the main characters for me and I'm sure many of you can agree. In Jae even had her own chance to build herself from nothing, she left her step-fathers company and the comfort of his business to build a successful company, she had too few scenes and it was annoying. Overall, I'll give the drama 5/10, only because of those 3 characters EDIT: Who else skipped when the kiss scene started? It was so unwholesome and eye roll worthy.
I’m only at the mid of ep 7 and I’ve been skipping through dal mi and do san’s scenes cos there is zero chemistry. I’m really not looking forward to their kissing scene😩 why couldn’t KSH be the lead!?! I totally agree with you, what’s the point of a character build up for Jipyeong if they’re just gonna toss him aside like that
@@felicenobles We’ve all been there. Sadly, it’s gonna get worse as you go along. TMI: I cried for 2 days over Han Ji Pyeong after the finale. I felt so bad for his character that I’m leaving behind.
@@srushtib5321 good thing I skipped all the lovey dovey scenes of DM and DS. I really can't bear to watch those two with all those overly sweet scenes that might give me a toothache.
it really pissed me off that after she found out about the letters they barely even talk about it, dosan never gave her space and after one episode she completely forget that their whole relationship was built out of lies??? he asked her to forget about what she thought she knew about him, to start to know the real him, but you can't forget what you feel, and the love she felt for him was mostly because she saw the boy of the letters in him, the boy she didn't see in jipyeong even after she found out. they (dalmi and jipyeong) never talked about it, even after 3 years "together" she still didn't see him as a love interest, as her first love, it all just felt kind of forced for me
This might be a different take but I didn’t really like the female lead character all that much. Because of that I just sort of felt like ji-pyeong was too good for her so I was ok that she didn’t end up with him. Lol
I actually started wanting him to end up with Injae because I felt that they matched better and Injae was way more mature and grew more than Dalmi's character.
A comment in a Cosmopolitan article said "Every girl would dream to a date a Nam Do San." And I'm like "Nope, not everyone." And even if that was true, then I'd probably date a Nam Do San for the experience but end up marrying a Han Ji Pyeong for his maturity and discipline. I'd also prefer Ji Pyeong's subtle yet sincere ways of caring than grand gestures that mask a guy's insecurities.
Moreover, most of fuck boy will act like do San in front of the girl they like. Do San is like the romantic Prince charming that every girl has dreamed of, while most of the good boy in real life will act like jipyeong or chulsan when they like someone. That's why in real life most of girl goes to a bad boy. Most of the girl want the boy who is romantic and show a lot of affection like do san, and this K drama feed that dream. That's the point
han ji pyeong did NOT get proper closure 😭 for some reason they just left him out; they didn’t add an actual closing scene of him having his own happy ending-by the end, he still went back to being by himself (with 할머니). the last scene when he comes in and walks with the sdm nds and sij? cool, but very vague-so to speak. ☹️ ep 1 and ep 2 were AMAZING but after that, there were too many plot holes.
I will never understand how a guy like Nam Do San is a lead in kdrama. Childish, Unprofessional, leave his mom in the middle of the street at night, that's a major turn off
I am team dosan, but they couldn’t make his character get better, and I couldn’t find the reason why dalmi “loved him”either, in the last caps I was happy because I thought that dosan would forget about dalmi and focus on himself, but at the end they got together again (it was disappointing), I didn’t like that either. I think I like dosan because I used to be like him (insecure, shy, etc) I thought they were going to show us more personal growth, but no :/ Also Han jipyong’s character was good yeah of course, he wasn’t a cold, rude, jerk guy either, but, he just wasn’t a big thing for me, I’ve seen characters like him before with a harsh childhood blah blah... I was just curious of seen a different main lead in a drama, I thought they were going to use better dosan’s character, like showing us that you don’t have to have a harsh childhood to have problems and succeed . Anyway that’s my opinion and I’m sorry for my English. By the way I think jipyong was better for dalmi, in MY opinion. I just like dosan’s character better, it doesn’t mean that he had to end up with dalmi.
@@aaroncooke4882 How about leaving a drunk, barely conscious Dal Mi in the park in the middle of the night to go for a costume change? The man's a child and doesn't know how to look after women. JP would never have done that, if he knows she's by herself, he drives across the country to find that woman.
This is why I don't take you guys seriously blaming women as always as if she's obligated to like your good boy oppar...if you like the arrogant asshole type so bad go get you a Jipyeong don't blame dalmi for having taste and high standards in men smh
@@zelladay531 “taste and standards in men”. Yes, women really like guys who have anger issues and have the maturity of an egg. You’ve really hit the nail on the head. Nam Dosan may be a genius at coding, but he is a huge walking red flag. The fact that he has to knit to “calm himself down”, smashes a nameplate without thinking of the consequences, and beats up his mentor all point to his extreme anger issues and impulsivity. In the future this kind of behaviour could have extreme consequences for both him and Dalmi.
@@twicestolemywig5107 ok Dr Phil what else do you wanna diagnose him with? Imagine acting like normal human emotions are red flags and shaming people for having ways to cope with them. I can't believe you really tried to villainize him for knitting...KNITTING OF ALL THINGS! I REALLY HAVE TO LAUGH. You people are clowns and honestly this is a reflection of how you treat others in real life so no wonder society is fucked... manifesting I never come across toxic ass ppl like you goodbye
I just don't understand the logic of giving Jipyeong a solid storyline if you're going to make him a punching bag at the end anyway. On the other hand, what the hell do we know about Nam Dosan? Why did the writer think we'll root for him if we don't even know where he's coming from? Also, the real reason this drama pulled me in was because of the storyline between the 2 sisters. It's so unfair that their story just got fast forwarded in the 3 years sequence. I would personally rate this drama a 4.5/10. The idea and the story is good. The actors hired to do the roles are good. But the execution is pathetic!
"I just don't understand the logic of giving Jipyeong a solid storyline" because any person has a story that is worth telling, no matter if it is a romantic one? To me Jypeong is one of the winners in this plot. "On the other hand, what the hell do we know about Nam Dosan?" We learn quite a lot about him along the way. So your question confuses me. If you refer to the first episodes, where Jipyeoung was introduced way before Dosan, I think it was a genious take by the drama creators. They played with the stereotypical drama construct and got one of the fiercest wars as to who the main lead is.
@@din-chan305 I don't think it's genius because more often than not it backfires bad. For example, harry potter is one of the biggest story out there. This would be like introducing Harry as a character and them forcing Ron to be the main character. Execution needs to be perfect for this attempt to be good and in Start Up, the story telling and execution failed
When I watched the first episode Han Ji Pyeong made me *CRY* . In the first episode. That was one of the biggest mistakes, they made Ji Pyeong the MAJORITY of the first episode. I admit, I had a lot of hopes for this drama because the first episode was so emotional and good. I immediately felt for Han Ji Pyeong, but since I knew he wasn't the main character, I tried to be more accepting for Nam Do San. And I felt bad for his character. Because he was insecure, he was not confident of himself, he had hardships with his business, his dad wasn't being very supportive of him. If his insecurity and lack of confidence was shown better in the plot, and Dalmi helped him overcome that, I really would've like him better. However, I think they made him pity himself too much, without realistically solving his insecurity. Especially when he said *"I have nothing. You have everything"* to Ji Pyeong, and the fact that he (and Dalmi) never realized ever how much more he had compared to Ji Pyeong. Ji Pyeong was lonely his entire life (seen throughout all the cut scenes with him and Yeong Sil in his house; thank you Yeong Sil for keeping him company), and despite becoming successful *(BY HIMSELF BTW BY HIMSELF WHEN HE WAS A POOR ORPHAN--while Nam Do San complains about life being hard)* he was still lonely (thank goodness Dalmi's grandmother realized that and held onto him). Ji Pyeong was putting on a fake front, pretending he was successful and happy, as seen when he tells Do San the interview was fake, and he wasn't willing to lose his streak of being right with successful startups. Which was a bit harsh, but I think it's because he wasn't willing to lose his success because that's the only thing he has. And I agree, in the latter half everything was so romanticized. I mean, Nam Do San was written as such a logical and unromantic person, not getting ANY jokes and not believing in ANY myths or sayings, but somehow in between he suddenly becomes this emotional, idealistic, hot tempered, love crazy guy and everything logical goes out the window. Which I might be able to get, but I actually don't cuz it wasn't written well in the plot. The plot should convince me why I should feel for this character, not the other way around. Dalmi as well, she was a complete romantic from the start. From rejecting all the guys with absurd reasons because of the letters (her grandmother REALLY should've told her from the start unless she wanted her to be single her entire life--without knowing Nam Do San existed that is), to her quarrel between her sister which I understand but was that really her ONLY reason for starting a business? Because she wanted to one up her sister and show how well she was living? A bit unrealistic. And then that part of the plot just gets forgotten because she joins In Jae's company and suddenly become besties. I liked In Jae more, tbh, while Dalmi and Do San were living in their own romantic dreamy world, In Jae also became independent like Ji Pyeong and built her business purely with her own skills. She also lacked love and affection, something she denied until her character growth at the end. When she asked her mom to support her too, when she picked up her grandmother's hat and left, when she hugged and cried with her grandmother; I felt all of that. Ji Pyeong and In Jae felt like real people, who struggled with righteousness, with lack of support, and becoming successful at the end. Dalmi and Do San didn't succeed because of their character development or anything, it felt more like luck and plot armor. "Disney drama" was such an accurate term honestly. Their characters were flat, and that was contrasted with Ji Pyeong and In Jae's HUGE character development and overcoming their hardships. Not saying I hate their characters or the drama. I loved it, which is why I wished it could've been better. I AM happy for Do San and Dalmi, despite talking a bit harshly about them.
Honestly, I tried to like Do San but unfortunately it was the lack of character development for me. He was the same person from episode 2-16. He's insecure and childish.
And Han Ji Pyeong isn’t the same selfish and cold person from episode 1 to 16? Do San went from unconfident and living a lie with himself to accepting his math competition lie and applying himself as a confident computer engineer
@@ubermontity399 LOL, maybe you're naive dreamer, Ji Pyeong isn't cold at all, he's a mature guy who is a realist professional businessman whi say the harsh truth and negative constructive critisms! He may be harsh, he reflects on himself, he's so mature and realist
@@ubermontity399 Did you work or start a business who study marketing? I studied marketing, what said Ji pyeong is fact, truth and Dosan is an immature naive guy who didn't face the truth, negative critics, wants to do what he only wants, bet in business win by just luck = so unrealist, business doesn't work like this: Dosan is a naive immature dreamer from ep 1 to 16 and didn't grow, didn't change, didn't be more mature, didn't be more realist
@@ubermontity399 Totally agree with you.. At the beggining I was team HJP but then I was happy that Dosan stayed with Dalmi. I also notice what you just mentioned. And also I believe that being honest and critic is not the same as being an asshole. HJP was arrogant and selfish, even if in the inside he was a warm man with a harsh past. The way he treats others is not justifyed bcz of his past or bcz of the industry. I hate when people defend that type of behaviour, saying "that's how the world is", bcz yeah it is, and we do not need more people encouraging those things, we do not need more characters being like that. From beggining to end, Dosan changed for the better, and form beggining to end he was not an asshole like Jipyeong sometimes was. So yeah #TeamDosan
I fully agree, aside from since the beginning I am on Jipyeong side, when Dosan smash that name plate signals he have anger issues and it’s a red flag personally for me.. Also, as much as I wanted Jipyeong and Dalmi as endgame, it looks like Dalmi can’t even see how valuable and precious Jipyeong is, you don’t find a man like that just casually walking in the street so at the end I feel Jipyeong deserve better, someone who is better than Dalmi. She doesn’t deserve him. This is my way of finding peace for Jipyeong:)
He actually did recognise his benefits, but HJP was written to be a bit aggressive at first ( I don't know if this was to drive NDS but it was too much). In the first episodes he basically idolises him but you could tell HJP didn't acknowledge that and that is where the friction starts.
@@vanesalusaria7860 Idk when did you see HJP being aggressive apart from when he was punched by DoSan and they fought physically, I don't remember him being aggressive. If your talking about the friction that started after him rejecting samsan tech, they basically asked JP to invest in them, if they do him the favor which in the later part of the drama, they started saying that they don't want his "charity" bcoz they had an opportunity with 2STO. I'd say JP wasn't the most polite when they asked him to invest but at the same not one thing he said was wrong. I'd say he isn't even rude, he's just straightforward which was necessary for samsan tech.
agree. i think the writer wants to show how much Dosan loves Dalmi by showing how Dosan went out of his character and got really mad when the stepfather insulted Dalmi but that just kinda wrong and absurd...
Honestly jipyeong is such a gentleman! I was honestly shocked to see that in a character. He was literally such husband material and communicated his feelings so well. One moment that sticked with me so much is when he kinda insinuate that him and dal mi were dating to nam do san. He calls up dal mi to let her know that he might have given nam do san the wrong impression. I JUST WANTED TO GET DOWN ON ONE KNEE FOR THIS PRINCE!!!!
The creepiest scene & biggest red flag for me about Do San was when he chased Dal Mi everywhere she went after she found out the truth about the letters. He was lurking behind objects and stuff & was sitting right behind her when she got drunk. That’s some major stalking behaviour..
Exactly, plus how he made us think he was caring for her by following her everywhere and then right after that he left her in a totally drunk state alone in a secluded area, just to show up again in a fucking suit ? It was sooo creepy and annoying.
My boyfriend who just started watching kdramas with me literally thought he was the lead the entire time we were watching. I had to break it to him that he won’t be getting the girl because he’s just the second lead. 😂😂
Tell me about it. I quit the drama too when I saw spoilers that Dosan won the girl. then after a few days I begged myself to finish it just to see more of Ji Pyeong. Everytime Dosan came on the screen i would fast forward. I have never been so angry at a drama before it was so funny. I was almost cursing at the kiss scenes rolling my eyes!
absolutely true...the 1st ep was so-so...but from 2nd ep only I started hating the main lead...I am currently watching this drama....out of all the dramas I have watched this is literally the WORST🤮🤮🤮...and that 3 yrs gap does that make any sense...???🤮
incase you missed out, DM waited for JP for 15 years, yet DS took his chances that JP has wasted. cant blame it on DS and DM for waiting on each other. if DM could wait for her ‘first love’ for 15 years, why would she not wait for DS for 3 years. 🤷🏻♀️
You've said all the things that I wanted to say. For me Jipyeong is the main character of this drama. He deserves better than this. 😭 They even said it seems like a different writer wrote the second half of the drama. The letter plot got thrown out and it doesnt make any sense why Dalmi chose Dosan and the closure of the letters in episode 16 was just done in like 1minute with Dalmi's line "okay okay." with Jipyeong telling " i am not the nam dosan from the letters" thats the crappiest scene ever. The letter and memories were being robbed from Jipyeong even the osts thats supposed to be meant for him. I dont know whats the writer's thinking she could have just let the real namdosan wrote the letters if she wants him to be dalmi's endgame so bad.
everything that you said I agree with 100%. Atleast Kim seon ho got the recognition he deserves after this drama...his character was the only thing that made me stay till the end of it.
I just hated how Nam dosan always seemed to make Han jipeong look like the bad guy not remembering that he himself came second in the whole thing. I have been stuck at ep10 because Nam dosan annoys the hell out of me.
My first issue was Dal-Mi. She was badly written. She had no competence to be a CEO. The past showed that she was hardworking, she had some "ideas" but she just wanted to be a CEO to prove to her sister she did the right choice to stay with her father. But there wasn't a good or a bad choice, these young girls shouldn't have to choose between their parents in the first place... Then, she became CEO and thanks to HJP she could do her job because she knew nothing. After the 3 years, I thought she will be better but no. The twins didn't respect her and betrayed her what they never dared with In-Jae. She had to be saved by Dol-San. For the letters, her reaction wasn't logical. She wasn't curious at all about the past when she invested all her life about it. HJP was clearly the most interesting character. I didn't find him too hard. I mean the poor traines during Idol competition get worse comments by the coaches and they're young. The 3 San were 28 years old and HJP never criticized their coding but the start-up. But they acted like babies... The best relationship was clearly Grandma and HJP.
That pissed me off too. You don't just become a CEO or start a business because you're trying to prove to others, but because you genuinely have a business idea that you think is feasible and are passionate about. Her motivation and intentions are so skewed. This applies to Dosan as well: he always said yes to business decisions without considering the consequences to others (investors, employees, etc.) just to appease to Dalmi.
YESS,!! i'm so glad someone finally mentioned idol trainees. I know it's a drama but TeamDS who defend DS saying HJP is "too rude" should watch those survival shows damn...
I’m still mad about that! Even YeongSan apologized to Jipyeong but Dosan? Nope, he acted like nothing ever happened. That made me despise his character even more.
He didn't even acknowledge him as one of the reasons why Noongil pushed through. Took all the credit when Halmeoni was thanking him in the last episode. 🔪🔪🔪
@@kittyr7095 I think you forgot to watch the part of the episode where ds punches jp first out of nowhere. Now don't tell me that you'd just stand there quietly when someone comes and assaults you.
@@RT-se3ik I don’t really agree with violence as any solution but it’s not unusual unfortunately for guys to use their fists to sort things out (not excusing it but we know it to be true unfortunately, so it was no shocker). He did throw the first punch yes. Even though I don’t agree with how he was trying to get through to HJP, to me it’s clear to see he imploded with frustration at that point. HJP was consistently putting the business down, he wasn’t being considerate with his words (yes he is a professional as we know, it’s what he does best and he was right with his advise but sometimes, it’s not always about profit and ‘business is business’), in that moment *given the circumstances*, he didn’t need to be so cut-throat and harsh, as it was all for Dalmi’s Grandmother not for success or profit. Which is why Dosan lashed out because he couldn’t give a fuck about the profit, it was about helping people who need it (including Dalmi’s grandmother) as naive as that may seem to some. HJP was failing to see what they were trying to do, which is why Dosan ended up also telling him in that moment, that Dalmi’s grandmother was unfortunately going blind and that it was actually for her (as unfortunately this was the only way to bring him on board with what they were doing). Thankfully HJP changed his attitude in supporting their business idea after that. They had both been wanting to punch each-other in the face for a long time upon til that point lol let’s not act like that’s not true, come on now 😂 it was building up.
One of the main reasons I was hooked until the end was because I was waiting for something good to happen to Ji-pyeong. It never came, and I just felt bad the whole time. He deserved so much better.
@@kiak2971 I liked him since the bride of the water god. I think people were annoyed with the character not him as a person. Ya, the writing was problematic.
Honestly, if I were an investor, I would be very hesitant to invest money in a business where the CEO and head developer are dating. HJP tried to give very good advice against that as well as advice for splitting the shares wisely. Dal Mi made the wrong call with those. Yet another example of the "Disney" plot for start-ups.
I feel the same! The writer made it seem like jipyeong is the lead since episode 1 and the plot literally is about the letters as well. I love the drama overall and the actors did an amazing job but it somehow felt rushed? also dalmi’s character is annoying af. She’s insensitive to jipyeong’s feelings. The writer made jipyeong an emotional punching bag in the story. Sorry but this is just how I feel.
I am also team Han hi pyeong, but dal mi was not insensitive, once she straight up mentioned if he had feelings for her, he denied it at that point. There were a lot of chances he could have told her. The reason I am stressing this so much because real life works in that way, if you miss your chance you do, quite often I have turned out to be second lead in real life, because I said things too late or never said it even though we had history or chemistry. It's unfair if you know that person's feelings first hand, but to Dalmi, she didn't know the behind the scenes. Even in the last scenes , once he says he is going to be petty for a while, she leaves him. Even in the car she tries not to talk about Nam do San till he urges her to say it. Even though I think Han hi pyeong could be a better boyfriend, but timing made her end up with an okay boyfriend. If she related the letters to him sooner she might have ended up with ji pyeong, but by then her feelings had shifted, nam do San had become someone she could touch and feel. Whereas jipyeong even though way way way better, was not in her vision.
More than insensitive her character didn't even look like a main character like she was cool in the first 3 4 episodes but than her character became boring.
@@tej4975 this is why the writing is so questionable, dalmi were obsessed with those letters but after she found out, she curious who is in her heart but never ask anything about THOSE letters but straight up put indirect kiss on dosan’s cheek after few days? & in ep13 Jipyeong said he always put efforts in everything he do, concede when if it not meant to be, but nothing has happened in those 3 years? anything could happened in that long period but writer didnt show it, jipyeong & dalmi relationship seems like a 3 months theyre formal with each other despite the fact jipyeong always coming to their house
The writer wrote an illogical love story. Those letters meant the world to Dal Mi and even though JiPyeong wrote it under a pseudonym, he did write really thoughtful words, and JiPyeong and Dalmi really clicked during the Go Stop session. The three years that JiPyeong spent with Dalmi ought to have counted for something. JiPyeong wouldn't have let his chances go with Dalmi. He would have made a move on her.
for me, Kim Seon Ho is the main lead of the drama. Suzy and NJH are like the second lead actors because of scenario. I think HJP's character made shadow the others. Jipyeong's character is well written and well developed. as a result, even he did not get the girl, with this drama Kim Seon Ho had big popularity that he deserves. finally. I am happy for him.
Yeahhh aside from being the 2nd leading man, they tried to portray HJP as a villain even if he wasn’t and just genuinely supporting and mentoring them. They started the loveline with the letters but in the end it was put into waste, like the change of heart is not realistic lol
I liked Seonho because of 2D1N, and I’m happy that he’s being recognized more because of Start-up. His ig followers I think doubled now and his members are teasing him because he’s all over the sns. He’s been acting for more than 10 yrs but I think this role became the turning point of his career, so happy for him. I’m looking forward for his next drama.
YES LOL, the writer didn't like realist businessman, make him as "the villain" by saying the truth and negative critics LOL and they made those naive dreamers "the hero" to inspire young people in a wrong way to live just in a dream world, not face the truth, reality and win by luck? LOL so unrealist
@@justjane7504 he has been doing dramas only for 3 yrs and he rose the popularity ladder pretty fast and he is super talented... he was a theater actor before and never tried to do dramas until 3yrs ago... seeing how easily he got into getting main leads from his 2nd drama itself i dont think he had to struggle much... maybe korean casting directors and producers already knew how good he was since he already had a very successful theater career... his plays used to get sold out easily even before he started doing dramas..
@@vp98215 just some correction, Seon Ho had a supporting role in Chief Kim (because a theater critic recommended him and he succeeded in his 1st audition), leading him to his 2nd drama playing a 2nd male lead in Strongest Deliveryman. And then in the same year he played a 2nd lead again in Two Cops. In 2018, he had 2 dramas which he was the lead were Waikiki 2 (which had many leads 😅) and You drive me crazy (a 4-eps mini-drama). Not until 2019 did Seon Ho got his actual 1st leading role in a proper drama (Catch The Ghost). Also not to mention some cameo roles offered by directors and producers he used to work with. So i think it's not quite easy 😅 it's just Start Up boosts his popularity to a more wider extent. However, indeed before that Seon Ho is truly a star in the theater world. He is called "theater idol" for a reason knowing how talented he is and his personality too. Acting made him overcome his trauma, so seeing his success now makes me feel really happy for him.
I can watch this review a million times.. its so satisfying to hear someone well-known speak my mind out with no bias. Thank you, David. It's like you've given a proper closure to the drama. :)
I loved him! I really disliked mr Han for other reasons but didnt think he was abusive or childish. He was just awkward cause it was his first time being in love and dalmi was casual enough to accept that.
I think this situation exemplifies a big issue with writers today: they force relationships where they don't belong, ignore/don't explore hardship or character growth, and they make main characters assholes. The fact that the writer couldn't come up with a reason for the couple to end up together is a big signifier that they shouldn't be together.
Nam Do san was an L to me from the beginning till the end, I literally skipped every part where he appeared with Dal mi. If it wasn't for Ji Pyeong I would have never continued watching the drama. He really saved this show tbh
I was shocked, i thought dm was going to scold him for the reckless thing he did but was shocked when she kissed him. Like i get it that writer trying to show how much ds cares for dm but what ds did, that is not it. Using violence as a way to show love and support to your partner seriously is not it, in real life both could have been in big trouble but no people are fantasizing violence as a token of love.
@@sonamsherpa3829 the writer wanna make violence as something hot and looks masculine. oh my God the toxicity she's teaching to the viewers. she gonna make the immature naive viewer to tolerate abuser in their real life coz of this
Violence lmaooo ge literally threw a name plate you're acting like he murdered someone dramatic af please your good boy actually caused someone's suicide now go be mad at him for actual violence
@@zelladay531 there's no law that says what HJP did was a crime and can make him goes to jail because all he did was telling facts of how that person carelesness could caused other people having great loss. if HJP didn't said it, the other mentor would said it already. while 2 violent act that dosan did was indeed against law and could make him go to jail, but thanks to HJP he didn't end up in jail
By the rooftop scene, it was clear that she felt uncomfortable with what the CEO was saying to her as he was trying to make the conversation personal rather than about business and he just burst because he didn’t want her to be even more emotionally hurt, which is why the kiss was so meaningful that they would always have their best interests in their hearts
Literally screamed and walked out of my mom's room cuz Dosan was just so frustrating. Jipyeong was basically used and i dont think anyone was truly grateful towards what he did besides grandma
dalmi and dosan as characters felt very blank in a sense, maybe so that viewers could visualize themselves in a main role, which a lot of media does tbh inserting yourself into a story is something everyone does. however, this time it just didn't work because the side characters were so well characterized that the two main leads just ended being dragged around by the plot in a sense instead of asserting their role in the plot
Yes: Dalmi and Dosan are like naive teenager and naive young viewers can identify to them BUT Dalmi and Dosan didn't grow, win in business by luck = inspire young people in a wrong way to live in a dream world, not face reality!
Yeah honestly I felt like they shouldn’t have been bland because of their backgrounds and deeply rooted personal struggles, but they ended up being SO shallow. It felt like their characterizations and inner struggles were just conveniently solved by their love for each other...
i just wanna say that Dosan is one hella privileges & lucky guy! from the start he got lovely family, business & office paid by parents, supportive & loyal friends, catfishing a really pretty girl & get her at the end, genius coding, hired by global company 2STO, 2 assault for abusive behavior but got no sequences AT ALL, super duper lucky to get an experience mentor who’ll save your ass everytime!! sail off without map business? NAILED IT! while jipyeong at end??? literally a punch bag 😂😂😂😂
@@roro19966 I don’t think Nam Do San was that privileged, I mean of course he was in some way but I feel like a lot of people can sympathize with his situation, especially the aimed audience which is teenagers these days. He still had his own hardships like his parents pressuring him to be successful and the pride of the family, it’s something really common a lot of us go through. If we are talking about realism here his story is the one more realistic for viewers, I feel like in dramas they always make the main character’s background so tough and complicated, for example itaewon class, that it makes us feel bad that we are sitting here with a roof over our heads watching a drama lol. Success stories like Han Ji Pyeong’s come after a lot of work and people like that don’t have a lot of time on their hands to waste on these “Disney” dramas. I really liked the way he developed a closer relationship with his parents and the sentence “Let’s not be pride and joy to each but father and son” hit home for me personally, it describes beautifully how toxic that pushing-your-kids-towards-success policy is. Just because he is more privileged he shouldn’t be looked down upon, he is not in charge of his background but he is of his actions and that’s what I feel like this whole series tried to tell us. I think for the first time I didn’t feel bad for coming from a very great home that has it’s own rough edges thanks to his character.
even I felt bad for Han ji pyeong. A successful invester, investing all his time , money & advice into a group of newbies. only if such SAINT really existed in business world. he went over the board showing off his gratitude towards dal mi's family.
My Mom's been watching it on Netflix everynight and she's team HJP all along I actually dropped the drama halfway since it's too obvious that she would end up with Dosan (Got the Feeling) so I just let my Mom watch it alone and I ended up just watching anime in my room. Let's just say she's very disappointed 'bout the ending and literally complained to ME! And I was like what did I do? (Its not like I'm the writer or anything) I just said 'I told you so' to her HAHAHAHA
Cute! Literally I have a similar experience as you...my mom, sister, and I love kdramas and I told my mom about startup when it was first released. I really fell in love with it and she liked it too then...well she came down with second lead syndrome and I stayed on team Dosan. We've had discussions on who is the better fit for dalmi ofc like a debate. We are almost done with it (we watch it separately our own times ) but she has already said that she already knows that the girl would end up with dosan because they kissed and shes only finishing the drama because of HJP lol. Also, I love anime too! any recommendations on animes that I should watch?
Are our standards seriously so low. I mean Nam Do San was so basic, so flat, so unappealing, so boring. And Dalmi chose that over Ji Pyeong. In what world is this acceptable??
Dosan character development is so lame. He is cute at first when he was dorky and forever single, but he starting to want what Jipyeong have and became so childish, reckless and greedy.
@@defunyzm Oh exactly at first his character was cute but then he started talking back to Jipyeong and becoming ungrateful towards Jipyeong. It pissed me off so much!
@@lululs4014 i never hate the male lead character as much as i hate nam dosan 😅 Nam Joo hyuk acting is good tho too bad the writer choose the wrong path. 🙄 I can relate only to Jipyeong emotion like everytime he cried i cried 😭
Was looking forward to the new episodes each week on Netflix, but by the end I was skipping through large parts of the episodes because I found them too cringey and unrealistic. You hit the nail on the head with the beginning being all about ji-pyeong, but then expecting the audience to discard him for a new character that had no relation to the actual reason for the show, the letters between dalmi and jipyeong. Such a let down, I couldn’t believe the last episode I thought there was gonna be more it was so rushed and unrealistic.
I can't ever say I've watched a KDrama that is particularly realistic tbh 😂, but I do know exactly what you mean and I agree. I watch them in part because they are NOT that realistic and I need to escape! But this one failed to meet its potential, sadly
Thank you for this - David. After years in the film and TV industry I decided to check what's the hype of Korean Dramas. I tried to watch a couple of the shows produced in the last year, but could not keep my attention beyond the first episodes. With Start Up it was different - I was hooked since the beginning and loved how refreshing and plausible (most of) everything was. I finally got the hype of these shows! But then by the middle of second act (9th/10th episode) everything went downhill. The storyline, characters arc stopped making any sense! I was so invested (and frustrated) I spent hours trying to rationalize the screenwriters choices. I finally accepted she dropped the ball on this one. And to avoid being angry I gave up on the show and didn't watch the last episodes. My own Korean Drama saga goes on - and hopefully will have a better conclusion than this show.
I agree with the person who recommended Hospital Playlist. Hospital Playlist, Familiar Wife, Good Doctor, and Tomorrow with You are a few of my favorite K-dramas with good plots.
From the beginning, we already know who's going to end up with Dalmi but they just didn't do it right. I couldn't finish this drama because it just didn't make sense anymore. I was raving about it so much, it started out so good then it ended up the way it did. So disappointing. My first problem was they didn't even show the resolution to Dalmi and Injae's conflict, they just suddenly became close again. That would have been a great tear-jerker, them talking about their father and teaming up against the step-dad in a big way. Secondly, there was no heart to heart conversation between Jipyeong and Dalmi, even if she realized she didn't really love him, she still should have had strong feelings and a deeper conversation with him would have helped ease the blow on Jipyeong's character. Lastly, Dalmi and Dosan's characters were so shallow, no depth to them at all, just reckless little kids. I guess they belong together, they need a lot of maturing to do.
This drama was a huge success in Thailand too. It was trending on Twitter every weekend when the show was still on air while also taking No. 1 spot on Netflix ranking for the past months. Local news outlet wrote articles about the series coupled with business aspects to it. Kim Seon Ho has gained tons of new fans here including myself. I'm glad that he got the fame and recognition as what he deserves it. And it was a really great rant you had here, David. I watched the whole thing in one sitting and kept nodding to what you said the entire time. I really liked the writer's previous work in While You Were Sleeping. She has that style by making multiple scenes where a main character having an emotional connection with an elderly character which I really adore. Because it is not overly done or cringy. Jipyeong's interactions with Halamoni were actually the highlight of the series for me. Without them, this drama is just a typical business/romantic comedy drama you can watch elsewhere. Unfortunately, Samsan Tech guys are written off as immature and unlikable characters making it hard for me to root for them. They were funny in the beginning. But they did Jipyeong dirty and kept making him their emotional punching bag. I can't stress enough how Jipyeong remains professional through and through. Jipyeong really hard carried the show!
It's the accuracy for me , duuude you literally spoke my mind , was thinking the same way through but I couldn't put it all into actual words thank you for this .
it’s the fact that everything almost revolves around han ji pyeong. the drama started with him, all major supporting characters were connected to him. EVERYTHING!! ALL OF THAT YET HE STILL WASN’T FIRST LEAD? dude no.
We should stop romanticizing this kind of toxic relationship. Being abusive and violent is not sexy, it’s scary af. I’m thinking about all the teenagers watching K-dramas (mostly young girls) who now mention Do-san as their ideal type. K-dramas writers have a responsibility towards their young public.
Totally agree! A dangerous message for naive girls! Naive teenager girl will fall in love with a naive and immature guy like Dosan but Dalmi isn't a teenager anymore but acts like a naive teenager girl with NO self-confidence, it proove if you didn't have self-confidence, you will be influenced by too toxic guy
Agreed! Although Do San was not abusive toward Dalmi, he was borderline obsessive. His happiness was dependent on her and his infatuation with her was baseless? I don’t understand why he clung onto her so hard... Maybe he was in love with the idea of how she perceived so highly of him, because he was so insecure. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm. Both characters lost a lot of their charm towards the end of the series, and they deserved each other.
and i still can't believe some of them thinks dosan is a relatable character and they can relate to him like?!?!? you can relate to a manipulative sad boi who would do anything for her to the point beating up your OWN mentor just because he make your girl sad??
My thoughts exactly. Romanticizing toxic behaviour for the sake of a plot will inevitably mislead ALOT of people. Although I also think it's partly their fault if they can't see through it. 🤔
The drama started off really interesting but as the show progressed, it become more draggy in a sense because they were so focused on the whole love triangle thing rather than the start-up. Furthermore, i absolutely despise Nam Do San’s character simply because one, there was no character development whatsoever and two, he’s so childish and insecure. He gets super jealous and selfish whenever it comes to DM it’s so annoying. I hated how the show started with Jipyeong and the whole story about the letters and the grandma only to bring in NDS at the end of ep1. HJP on the other hand, his character is just so likeable yet tragic at the same time. He was so willing to sacrifice everything he had for her happiness. I also disliked how the writer put little to no effort in SDM and HJP connections with the letters. Especially after she found out that JP was the one who actually wrote the letters, they didn’t talk about it or emphasise anything about it other than the part where he confessed to her. Seeing how the letters meant so much to DM and played a huge role in the plot, i’m surprised it was rarely talked about especially after DM claimed the person behind the letter was her “first love” and compared every guy she has ever been with to it. But when it was revealed that JP wrote them, she did not even consider him as a potential LI. Exactly, the Samsamtech members have absolutely no idea how to start a business and when something goes wrong they go to JP for help but gets offended when he tells them the truth. HJP has been nothing but helpful, caring and the only person who’s doing shit in the show. I’m sorry but it’s true. And i’m relieved to see i’m not the only person who feels this way. Team Jipyeong all the way 😤 The actors and the character portrayals were fantastic but the plot was just eh. Overall a decent drama, but it’s not a drama where i’ll rewatch.
I definitely agree that the letter plot was just kind of discarded which made like half the plot of the drama useless, but HJP was not just "nothing but helpful" through the whole drama. YES it's his job to tell people the truth, but there is literally no need to do it so harshly and Do San proved him wrong most of the time, but HJP just keeps being unnecessarily mean to him. Do San proved himself by winning the CODA competition when HJP doubted his skills, he got into sandbox all by himself, and near the ending too HJP advises Dalmi not to go ahead with the bid but Do sAn says she should, and they end up winning. But as you said HJP did help them out a bit, but their success is not solely thanks to him, and Dalmi probably never saw him as a love interest because from the start he was just a mentor to them, and after learning that the letters are fake it doesn't matter who wrote them. I never really saw any chemistry between them, she was always awkward around him but honestly even tho i'm team do san i hated how dal mi didn't properly "reject" hjp and say smthg like "thanks for being my first love," it might have eased the backlash a bit. I hope you don't think im trying to start an argument, i can't use emojis on my computer so everything i write comes off borderline passive aggressive sorry :((
Yes this was a fool who didnt understand people relationships emotions or even metaphors yet the writer has him 1/2 romance philosopher crying and pretending he can grasp what sailing off without a map even means. Its some of the worst script writing in history.
I loved the first few episodes, but once it was clear she would end up with Dosan I stopped watching. I just couldn't find a reason why she would have fallen for him?? and I whish they'd have focused more on the start up, that kinda got me hooked in the first place
I sincerely thank you, David, for making this video: I'm learning to write plots these days, so my analysis to the plot was really close to yours, especially: 1. how the entire 1st episode was dedicated to HJP's past, which got most viewers attached to him 2. how the writer seemed to have forgotten what NDS's character was like in the beginning: rational, logical, nerdy, cute and yes, ppl change with love, but not their core and inner characteristics - that's just too unrealistic 3. how the sister and other side characters had so much potential, but they were thrown away tbh I was excited about the sister's character as a good and experienced rival, but her appearances kept diminishing esp in the latter half 3. I'm not surprised that the scene "because it's you" became a meme in Korea. it was really hard watching that cuz of all the cringe and the eye rolling. it's hard to take the actors/actresses seriously when it's super cringe-y and Disney-like in an otherwise realistic situation. The writer was aiming for a realistic drama (based on startups, business facts, etc) so all the more reason that the audience didn't like the unrealistic romantic plot. Actually, the drama started with romance as a subplot but at some point it broke the main plot forcing the romance to be the main. 4. I ABSOLUTELY agree about HJP being a professional and sincere advisor and that it did not make the LEAST sense that they were all super illogic, emotional, and just overall unrealistic, and hesitating cuz of weird misunderstandings (brother killer? wth?? that part seemed too forced, like it was an attempt to make some kind of a backstory for the character, but that failed miserably) 5. NDS throwing/breaking/punching was an absolute turn off for me. When he broke that name plate, it was supposed to be "romantic" (??) but I found that absolutely useless. He could've totally made a point withOUT using violence. Also, when he punched HJP and then asked for help, it was the last straw for me. I really tried to like the character, but no, too selfish and unreasonable, and thinks violence is the answer. It's sad to say that cuz I really like the actor himself. Suggestion: from a writing pov, if the writer really wanted to make the story better, it would go like this: the backstory we've seen at the beginning to be NDS's, and then he would use HJP's name for the letters. but then NDS would not be successful and looks for HJP to pretend to be successful --> that will get us attached to NDS and appreciate his love and struggles to please Dalmi, instead of feeling like he cut in the line and got handed her on a golden plate. BONUS: I absolutely loved Yoo Jingoo's cameo appearance! I rewatched that scene later, just cuz it was a nice "development" point for HJP and ofc I'm a fan of YJG
Great review. I don’t like how Nam Do San never felt the consequences of his violent actions. Don’t forget that he also charged at his friend when they found out Dal-Mi was going to be CEO. Glorifying a violent, insecure, petty character was not a good look for this writer.
I liked the pairing of Dal-Mi and Do-San but definitely agree that their characters lacked substance and growth. Ji-Pyeong was definitely more of the main character
I don’t think Dalmi was ever in love with Dosan (from the letters), but rather the idea of him. The reason she gave for loving Dosan was disappointing. It was definitely a missed opportunity on the writer’s part.
Yes because Dalmi is like a naive teenager who has no experience in love, idealize love, fall in love fast because he's handsome, has only big hand = so naive, dumb and blind girl who ends with a naive immature guy like her, that's the truth, we didn't hate with no reason
Yeah, but think about it, if she gave anything else for an answer it would be problematic too. I guess the message they were trying to send is how both NDS and SDM finally finds love in being able to be themselves to each other after many months/years of hurting one another by projecting their identity issues on one another (NDS treating SDM as manic pixie dram girl / SDM treating him as letter version NDS). But it fell really flat since the premise was NDS’ inferiority to HJP, it felt like their love bred out of mere insecurities
Other than Jipyeong, all the characters were bland af. And I feel like the whole history between grandma, Jipyeong, and Dalmi was just ignored later on. Like why did the grandma not encourage Jipyeong and Dalmi's relationship, she clearly likes Jipyeong and has a long history with him right? She tells him not to be lonely towards the end but how the heck is he not going to be lonely when Dalmi turns away from him? The writing really sucked towards the last several episodes.
And now nam do san , dalmi and grandma would go on trips together and leave ji pyeong alone . Even if he doesn't have dalmi cause dalmi doesn't deserve him . He should at least have halmoni . But nope.
![[ENG/IND] Start-Up Interview with Suzy, Nam Joo Hyuk, Kim Seon Ho & Kang Hanna Part 1](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/cttkITiitNg/mqdefault.jpg)
![[ENG/IND] Start-Up Interview with Suzy, Nam Joo Hyuk, Kim Seon Ho & Kang Hanna Part 1](/img/tr.png)
TEAM HAN JI PYEONG vs. TEAM NAM DO SAN?
Support us: www.patreon.com/dkdktv
Han Ji Pyeong!!
Team HJP❤️
Oh absolutely #TEAMHJP
Don't call me out plz.. I'm team Do San.. hope you respect my opinion
Team nam do san
Let's be clear on one thing.
Han Ji Pyeong didn't lose Dal Mi,
Dal Mi is the one who lost Han Ji Pyeong
I love this comment. If they did a season 2 it should focus on him finding someone and Dalmi realizing she messed up.
@@christopherquesada835 in jae getting hooked up with Han
FACT
@@christopherquesada835 oh i did not know i want season 2 until i saw this comment for seeing dalmi regretting her life decision . thank you somuch
Jipyeong lost Dalmi with his denial and dishonest feelings
The best relationship in this show was between Han ji pyeong and grandma. They carried the whole show
Agree 😔
YES
And I wish they had more story to show rather than dal mi and do san's romance. Haha. My eyes were set to cry every time Ji pyeong and Grandma is on the same screen. Haha.
They hit u so hard in your mind that you will never forget
Honestly the first episode when he left to Seoul was the saddest part of the anime to me
popular opinion : jipyeong-grandma relationship are more interesting than dosan-dalmi relationship
yussss
true
YEWSSSSSSS
ikr😅😅
THIS IS SO TRUE
The issue I had was that after Dal Mi found out the truth about the letters, there was never a point where it was discussed. Dal Mi and Ji Pyeong never talked about their past "relationship" or reminisced on their younger selves. DM never gave JP a chance. Her whole life she compared every guy to the boy who wrote the letters and when she discovers it was actually JP, she didn't even give him a second glance. He was her "first love" and she didn't have any mixed feelings about it? Unrealistic
Edit - Whether you agree or disagree, are on team Do San or team JI Pyeong, it's all good. There are no rights and wrongs here. I am loving all this (mostly) friendly discussion though! :)
For me, it really didn't matter who Dal Mi ended up with. Both DS and JP had redeeming qualities and I think she would have lived a happy life with either one. I was just missing what I thought were some key scenes. IMO this was a decent k-drama. It started off really strong then weakened a but but still pretty good. It kept me entertained which is why we watch these things. right?!
Oh, and did anyone else want more Chul San and Sa Ha? It would have been nice to see their relationship develop a little bit more. Love Chul San, he's hilarious!
What is everyone watching next? I need some suggestions! :)
Happy Holidays Everyone!
YESSS. it is as if that side of the story was shoved away to make way to compensate for nam do san.
sometimes we fall inlove to those people who we didn’t expect to tho like if you set a standard in a guy it turns the other way around my aunt is the same like dalmi and do san, she had high standards in men and didn’t want the guy who is trying to court her but they ended up together in the end. plus even tho dalmi kept denying that she wants the guy who wrote her letters she obviously fell inlove to dosan because she could’ve walked away from him when she already sensed that he is not the dosan from the letters but she didn’t but I agree that jipyeong deserves better instead of being alone and a punching bag for people. but I wouldn’t want him to date dalmi cause he kinda knew it was coming that the moment dalmi knew that they were lying behind her back these scene would happen... she would’ve have fallen in love to jipyeong if he had been honest to her the whole time.
Dal mi did hive HJP a chance. Did you forget all those years she waited on him juat for him not to even care to show up even when grandma told him to date her but he didnt want to get involve all those years!
@@deela02 in case u didn’t notice, jipyeong spent 15 years in college, getting a decent job, move to US & returning becoming one of the successful investor in the country hes been worked hard all those years, he is not proud of his young self he is very lacking totally opposite of dosan, he is embarrassed by himself, & when grandma asked him to date her he refuse, cuz he doesnt like dalmi since 15 years ago, he started to like her when they meet each other through dosan, he admitted her letters comforted him so from here i can see them only friends who depending on each other when they were young, we are talking about Dalmi didnt give jipyeong a chance after he confessed, like she dont even reject him??? rejecting men were so easy for her in the past why she cant do it to jipyeong if she has no feeling towards him? he legit wait for 3 years waiting for her to open up for him & also im questioning writer on why jipyeong didnt make a move on dalmi for those 3 years its just illogical to me, jipyeong is aware of dosan’s 2sto contract shouldnt he make move already???
@@alyssajohan5167 still doesnt answer the question of why he didnt even care about her all those 15yrs until he saw another guy liking her lol.
I really liked the drama but I wished they hadn't dragged the whole love triangle for so long and focused more on the Start Up😂
No for real! I was only interested because I’m also thinking going in that direction in the future. But they keep going on and on about the boring love triangle based off of some fking letters lmao tf?
This...all kdrama fans mad because the dragged triangle love
@@allsies7890 if they actually used the letters properly it would have been interesting. But we get like one letter actually being used in the show and then it's just a throwaway thing they use for the damn romance plot
It was like "who are you?" again for me, frustrating...
It was too focus on the love triangle. The real love story should of been the sisters reunion. They really wasted InJae character. So much they could of done. I do think a lot of the situation is just luck. It’s the kdrama formula. The hard working poor girl who gets by.
Dosan: It doesn't make sense, why do you like me?
Dalmi: Dude, trust me
Dalmi: I've never regret any of my choices in my life 💁🏻♀️
It's kind of like " it's because you have big hands" the only reason 🤦♂️
I was team Han jipyeong but yk after I watched the last ep i felt like you really don't need a specific reason to like someone, i mean maybe just the feeling of dosan's presence was enough to make her like him. Lol 😂
Funny how when she thought he was the one who wrote the letters which was basically Ji Pyeong , she could actually tell why she liked him but now she suddenly realizes she doesn’t need a reason to like someone lol I call bs.
Dalmi : bc u're the main lead. I can't ever be with 2nd lead. Com'on.
Tbh the Do san and Dal Mi break up didn't even make me sad. What made me cry my eyes out was Mr. Han and halmeoni's "i'm not a good boy" scene. That was amazing. The break up scene was meh. 😅
Exactly !! The Halmoni and Ji Pyeong relationship was deep and so pure. Loved it. They made the whole drama worse it !
Lol I didn’t even realise that was a breakup scene bc I didn’t even know they were full on dating in the first place haha
@@CharlottesSkye It wasn’t real love story it was carfishing story😅😅😅
Me too, because they will be together again later. 😁
Actually the drama plot is simple, a boy meet a girl, they fall in love, they have to break-up, some misunderstanding issues, but then they reunite again. The end.
I like that scene too. When he grow self awareness. He at last being a real good boy in the end of drama.
bitchesoverdramas.com/2020/11/24/start-up-ep-12-on-jps-growing-self-awareness/
OMG SAME????
I can still remember that scene when grandma asked Dal Mi who will she choose: The Do San 15 years ago or the Do San that he met recently. She answered "Do San from 15 years ago" and what happened? 🤷♀️
She decided she prefers big hands lol
I want to ask the same thing. You had one job Dal Mi. WE WERE ALL ROOTING FOR YOU! HOW COULD YOU!
When Do San brought Dal Mi and her grandmother to the beach, they talked together and Dal Mi told her she realised how much she loves the Do San of now too.
She actually said that she prefered the DoSan from the letters, but at the same time she is attracted to the present DoSan's sides that are different from the letters. Meaning that she has not yet fully let go of the ideal man she created in her mind based on HJP and Grandma's letters, but she has already begun falling in love with the real DoSan because of his personality, not because of the supposed link to her childhood penpal. It was clear from the beginning that the bond they formed, as it grew, it had nothing to do with the letters. And that's exactly the realistic part of the writing. The whole drama was about maturing and growing up. DoSan left his insecurities and became more confident. HJP realised that he needs other people in his life and let his soft side shine. DaMil matured emotionally, she was no longer attached to some idea she created, she formed relationships with real people and finally she let go of the competition between her and her sister and found her own dream. Her sister found authenticity in herself. Her mother also found her right path. Grandma was cool from the start, although she did admit that the whole letter thing was a bad idea because it created a fake happiness.
I really felt like the writer was so scared of SOOP. She didn’t want to do Nam Joo Hyuk dirty.
Dal mi was never supposed to be with jipyeong according to the script. Any one who was watched a few k dramas can tell this from the start. However the problem was no one was expecting jipyeong to be this fucking good. Holy damn dol San felt like a wooden dummy next to him
DoSan is realistic tbh, I found Hjp boring coz his character arc didn’t have much potential except his backstory
@@saieshach184 really?? Dol San felt so one dimensional compared to jipyeong.
@@saieshach184 haha, videos like this and many concurring prove otherwise.
@@saieshach184 can you tell me what part of dosan is realistic because I'm clearly can't found one
@@swagpeach9850 I talked about potential that a character has 👀
Han Ji Pyeong’s back must hurt from carrying this entire show.
Nope. Great cast. All of them did good. I'm glad dal mi ended up with nds who isnt a coward. Hjp realized his feelings for dal mi when? When dal mi and nds were doing great together. He got jealous and wanted her back?? Even nds wanted to tell the truth and he doesnt. He fucked himself up 🤷♀️
His back hurts from old age and being a coward not carrying the show pls 😭
Imagine disrespecting Samsan Tech the heart of the entire show just bc you have a fat crush on some tsundere. Embarrassing!
@@coldebleus so "taking your time" is cowardice?? because for me he wasn't coward he was sensitive to give Dalmi space and time unlike for Dosan who literally stalked her and obsessed with her, manipulating her and grabbing all opportunity that wasn't even for him in the first place 🤣
@@coldebleus tf is a tsudere
@@julynightowl7413 respect your opinion, question tho, where did I say anything about the cast as a whole? I was talking about the character lmao
let me say it: injae had 10% of screen time in proportion to dalmi's but injae grew a lot and dalmi is just meh.
100% big facts...injae have one of the best if not the best character development in the show...from the start i dislike her but throughout the show i'm starting to love her a lot meanwhile dalmi is the opposite 🙃
I really hate the fact that her screen time is too low while her character is potential to be digged out. Why would they put injae in the poster then, just erased it hhh🙂😭
Sigh her character is really being wasted.. they should have focus more on her than the dragged love triangle.
It’s so funny that when I started the show I was rooting for DM and DS, I disliked WIJ and still wasn’t sure what to think about Ji Pyeong but at the end Ji Pyeong had my whole heart, I really liked InJae’s development despite her not getting enough screen time and I absolutely despised DM and DS and their childish attitude.
When Jin Pyeong talking to In Jae, I actually can see the chemistry between them. I think JP deserve a matured woman like In Jae. Look how professional and matured she is
Han jipyeong is such a gentleman! I was honestly shocked to see that in a character. He was literally such husband material and communicated his feelings so well. One moment that sticked with me so much is when he kinda insinuate that him and dal mi were dating to nam do san. He calls up dal mi to let her know that he might have given nam do san the wrong impression. I JUST WANTED TO GET DOWN ON ONE KNEE FOR THIS PRINCE!!!!
Me too man
Me too man
We need continuation of Han Ji pyeong love life with another girl who is much better than Dami
I was hoping they would even get the big sister connected with him romantically somehow 😂
Dalmi
I agree lol
@@itsoky6118 😭 I thought I was the only one. Everyone was fighting over who’s better for dm and I’m over here like JP deserves a strong woman like IJ
exactly. lol
Why would they start the drama with HJP, get us all attached, and then force NDS to be the lead?? It did feel incredibly forced.
Omg right!!? ...I understand that maybe we needed context about the letters since they were supposedly the important and main reason leading up to how the "real" dosan meets her, but like it just didn't add up on how things unravelled.
I feel betrayed
Yes really bad story writing
you're right but in the k-drama poster it's only dalmi and dosan so it's obvious that dosan will be the lead and who will ended up with dalmi
@@02luvjae21I thought maybe they were trying to throw us off the trail of the real lovers Dal Mi and Ji Pyeong 😅
Han Jipyeong is my favorite character in kdrama history. and Kim Seonho did a really good job in playing the role, he suits the character so well. now i’m head over heels in love with Kim Seonho
In other KDramas, the ending of Ep 9 would have been a beautiful start of the romantic love story between DalMi and HJP when she discovered that he was actually the writer of those letters :)
this could've been a major turning point for the writer but meh she chose the cliche dodal lane
actually, that would be kind of forced too. If she did that, i think she would be criticised for changing the entire script to just please the majority. The dynamic between JiPyeong and DalMi has never been romantic, it has always been mentor-mentee. The letters 15 years ago comforted Dal Mi a lot, but it was not a real person. It was just a time capsule in the letters.
@@kristenlam7858 i don't get how is that not a real person, jp may have started the letter as per grandma request but he continued replying to her letter, they wrote to each other for a year, there was also a scene where young jp was reading dm letter and smiling. If writer wanted to show that the letter was all fake and had no feelings to it at all then why show young jp reading the letter and replying. Jp at the end admit to dm that the letter was his only friend and it was really comforting to him too but dm just stands there saying nothing. I'm not saying that dm should have choosen jp right away after the reveal but at least she should have given some thought about it, she didn't had any mixed feeling at all. Just a few crying in ep 10 and then kissing ds in the next scene doesn't make sense at all. It would have been a lot better if dm would have taken time, just focused on the business and dream for time being instead of the two guys. What is the purpose of showing her crying her heart out and getting drunk after finding out the truth to going gaga over ds in tye nest ep.
@@kristenlam7858 lol what are u saying? Everyone can see the chemistry and tension between them except for team dosan
Can u not Cry @Sonam Sherpa no doubt they had chemistry and tension, but it’s not enough to justify a long term relationship. i’m not saying her rship w Dosan was justifiable too, just saying if she were to end up with Jp, it won’t fix everything. bcs the problem is the characterisation of DalMi, it became really flat. if she were to end up with JP, it would make SDM into a mere trophy too to cure JP’s loneliness or what not. this is not an attack against JP, even JP fans agree with me. (on mydramalist.com at least) and yes, the letters were real i’m not saying they aren’t. but you can’t say that the letters written FIFTEEN years ago represents completely who JiPyeong is right now right? JiPyeong has changed a lot too. Besides, even though the letter “DoSan” has some semblance with JP you have to rmbr that it is still just a version of JP crafted out by a careful selection of words and ideas. a good example is how he didn’t even know how to play Go-Stop but he saw it on tv and liked the idea of it and said that was his birthday wish. point is, SDM loves the idea of JP, that JP himself created, not JP as a whole in the present time. Bcs that JP she met in the present, was just a mentor to her.
The second lead character ( ji pyeong ) was way too strong for the lead ( dosan ) to shine. I tried to like the character dosan but just couldn't. Dalmi didn't even have feelings for her first love Han ji pyeong even when she found out who wrote those letters 15 years ago. She was whinning for years about her first love. How's that even possible? The writer gave dosan so many chances but han ji pyeong not even one. In 3 years of time, they could have atleast showed Han ji pyeong trying to win dalmi's heart when dosan was away. It seemed like they were forcing us to see dosan as the main lead. This drama was just not fair for the character ji pyeong.
@Joan Picoy agree
I totally agree!!!
Nope better to not show how he cared for her in the 3 years, in the drama true beauty they show how the second lead care for the girl for 3 damn years while the first lead wasnt there for here, and it hurts even more when she left him at the end 😭😭😭😭
@@saratouzani1437 yeah, it hurts a lot 😭 I was cheering for Suho, but it was too sad to watch Seo Jun suffering 😓
Agreed
Jipyong:* giving a realistic business advice *
Dalmi: Yeah, that makes sense. Sounds logic...
Dosan/Samsantech: He’s mean, rude. We’re offended. He only wants to discourage us and belittle us. How dare he.
Let the fate guide us, forget about wasting money, investors, manpower, energy and time. Let’s just improvise and things somehow work out.
Dalmi: Omg Dosan is so inspiring, that was deep. I feel enlightened. He’s so amazing and cool.
Jipyeong was not always just giving "realistic business advice". He did tell them they will never ever succeed, and after Samsan Tech won the demo day, even he realised that he was wrong. I'm not saying a mentor should only give compliments, but it is important that when you give someone feedback you mention BOTH positive and negative sides. HJP was very rude at times and totally neglecting the good sides of Samsan Tech. If not for Dosan's determination, the whole team would probably just quit and there would never be any NoonGil. C'mon people, I am sure if in your life, someone would just shit all over you, you'd just get demotivated and you'd not appreciate it.
violetc violetc He wasn’t that wrong, technically the company Samsam Tech did not really succeed. And at that time when he said it, it was kinda true. They were stubborn, naive and didn’t have much experience. Also it’s a drama, Dosan had to make it at the end even if he just sat at home doing nothing, benefit of being the main lead. Jipyong also went to that guy to ask to continue NoonGil, so it may not be as good, since Dosan was emotionally invested in it, but it would still somehow exist, I guess.
@@violet.c well JP is telling the truth samsan tech will never succeed with DS as the CEO that's why he suggested to get a competent CEO when DS asked him for adviced. If it weren't for DM they won't even get into sandbox.
HAHHHQHHAHAHHHHHAHAHAHAHHAHH I LOVE THIS COMMENT dalmi really be like: "ah, yes, inspiring."
Hahaha! So on point!
"Disney drama" made me laugh so hard because it's SO true... the story doesn't have to make sense, the characters don't need to be consistent, and everything rides on luck.. because the target audience is 15 year old girls who just wanna see the kiss scenes.
Now it all make sense lol, I did wonder why these people were OTT about the the leads first kissing scene when it’s so rushed and without substance, and couldn’t understand a lot of their perspectives of the drama. Yeah very fitting calling it Disney drama!
I really wish they focused on Dalmi and Injae’s relationship more. They lowkey hated each other then all of a sudden they’re cool and working together after three years? Nahhhh, they had some deep-rooted feelings towards each other. It would have been great to actually see how they went from enemies to friends again. Overall though, I enjoyed the drama. Loved the determination of the female characters and the relationship between the Samsan Tech employees. And of course Han Jipyeong and grandma 😭😭
Fr tho! These writers wanted to give Dalmi and Dosan a push that I actually felt its being shoved down our throat like naaahh they don't even have the chemistry at all and their relationship is pretty meh. I cant believe their kissing scenes was the driest part of this drama.
The relationship between this two sister is having really shallow ending, Dalmi talk about who's choice is right after their parents divorced all the time, but there is no emotional conversation about this two sister after 3year jump.
And the letter they brush it off so easily.
So many problematic plot holes in this drama
🙌🏾
Tbh, when they first showed Dalmi and Injae on ep1 I was kind of convinced that the story line would move between the two. Halfway, I was thinking that HJP might help Dalmi to reach her dreams just like how he helped her when she's down (whic he did BTW). If I'm being honest, I was more bitter to the fact that Injae wasn't shown more. Like why give me the idea?
And the fact that injae just know that her grandma getting her eyesight more worse after three freaking years???!! Like her mom lives there, her lil sis lives there like what????
I really forced myself to finish the drama because of HJP, but tbh I'm so mad, the poor dude started with no parents, no one, like super alone dude. And he ends up alone like, come on give the man some love, DM didn't even had the smallest feeling for him that's super unfair. Same goes for Injae. She grew so much and changed for her better self and homegirl has so little screen time??? And same as everyone, I wished they focused more on the start up, the first episodes were hella exciting
true ..
Maybe HJP and Injae should've been together..
@@avidlearner799 honestly i agree, injae was not a villain in this drama, she worked on herself and improved so much. also she was breathtakingly beautiful and a badass bitch. so i'm 100% with you on this one
@@ponykelly power couple 😌🔥
Same
In my mind the drama ended on that elevator scene where jipyeong saved dalmi from that guy, no words were said, but it was nice to see them smile at each other.
When majority complain about the same thing, it says alot.
true
preach!
True
Only team dosan are out there in the wild 🤣
I disagree with you, for me this means that most people still associate love with money, sadly😔
This is one of the kdramas that I wasn't excited for the kiss scene.
I felt like they were forced to do so lol
Agree with you on business side, writer gave misleading ideas to viewers on how business works, this is very dissappointing. Cant writer see what is happening now with pandemic? Did writer really thinks sailing without map is the answer to it?
I mean, even if you have plans, it wont go 100% as planned, thats a harsh truth about life. Imagine having no backup plan at all? -_-
For love story side, I was neutral on early episodes until (i forgot on which epi) Dosan said "I have nothing" to Jipyeong.
Dosan has 2 supportive parents, big family, 2 loyal bestfriends, a landed house, yet has the audacity to say "i have nothing" to an orphan who definitely has no one and worked his ass off since kid to finally owned a han river view apartment. This was the BIG RED FLAG to me. He is disregarding everyone for a girl.
His way of thinking annoyed me.
Sane human being will NEVER EVER works together or even worst to fall in love with Dosan's character in real life.
Conclusion, the purpose of this drama is misleading.
Agree!!
Goodness, I didn;t pick that up at that moment, and you are right. I do remember thinking "Jipyeoung had nothing, why doesn't he point that out?" I felt that Dosan was actually saying that whatever he appeared to have, in himself he had nothing - and most of us have felt like that at some points. Yes he had his tech ability, but even that felt like a fraud because he cheated when he was a kid, and even though he had confidence in his tech and coding, he had absolutely no ability to make it relevant in the real world.
Those lacks were perfectly real and perfectly crucial to why Samsan were failing - the only time Samsan had any hope was when they found a real-world person to find their direction and communicate for them.
Yes this one.. Teens dodal diehard fans will misleading it in future..it's feel like they didn't need mentor anymore..
Did i missed something but i think Dosan didnt know that Jipyeong is an orphan. And in your note Jipyeong always show off his belonging and put down Dosan for not having the same resources as him
say it louder! the writer could've plotted the storylines better than this if she insisted to keep DoDal the endgame like, the "proof" for those two romances could've be clearer, and should've focused more on businesses as that is the theme so that more outsiders could learn abt business too
Men who throw/destroy things ARE SCARY AF, THAT'S SUCH A BIG RED FLAG
🚩
🚩
🚩
Right I’d simply leave🚪👩🏾🦯
okay but fr
Technically, he didnt "throw" it. He smashed it onto the table and I would have done the same thing to a douch bag guy too. Idk why some asians just wants to let their heirchary culture make it seem okay for pple with status to talk down on other people like that. Yall wanna just shut your mouth and take in the shit when those people probably has done worat things then smash a stupid name board.
True haha, that doesn't even solve the problem but adds more problem. If he acts aggressive towards people he's pissed off with without thinking, who knows what he'll do when he's pissed off inside a marriage 🚩🚩 also it's not the only time he acts aggressive
start up’s pilot episode was probably one of the best kdrama pilot episodes i’ve ever seen and it made me hope that this drama would come even slightly close to the quality of its okay to not be okay (which for me is the best drama of 2020). we were introduced to such great complex characters and plots-jipyeong and grandmas relationship, jipyeong and dalmis memorable letter exchanges, and the story of two once-tightly-knit sisters turned rivals. most of these got thrown out in the second half of the story as if the writer forgot the whole essence of the plot and disregarded the things that made viewers connect with and love the characters. so much to say and complain about but my biggest issue is probably the poor representation of struggling youth in the business world which was apparently meant to be shown through the samsan tech team (dalmi, dosan, yongsan, chulsan, saha). to put short, they made impulsive decisions, were ungrateful to their mentor and everything was kinda just handed to them on a silver platter???? i simply could not root for them during their little triumph moments and i wasnt moved at all when they proved that they could succeed as a team. nothing they did felt earned.
also justice for injae because her character had SO MUCH POTENTIAL :( yet they gave her 3 secs screen time per episode and completely wasted a female character who couldve shown to be really empowering. same goes for dalmi bc all she did for the second half was blindly follow dosans immature business decisions which was definitely not the dalmi we knew earlier on.
Everything is so sudden including their triumphs
I have felt the same way with Itaewon Class. Had those shows went diffrently they would be in on my top 3.
@@John_Bourdakos I loved Itaewon class until probably the last two episodes.
@@jordangreene8125 Same untill ep 11 lol
literally the only good thing about this drama was han jipyeong I love kim seonho so much
I love him too
Me three! HJP!
And the grandmother - I kept bawling my eyes out whenever they were both on screen
I have never felt so happy with a review, it's so weird how Ji Pyeong was almost touted as the main lead in the beginning and we were basically slapped into seeing Do San as the main lead, OH MY GOD! Do San's character wasn't even as developed, all we knew about him was that he was a developer, that was literally all... He cried when things got hard and sulked till the end, Ji Pyeong on the other hand had to fend for himself, thankfully met an old woman who took him as a son and even then he had to leave her and build himself to the man we all fell in love with and still was able to separate his feelings for Dal Mi and his business with Samsan Tech. Honestly, Ji Pyeong deserved more than falling for a character deficit Dal Mi, no harm meant here to teal Dal Mi (If you guys actually exist).
The characters that made us cry, Ji Pyeong, Grandma and even In Jae, are the main characters for me and I'm sure many of you can agree.
In Jae even had her own chance to build herself from nothing, she left her step-fathers company and the comfort of his business to build a successful company, she had too few scenes and it was annoying.
Overall, I'll give the drama 5/10, only because of those 3 characters
EDIT: Who else skipped when the kiss scene started? It was so unwholesome and eye roll worthy.
I’m only at the mid of ep 7 and I’ve been skipping through dal mi and do san’s scenes cos there is zero chemistry. I’m really not looking forward to their kissing scene😩 why couldn’t KSH be the lead!?! I totally agree with you, what’s the point of a character build up for Jipyeong if they’re just gonna toss him aside like that
@@felicenobles We’ve all been there. Sadly, it’s gonna get worse as you go along. TMI: I cried for 2 days over Han Ji Pyeong after the finale. I felt so bad for his character that I’m leaving behind.
It was so cringey, I wish I had skipped it 😬
@@srushtib5321 good thing I skipped all the lovey dovey scenes of DM and DS. I really can't bear to watch those two with all those overly sweet scenes that might give me a toothache.
I'm at ep 13 and my god it's sooo dragging already. I literally skip DS and DM scenes 😑 because they're boring
it really pissed me off that after she found out about the letters they barely even talk about it, dosan never gave her space and after one episode she completely forget that their whole relationship was built out of lies??? he asked her to forget about what she thought she knew about him, to start to know the real him, but you can't forget what you feel, and the love she felt for him was mostly because she saw the boy of the letters in him, the boy she didn't see in jipyeong even after she found out. they (dalmi and jipyeong) never talked about it, even after 3 years "together" she still didn't see him as a love interest, as her first love, it all just felt kind of forced for me
90 percent of startup watchers is team han so, everyone will support this 🔥
y e s
Yes
YES! He deserves better!
Yes very true.HJP the best...
I'm team DoSan personally but JiPyeong was very loveable
This might be a different take but I didn’t really like the female lead character all that much. Because of that I just sort of felt like ji-pyeong was too good for her so I was ok that she didn’t end up with him. Lol
I actually started wanting him to end up with Injae because I felt that they matched better and Injae was way more mature and grew more than Dalmi's character.
@@sltslt24 me too.
@@sltslt24 why the heck didn’t they put them together? By the end of the show I was rooting for JiPyeong to end up with In Jae
Samedt
Thought the same 😄
A comment in a Cosmopolitan article said "Every girl would dream to a date a Nam Do San." And I'm like "Nope, not everyone." And even if that was true, then I'd probably date a Nam Do San for the experience but end up marrying a Han Ji Pyeong for his maturity and discipline. I'd also prefer Ji Pyeong's subtle yet sincere ways of caring than grand gestures that mask a guy's insecurities.
Moreover, most of fuck boy will act like do San in front of the girl they like. Do San is like the romantic Prince charming that every girl has dreamed of, while most of the good boy in real life will act like jipyeong or chulsan when they like someone. That's why in real life most of girl goes to a bad boy. Most of the girl want the boy who is romantic and show a lot of affection like do san, and this K drama feed that dream. That's the point
I agree with cosmopolitan, DO SAN is a catch. Such a great partner.
han ji pyeong did NOT get proper closure 😭 for some reason they just left him out; they didn’t add an actual closing scene of him having his own happy ending-by the end, he still went back to being by himself (with 할머니). the last scene when he comes in and walks with the sdm nds and sij? cool, but very vague-so to speak. ☹️ ep 1 and ep 2 were AMAZING but after that, there were too many plot holes.
Not only koreans are pissed, international fans are also pissed in the plot. So sad for Jipyeong😭😭😭
I will never understand how a guy like Nam Do San is a lead in kdrama. Childish, Unprofessional, leave his mom in the middle of the street at night, that's a major turn off
Everyone who came in the comments for DS had to admit they were NS fans in the 1st place when asked 😒
I am team dosan, but they couldn’t make his character get better, and I couldn’t find the reason why dalmi “loved him”either, in the last caps I was happy because I thought that dosan would forget about dalmi and focus on himself, but at the end they got together again (it was disappointing), I didn’t like that either. I think I like dosan because I used to be like him (insecure, shy, etc) I thought they were going to show us more personal growth, but no :/ Also Han jipyong’s character was good yeah of course, he wasn’t a cold, rude, jerk guy either, but, he just wasn’t a big thing for me, I’ve seen characters like him before with a harsh childhood blah blah... I was just curious of seen a different main lead in a drama, I thought they were going to use better dosan’s character, like showing us that you don’t have to have a harsh childhood to have problems and succeed . Anyway that’s my opinion and I’m sorry for my English.
By the way I think jipyong was better for dalmi, in MY opinion. I just like dosan’s character better, it doesn’t mean that he had to end up with dalmi.
@@anahirodriguez5899 i agree with you
I agree, except Do San's mum did tell him to let her out of the car XD
@@aaroncooke4882 How about leaving a drunk, barely conscious Dal Mi in the park in the middle of the night to go for a costume change? The man's a child and doesn't know how to look after women. JP would never have done that, if he knows she's by herself, he drives across the country to find that woman.
I’m actually glad HJP didn’t end up with SDM, he deserves so much better than a naive childish girl that falls blindly in love 🙄
OOP TEA
Yup!!! I agree!!!
This is why I don't take you guys seriously blaming women as always as if she's obligated to like your good boy oppar...if you like the arrogant asshole type so bad go get you a Jipyeong don't blame dalmi for having taste and high standards in men smh
@@zelladay531 “taste and standards in men”. Yes, women really like guys who have anger issues and have the maturity of an egg. You’ve really hit the nail on the head. Nam Dosan may be a genius at coding, but he is a huge walking red flag. The fact that he has to knit to “calm himself down”, smashes a nameplate without thinking of the consequences, and beats up his mentor all point to his extreme anger issues and impulsivity. In the future this kind of behaviour could have extreme consequences for both him and Dalmi.
@@twicestolemywig5107 ok Dr Phil what else do you wanna diagnose him with? Imagine acting like normal human emotions are red flags and shaming people for having ways to cope with them. I can't believe you really tried to villainize him for knitting...KNITTING OF ALL THINGS! I REALLY HAVE TO LAUGH. You people are clowns and honestly this is a reflection of how you treat others in real life so no wonder society is fucked... manifesting I never come across toxic ass ppl like you goodbye
Literally stopped watching the drama when I found out Han ji pyeong was wronged like this 🤡💔
Same i couldn't continue watching it even if i was in love with Han Ji Pyeong
Same!!!!
Right?! Ugh they did him so dirty 😩
Sameeeeeeeee!!!!!! They didn’t have to do that to him, made me so mad
Same! I'm up to ep 7 and realised I was only watching for Han Ji Pyeong...
I feel like someone just took my thoughts and expressed it to the world
For Me: Start Up was all about Han Ji Pyeong.
And their grand mother
I just don't understand the logic of giving Jipyeong a solid storyline if you're going to make him a punching bag at the end anyway. On the other hand, what the hell do we know about Nam Dosan?
Why did the writer think we'll root for him if we don't even know where he's coming from?
Also, the real reason this drama pulled me in was because of the storyline between the 2 sisters. It's so unfair that their story just got fast forwarded in the 3 years sequence.
I would personally rate this drama a 4.5/10.
The idea and the story is good. The actors hired to do the roles are good. But the execution is pathetic!
"I just don't understand the logic of giving Jipyeong a solid storyline"
because any person has a story that is worth telling, no matter if it is a romantic one? To me Jypeong is one of the winners in this plot.
"On the other hand, what the hell do we know about Nam Dosan?"
We learn quite a lot about him along the way. So your question confuses me.
If you refer to the first episodes, where Jipyeoung was introduced way before Dosan, I think it was a genious take by the drama creators. They played with the stereotypical drama construct and got one of the fiercest wars as to who the main lead is.
@@din-chan305 actually they have mentioned dosan past moment when his father found out that he was not the CEO of samsan tech
@@NoName-nl7hd can you remind me that moment, please?
@@din-chan305 I don't think it's genius because more often than not it backfires bad. For example, harry potter is one of the biggest story out there. This would be like introducing Harry as a character and them forcing Ron to be the main character. Execution needs to be perfect for this attempt to be good and in Start Up, the story telling and execution failed
@@159love159 you are entitled to your opinion.
When I watched the first episode Han Ji Pyeong made me *CRY* . In the first episode. That was one of the biggest mistakes, they made Ji Pyeong the MAJORITY of the first episode. I admit, I had a lot of hopes for this drama because the first episode was so emotional and good. I immediately felt for Han Ji Pyeong, but since I knew he wasn't the main character, I tried to be more accepting for Nam Do San. And I felt bad for his character. Because he was insecure, he was not confident of himself, he had hardships with his business, his dad wasn't being very supportive of him. If his insecurity and lack of confidence was shown better in the plot, and Dalmi helped him overcome that, I really would've like him better. However, I think they made him pity himself too much, without realistically solving his insecurity. Especially when he said *"I have nothing. You have everything"* to Ji Pyeong, and the fact that he (and Dalmi) never realized ever how much more he had compared to Ji Pyeong. Ji Pyeong was lonely his entire life (seen throughout all the cut scenes with him and Yeong Sil in his house; thank you Yeong Sil for keeping him company), and despite becoming successful *(BY HIMSELF BTW BY HIMSELF WHEN HE WAS A POOR ORPHAN--while Nam Do San complains about life being hard)* he was still lonely (thank goodness Dalmi's grandmother realized that and held onto him). Ji Pyeong was putting on a fake front, pretending he was successful and happy, as seen when he tells Do San the interview was fake, and he wasn't willing to lose his streak of being right with successful startups. Which was a bit harsh, but I think it's because he wasn't willing to lose his success because that's the only thing he has.
And I agree, in the latter half everything was so romanticized. I mean, Nam Do San was written as such a logical and unromantic person, not getting ANY jokes and not believing in ANY myths or sayings, but somehow in between he suddenly becomes this emotional, idealistic, hot tempered, love crazy guy and everything logical goes out the window. Which I might be able to get, but I actually don't cuz it wasn't written well in the plot. The plot should convince me why I should feel for this character, not the other way around. Dalmi as well, she was a complete romantic from the start. From rejecting all the guys with absurd reasons because of the letters (her grandmother REALLY should've told her from the start unless she wanted her to be single her entire life--without knowing Nam Do San existed that is), to her quarrel between her sister which I understand but was that really her ONLY reason for starting a business? Because she wanted to one up her sister and show how well she was living? A bit unrealistic. And then that part of the plot just gets forgotten because she joins In Jae's company and suddenly become besties. I liked In Jae more, tbh, while Dalmi and Do San were living in their own romantic dreamy world, In Jae also became independent like Ji Pyeong and built her business purely with her own skills. She also lacked love and affection, something she denied until her character growth at the end. When she asked her mom to support her too, when she picked up her grandmother's hat and left, when she hugged and cried with her grandmother; I felt all of that. Ji Pyeong and In Jae felt like real people, who struggled with righteousness, with lack of support, and becoming successful at the end. Dalmi and Do San didn't succeed because of their character development or anything, it felt more like luck and plot armor. "Disney drama" was such an accurate term honestly. Their characters were flat, and that was contrasted with Ji Pyeong and In Jae's HUGE character development and overcoming their hardships.
Not saying I hate their characters or the drama. I loved it, which is why I wished it could've been better. I AM happy for Do San and Dalmi, despite talking a bit harshly about them.
I'm this entire drama only Jipyeong, grandma and father were the only one who made me cry. The main leads never made me cry even once
Honestly, I tried to like Do San but unfortunately it was the lack of character development for me. He was the same person from episode 2-16. He's insecure and childish.
I totally agree!
And Han Ji Pyeong isn’t the same selfish and cold person from episode 1 to 16? Do San went from unconfident and living a lie with himself to accepting his math competition lie and applying himself as a confident computer engineer
@@ubermontity399 LOL, maybe you're naive dreamer, Ji Pyeong isn't cold at all, he's a mature guy who is a realist professional businessman whi say the harsh truth and negative constructive critisms! He may be harsh, he reflects on himself, he's so mature and realist
@@ubermontity399 Did you work or start a business who study marketing? I studied marketing, what said Ji pyeong is fact, truth and Dosan is an immature naive guy who didn't face the truth, negative critics, wants to do what he only wants, bet in business win by just luck = so unrealist, business doesn't work like this: Dosan is a naive immature dreamer from ep 1 to 16 and didn't grow, didn't change, didn't be more mature, didn't be more realist
@@ubermontity399 Totally agree with you.. At the beggining I was team HJP but then I was happy that Dosan stayed with Dalmi. I also notice what you just mentioned. And also I believe that being honest and critic is not the same as being an asshole. HJP was arrogant and selfish, even if in the inside he was a warm man with a harsh past. The way he treats others is not justifyed bcz of his past or bcz of the industry. I hate when people defend that type of behaviour, saying "that's how the world is", bcz yeah it is, and we do not need more people encouraging those things, we do not need more characters being like that. From beggining to end, Dosan changed for the better, and form beggining to end he was not an asshole like Jipyeong sometimes was. So yeah #TeamDosan
I fully agree, aside from since the beginning I am on Jipyeong side, when Dosan smash that name plate signals he have anger issues and it’s a red flag personally for me.. Also, as much as I wanted Jipyeong and Dalmi as endgame, it looks like Dalmi can’t even see how valuable and precious Jipyeong is, you don’t find a man like that just casually walking in the street so at the end I feel Jipyeong deserve better, someone who is better than Dalmi.
She doesn’t deserve him. This is my way of finding peace for Jipyeong:)
He actually did recognise his benefits, but HJP was written to be a bit aggressive at first ( I don't know if this was to drive NDS but it was too much). In the first episodes he basically idolises him but you could tell HJP didn't acknowledge that and that is where the friction starts.
@@vanesalusaria7860 hjp was rude but never aggressive...
@@vanesalusaria7860 Idk when did you see HJP being aggressive apart from when he was punched by DoSan and they fought physically, I don't remember him being aggressive. If your talking about the friction that started after him rejecting samsan tech, they basically asked JP to invest in them, if they do him the favor which in the later part of the drama, they started saying that they don't want his "charity" bcoz they had an opportunity with 2STO. I'd say JP wasn't the most polite when they asked him to invest but at the same not one thing he said was wrong. I'd say he isn't even rude, he's just straightforward which was necessary for samsan tech.
agree. i think the writer wants to show how much Dosan loves Dalmi by showing how Dosan went out of his character and got really mad when the stepfather insulted Dalmi but that just kinda wrong and absurd...
Honestly jipyeong is such a gentleman! I was honestly shocked to see that in a character. He was literally such husband material and communicated his feelings so well. One moment that sticked with me so much is when he kinda insinuate that him and dal mi were dating to nam do san. He calls up dal mi to let her know that he might have given nam do san the wrong impression. I JUST WANTED TO GET DOWN ON ONE KNEE FOR THIS PRINCE!!!!
The creepiest scene & biggest red flag for me about Do San was when he chased Dal Mi everywhere she went after she found out the truth about the letters. He was lurking behind objects and stuff & was sitting right behind her when she got drunk. That’s some major stalking behaviour..
Honestly it creeped me out
Hahahahaha🤣🤣🤣
ig this is a kdrama male lead trop, the same happened in true beauty
@@abdurrahim-gk8rm And the lead from TB did it for like three times, and those times they weren't even dating
Exactly, plus how he made us think he was caring for her by following her everywhere and then right after that he left her in a totally drunk state alone in a secluded area, just to show up again in a fucking suit ? It was sooo creepy and annoying.
I don't think I've ever agreed so passionately with a DKDKTV vid in my life
haha sameee
Same🙋
I really thought HJP was the main character until I saw the drama poster, I was so shocked and didn’t want to finish the drama ;_;
Me too! I was like-wait what?
I didn’t even bother finishing it, I only watched 4 episodes of this
My boyfriend who just started watching kdramas with me literally thought he was the lead the entire time we were watching. I had to break it to him that he won’t be getting the girl because he’s just the second lead. 😂😂
Tell me about it. I quit the drama too when I saw spoilers that Dosan won the girl. then after a few days I begged myself to finish it just to see more of Ji Pyeong. Everytime Dosan came on the screen i would fast forward. I have never been so angry at a drama before it was so funny. I was almost cursing at the kiss scenes rolling my eyes!
Thought I was the odd one for feeling the same, I feel you. can't believe I'm dropping a drama with so much potential like this one
@@thandim7148 yo! so I wasn't the only one that hated the cringy kiss scenes 💀😂? I was like wtf ewwww🤡😂😂
This is the first drama where I hate the main lead. passionately..
SAME
Same here!
absolutely true...the 1st ep was so-so...but from 2nd ep only I started hating the main lead...I am currently watching this drama....out of all the dramas I have watched this is literally the WORST🤮🤮🤮...and that 3 yrs gap does that make any sense...???🤮
I cant even accept nam do san until ep 14/15
I’ve always went for the main lead, but omg! I feel the same.
I skipped the last 3 episodes when dosan came back and Suzy just choose dosan immediately as soon as he came back. Nah im out.
Lol. Same here. I just come here to watch his review even he had warn us it's will be spoilers. But I don't feel like watching anymore
Same lol
i literally skipped whatever DoDal's scene in the last 2 ep, i don't see any chemistry between them hmm
incase you missed out, DM waited for JP for 15 years, yet DS took his chances that JP has wasted. cant blame it on DS and DM for waiting on each other. if DM could wait for her ‘first love’ for 15 years, why would she not wait for DS for 3 years. 🤷🏻♀️
Same. Stopped at episode 12. Just skipped to HJP scenes for the last 4 episodes
The fact is everyone in this world love Han Ji Pyeong and pissed off with writernim because she Disney fans 😂
You've said all the things that I wanted to say. For me Jipyeong is the main character of this drama. He deserves better than this. 😭 They even said it seems like a different writer wrote the second half of the drama. The letter plot got thrown out and it doesnt make any sense why Dalmi chose Dosan and the closure of the letters in episode 16 was just done in like 1minute with Dalmi's line "okay okay." with Jipyeong telling " i am not the nam dosan from the letters" thats the crappiest scene ever. The letter and memories were being robbed from Jipyeong even the osts thats supposed to be meant for him. I dont know whats the writer's thinking she could have just let the real namdosan wrote the letters if she wants him to be dalmi's endgame so bad.
everything that you said I agree with 100%.
Atleast Kim seon ho got the recognition he deserves after this drama...his character was the only thing that made me stay till the end of it.
I just hated how Nam dosan always seemed to make Han jipeong look like the bad guy not remembering that he himself came second in the whole thing. I have been stuck at ep10 because Nam dosan annoys the hell out of me.
Me too omg he made me hate the movie
I loved that dumb and nerd Dosan in first two or three episodes but then he got a confidence like out of blue and annoyed me sooo much!!!!
@@lululs4014 omg yesss that dumb dosan
Me too idk but I can't move on in that ep till now....
All i'm gonna say is: Saha & Chulsan was better pair😩
My first issue was Dal-Mi. She was badly written. She had no competence to be a CEO. The past showed that she was hardworking, she had some "ideas" but she just wanted to be a CEO to prove to her sister she did the right choice to stay with her father. But there wasn't a good or a bad choice, these young girls shouldn't have to choose between their parents in the first place...
Then, she became CEO and thanks to HJP she could do her job because she knew nothing. After the 3 years, I thought she will be better but no. The twins didn't respect her and betrayed her what they never dared with In-Jae. She had to be saved by Dol-San. For the letters, her reaction wasn't logical. She wasn't curious at all about the past when she invested all her life about it.
HJP was clearly the most interesting character. I didn't find him too hard. I mean the poor traines during Idol competition get worse comments by the coaches and they're young. The 3 San were 28 years old and HJP never criticized their coding but the start-up. But they acted like babies... The best relationship was clearly Grandma and HJP.
That pissed me off too. You don't just become a CEO or start a business because you're trying to prove to others, but because you genuinely have a business idea that you think is feasible and are passionate about. Her motivation and intentions are so skewed. This applies to Dosan as well: he always said yes to business decisions without considering the consequences to others (investors, employees, etc.) just to appease to Dalmi.
@@vtangg we can be a CEO too! We just need a genius coder and a genius businessman/investor to help us. Easy going!
Your words are the absolute truth 😂
@@pragnyachatterjee1999 Thank you 😊
YESS,!! i'm so glad someone finally mentioned idol trainees. I know it's a drama but TeamDS who defend DS saying HJP is "too rude" should watch those survival shows damn...
And may I also mention that nam do san didn’t apologise to han ji pyeong for beating him up, not even once. Smh
I’m still mad about that! Even YeongSan apologized to Jipyeong but Dosan? Nope, he acted like nothing ever happened. That made me despise his character even more.
He didn't even acknowledge him as one of the reasons why Noongil pushed through. Took all the credit when Halmeoni was thanking him in the last episode. 🔪🔪🔪
They both beat the shit out of each other, what do you mean? Lol they were in the both wrong.
@@kittyr7095 I think you forgot to watch the part of the episode where ds punches jp first out of nowhere. Now don't tell me that you'd just stand there quietly when someone comes and assaults you.
@@RT-se3ik I don’t really agree with violence as any solution but it’s not unusual unfortunately for guys to use their fists to sort things out (not excusing it but we know it to be true unfortunately, so it was no shocker). He did throw the first punch yes. Even though I don’t agree with how he was trying to get through to HJP, to me it’s clear to see he imploded with frustration at that point. HJP was consistently putting the business down, he wasn’t being considerate with his words (yes he is a professional as we know, it’s what he does best and he was right with his advise but sometimes, it’s not always about profit and ‘business is business’), in that moment *given the circumstances*, he didn’t need to be so cut-throat and harsh, as it was all for Dalmi’s Grandmother not for success or profit. Which is why Dosan lashed out because he couldn’t give a fuck about the profit, it was about helping people who need it (including Dalmi’s grandmother) as naive as that may seem to some. HJP was failing to see what they were trying to do, which is why Dosan ended up also telling him in that moment, that Dalmi’s grandmother was unfortunately going blind and that it was actually for her (as unfortunately this was the only way to bring him on board with what they were doing). Thankfully HJP changed his attitude in supporting their business idea after that. They had both been wanting to punch each-other in the face for a long time upon til that point lol let’s not act like that’s not true, come on now 😂 it was building up.
the only good thing about the second half of the drama is han ji pyeong tbh
One of the main reasons I was hooked until the end was because I was waiting for something good to happen to Ji-pyeong. It never came, and I just felt bad the whole time. He deserved so much better.
Yes finally someone agrees that HJP should've been the one 😩😩
I think 90% of people agree that he should be the one. Everywhere I looked, most people supported him.
@@nisreen1982 ikr
@@nisreen1982 Not me, he was a little annoying. Nam Joo Hyuk just got a badly written part, be waiting for his next drama especially Suzy love her.
@@kiak2971 I liked him since the bride of the water god. I think people were annoyed with the character not him as a person. Ya, the writing was problematic.
all i see team hjp is everywere
David, why are you putting salt in my wounds!!! I don’t think I’ll ever get over Ji Pyeong, 100% best boy. I wish they made a spinoff of him.
Honestly, if I were an investor, I would be very hesitant to invest money in a business where the CEO and head developer are dating. HJP tried to give very good advice against that as well as advice for splitting the shares wisely.
Dal Mi made the wrong call with those. Yet another example of the "Disney" plot for start-ups.
I'm watching this kdrama ONLY to support Han Jipyeong. How do you do someone so dirty, I can't even comprehend- 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺
I feel the same! The writer made it seem like jipyeong is the lead since episode 1 and the plot literally is about the letters as well. I love the drama overall and the actors did an amazing job but it somehow felt rushed? also dalmi’s character is annoying af. She’s insensitive to jipyeong’s feelings. The writer made jipyeong an emotional punching bag in the story. Sorry but this is just how I feel.
I am also team Han hi pyeong, but dal mi was not insensitive, once she straight up mentioned if he had feelings for her, he denied it at that point. There were a lot of chances he could have told her. The reason I am stressing this so much because real life works in that way, if you miss your chance you do, quite often I have turned out to be second lead in real life, because I said things too late or never said it even though we had history or chemistry. It's unfair if you know that person's feelings first hand, but to Dalmi, she didn't know the behind the scenes. Even in the last scenes , once he says he is going to be petty for a while, she leaves him. Even in the car she tries not to talk about Nam do San till he urges her to say it. Even though I think Han hi pyeong could be a better boyfriend, but timing made her end up with an okay boyfriend. If she related the letters to him sooner she might have ended up with ji pyeong, but by then her feelings had shifted, nam do San had become someone she could touch and feel. Whereas jipyeong even though way way way better, was not in her vision.
More than insensitive her character didn't even look like a main character like she was cool in the first 3 4 episodes but than her character became boring.
@@jix5281 This I agree with, it's bad characterization on the writer's part
@@tej4975 this is why the writing is so questionable, dalmi were obsessed with those letters but after she found out, she curious who is in her heart but never ask anything about THOSE letters but straight up put indirect kiss on dosan’s cheek after few days? & in ep13 Jipyeong said he always put efforts in everything he do, concede when if it not meant to be, but nothing has happened in those 3 years? anything could happened in that long period but writer didnt show it, jipyeong & dalmi relationship seems like a 3 months theyre formal with each other despite the fact jipyeong always coming to their house
The writer wrote an illogical love story. Those letters meant the world to Dal Mi and even though JiPyeong wrote it under a pseudonym, he did write really thoughtful words, and JiPyeong and Dalmi really clicked during the Go Stop session. The three years that JiPyeong spent with Dalmi ought to have counted for something. JiPyeong wouldn't have let his chances go with Dalmi. He would have made a move on her.
for me, Kim Seon Ho is the main lead of the drama. Suzy and NJH are like the second lead actors because of scenario. I think HJP's character made shadow the others. Jipyeong's character is well written and well developed. as a result, even he did not get the girl, with this drama Kim Seon Ho had big popularity that he deserves. finally. I am happy for him.
Me too
Yeahhh aside from being the 2nd leading man, they tried to portray HJP as a villain even if he wasn’t and just genuinely supporting and mentoring them. They started the loveline with the letters but in the end it was put into waste, like the change of heart is not realistic lol
I liked Seonho because of 2D1N, and I’m happy that he’s being recognized more because of Start-up. His ig followers I think doubled now and his members are teasing him because he’s all over the sns. He’s been acting for more than 10 yrs but I think this role became the turning point of his career, so happy for him. I’m looking forward for his next drama.
YES LOL, the writer didn't like realist businessman, make him as "the villain" by saying the truth and negative critics LOL and they made those naive dreamers "the hero" to inspire young people in a wrong way to live just in a dream world, not face the truth, reality and win by luck? LOL so unrealist
@@justjane7504 he has been doing dramas only for 3 yrs and he rose the popularity ladder pretty fast and he is super talented...
he was a theater actor before and never tried to do dramas until 3yrs ago... seeing how easily he got into getting main leads from his 2nd drama itself i dont think he had to struggle much... maybe korean casting directors and producers already knew how good he was since he already had a very successful theater career... his plays used to get sold out easily even before he started doing dramas..
@@vp98215 yup!!! director of start up said he casted kim seonho cuz he knows how good he is in theater!
@@vp98215 just some correction, Seon Ho had a supporting role in Chief Kim (because a theater critic recommended him and he succeeded in his 1st audition), leading him to his 2nd drama playing a 2nd male lead in Strongest Deliveryman. And then in the same year he played a 2nd lead again in Two Cops. In 2018, he had 2 dramas which he was the lead were Waikiki 2 (which had many leads 😅) and You drive me crazy (a 4-eps mini-drama). Not until 2019 did Seon Ho got his actual 1st leading role in a proper drama (Catch The Ghost). Also not to mention some cameo roles offered by directors and producers he used to work with. So i think it's not quite easy 😅 it's just Start Up boosts his popularity to a more wider extent.
However, indeed before that Seon Ho is truly a star in the theater world. He is called "theater idol" for a reason knowing how talented he is and his personality too. Acting made him overcome his trauma, so seeing his success now makes me feel really happy for him.
I can watch this review a million times.. its so satisfying to hear someone well-known speak my mind out with no bias. Thank you, David. It's like you've given a proper closure to the drama. :)
People who loved nam do san just need to raise their standards!
You wouldn't want a guy who's so damn insecure, abusive, childish and two-faced
Team NDS has their fetish fantasy of BIG HAND 😂
@@mikoxmas6122 😂😂😂
Like him cause he cute thats all😁
I loved him! I really disliked mr Han for other reasons but didnt think he was abusive or childish. He was just awkward cause it was his first time being in love and dalmi was casual enough to accept that.
@@---sm6ve he was insecure of hjp till the very last episode when it was clear as day that sdm liked him
I think this situation exemplifies a big issue with writers today: they force relationships where they don't belong, ignore/don't explore hardship or character growth, and they make main characters assholes. The fact that the writer couldn't come up with a reason for the couple to end up together is a big signifier that they shouldn't be together.
Nam Do san was an L to me from the beginning till the end, I literally skipped every part where he appeared with Dal mi. If it wasn't for Ji Pyeong I would have never continued watching the drama. He really saved this show tbh
Haha same here.
Me too!
totally agree!! also his assistant, i don’t remember his name sorry but his character was really entertaining
@@satomiandrea2046 park deongcheon!!! 😂
@@alyssajohan5167 thanks!!!😂
honestly, Han Jipyeong was the only sensible and likeable character in the entire drama.
FACTS
it's a big problem how this drama romantiscm violence. they make it as if something attractive the way Dalmi kiss Dosan after throwing things
I was shocked, i thought dm was going to scold him for the reckless thing he did but was shocked when she kissed him. Like i get it that writer trying to show how much ds cares for dm but what ds did, that is not it. Using violence as a way to show love and support to your partner seriously is not it, in real life both could have been in big trouble but no people are fantasizing violence as a token of love.
@@sonamsherpa3829 the writer wanna make violence as something hot and looks masculine. oh my God the toxicity she's teaching to the viewers. she gonna make the immature naive viewer to tolerate abuser in their real life coz of this
Violence lmaooo ge literally threw a name plate you're acting like he murdered someone dramatic af please your good boy actually caused someone's suicide now go be mad at him for actual violence
@@zelladay531 there's no law that says what HJP did was a crime and can make him goes to jail because all he did was telling facts of how that person carelesness could caused other people having great loss. if HJP didn't said it, the other mentor would said it already. while 2 violent act that dosan did was indeed against law and could make him go to jail, but thanks to HJP he didn't end up in jail
By the rooftop scene, it was clear that she felt uncomfortable with what the CEO was saying to her as he was trying to make the conversation personal rather than about business and he just burst because he didn’t want her to be even more emotionally hurt, which is why the kiss was so meaningful that they would always have their best interests in their hearts
I just wanna say this: I was team Han Ji Pyeong from the first second. Why would anyone choose someone else?
Literally screamed and walked out of my mom's room cuz Dosan was just so frustrating. Jipyeong was basically used and i dont think anyone was truly grateful towards what he did besides grandma
omg SAMEE,,!! i even got up of my bed and pause for a while cause i couldn't contain my anger when DS punched HJP 😆
dalmi and dosan as characters felt very blank in a sense, maybe so that viewers could visualize themselves in a main role, which a lot of media does tbh inserting yourself into a story is something everyone does. however, this time it just didn't work because the side characters were so well characterized that the two main leads just ended being dragged around by the plot in a sense instead of asserting their role in the plot
This
I agree
Yes: Dalmi and Dosan are like naive teenager and naive young viewers can identify to them BUT Dalmi and Dosan didn't grow, win in business by luck = inspire young people in a wrong way to live in a dream world, not face reality!
Yeah honestly I felt like they shouldn’t have been bland because of their backgrounds and deeply rooted personal struggles, but they ended up being SO shallow. It felt like their characterizations and inner struggles were just conveniently solved by their love for each other...
initially i liked them but as the story goes on, they became hard to root for.
i just wanna say that Dosan is one hella privileges & lucky guy! from the start he got lovely family, business & office paid by parents, supportive & loyal friends, catfishing a really pretty girl & get her at the end, genius coding, hired by global company 2STO, 2 assault for abusive behavior but got no sequences AT ALL, super duper lucky to get an experience mentor who’ll save your ass everytime!! sail off without map business? NAILED IT! while jipyeong at end??? literally a punch bag 😂😂😂😂
NAILED IT 😂😂
And whats wrong with that lol
😂 that’s so true!! 😂 I also wanna say that I love your cover! I love hospital playlist, and I love how they ended up together 😍
@@roro19966 The only graceful thing about JP was his final admission that he was a loser.The woman was never into him.
@@roro19966 I don’t think Nam Do San was that privileged, I mean of course he was in some way but I feel like a lot of people can sympathize with his situation, especially the aimed audience which is teenagers these days. He still had his own hardships like his parents pressuring him to be successful and the pride of the family, it’s something really common a lot of us go through. If we are talking about realism here his story is the one more realistic for viewers, I feel like in dramas they always make the main character’s background so tough and complicated, for example itaewon class, that it makes us feel bad that we are sitting here with a roof over our heads watching a drama lol. Success stories like Han Ji Pyeong’s come after a lot of work and people like that don’t have a lot of time on their hands to waste on these “Disney” dramas. I really liked the way he developed a closer relationship with his parents and the sentence “Let’s not be pride and joy to each but father and son” hit home for me personally, it describes beautifully how toxic that pushing-your-kids-towards-success policy is. Just because he is more privileged he shouldn’t be looked down upon, he is not in charge of his background but he is of his actions and that’s what I feel like this whole series tried to tell us. I think for the first time I didn’t feel bad for coming from a very great home that has it’s own rough edges thanks to his character.
even I felt bad for Han ji pyeong. A successful invester, investing all his time , money & advice into a group of newbies. only if such SAINT really existed in business world. he went over the board showing off his gratitude towards dal mi's family.
My Mom's been watching it on Netflix everynight and she's team HJP all along I actually dropped the drama halfway since it's too obvious that she would end up with Dosan (Got the Feeling) so I just let my Mom watch it alone and I ended up just watching anime in my room.
Let's just say she's very disappointed 'bout the ending and literally complained to ME! And I was like what did I do? (Its not like I'm the writer or anything) I just said 'I told you so' to her HAHAHAHA
your mom's cute haha its reverse in my case I complain to my mom every time smtg like this happens lol seeing the other way is so cute .
@@btscafeforlife5095 Hahahahahhahaha Ikr she's more addict to kdrama than I am Hahahahahhaha My Mom needs Kromance
Your mom such a warrior to watch the drama till the end, i just can't finish 2 last eps, skip all the scene except for Han Jipyeong and halmoni.
OmaiGod. Your mom so cutee heehee
Cute! Literally I have a similar experience as you...my mom, sister, and I love kdramas and I told my mom about startup when it was first released. I really fell in love with it and she liked it too then...well she came down with second lead syndrome and I stayed on team Dosan. We've had discussions on who is the better fit for dalmi ofc like a debate. We are almost done with it (we watch it separately our own times ) but she has already said that she already knows that the girl would end up with dosan because they kissed and shes only finishing the drama because of HJP lol.
Also, I love anime too! any recommendations on animes that I should watch?
Are our standards seriously so low. I mean Nam Do San was so basic, so flat, so unappealing, so boring. And Dalmi chose that over Ji Pyeong. In what world is this acceptable??
They say we always falls for someone who's not our ideal.
Dosan character development is so lame. He is cute at first when he was dorky and forever single, but he starting to want what Jipyeong have and became so childish, reckless and greedy.
it's the lack of character development for me💅🏻
@@defunyzm Oh exactly at first his character was cute but then he started talking back to Jipyeong and becoming ungrateful towards Jipyeong. It pissed me off so much!
@@lululs4014 i never hate the male lead character as much as i hate nam dosan 😅 Nam Joo hyuk acting is good tho too bad the writer choose the wrong path. 🙄
I can relate only to Jipyeong emotion like everytime he cried i cried 😭
Kim Seonho as Han Jipyeong, best thing that happened this 2020. His charisma and superb acting skills really outshone everyone! This is his time 🥰
I was hoping that after 3 years Dalmi will eventually choose Jipyeong.
even if it was like an extraordinary you situation at least we would get to see that dynamic
HJP didn't deserve the girl. He also admitted it himself.
@@mariamkushy6683 of course that answers were writer’s faster way of making jipyeong’s a loser
same!! stopped watching the whole drama after i finished episode 13 just becuase of that, now im sad and mad
she didn't even considered him as a love interest in the first place
the writer/director literally made Han Jipyeong THAT much more likable than that large-handed sadboi so what are team dosan actually being mad about 🤧
Not just korean girls any girl who watched this show is now in love with kim seon ho
Was looking forward to the new episodes each week on Netflix, but by the end I was skipping through large parts of the episodes because I found them too cringey and unrealistic. You hit the nail on the head with the beginning being all about ji-pyeong, but then expecting the audience to discard him for a new character that had no relation to the actual reason for the show, the letters between dalmi and jipyeong. Such a let down, I couldn’t believe the last episode I thought there was gonna be more it was so rushed and unrealistic.
I can't ever say I've watched a KDrama that is particularly realistic tbh 😂, but I do know exactly what you mean and I agree. I watch them in part because they are NOT that realistic and I need to escape! But this one failed to meet its potential, sadly
Last few episodes i just skipped through it to see where Han Ji Pyeong story arc ended. They really did him so dirty.
"It's a kdrama anyway... What do I expect?"
This just cracks me up. Same dude. Same. We're just expecting too much, aren't we?
Thank you for this - David. After years in the film and TV industry I decided to check what's the hype of Korean Dramas. I tried to watch a couple of the shows produced in the last year, but could not keep my attention beyond the first episodes. With Start Up it was different - I was hooked since the beginning and loved how refreshing and plausible (most of) everything was. I finally got the hype of these shows! But then by the middle of second act (9th/10th episode) everything went downhill. The storyline, characters arc stopped making any sense! I was so invested (and frustrated) I spent hours trying to rationalize the screenwriters choices. I finally accepted she dropped the ball on this one. And to avoid being angry I gave up on the show and didn't watch the last episodes. My own Korean Drama saga goes on - and hopefully will have a better conclusion than this show.
Good luck!!!
@@poroporo1291 Thank you!
@Hey what's up , danger I'll check your suggestions - thank you so much!
I always recommend this one, but I love reply 1988
I agree with the person who recommended Hospital Playlist.
Hospital Playlist, Familiar Wife, Good Doctor, and Tomorrow with You are a few of my favorite K-dramas with good plots.
From the beginning, we already know who's going to end up with Dalmi but they just didn't do it right. I couldn't finish this drama because it just didn't make sense anymore. I was raving about it so much, it started out so good then it ended up the way it did. So disappointing. My first problem was they didn't even show the resolution to Dalmi and Injae's conflict, they just suddenly became close again. That would have been a great tear-jerker, them talking about their father and teaming up against the step-dad in a big way. Secondly, there was no heart to heart conversation between Jipyeong and Dalmi, even if she realized she didn't really love him, she still should have had strong feelings and a deeper conversation with him would have helped ease the blow on Jipyeong's character. Lastly, Dalmi and Dosan's characters were so shallow, no depth to them at all, just reckless little kids. I guess they belong together, they need a lot of maturing to do.
This drama was a huge success in Thailand too. It was trending on Twitter every weekend when the show was still on air while also taking No. 1 spot on Netflix ranking for the past months. Local news outlet wrote articles about the series coupled with business aspects to it. Kim Seon Ho has gained tons of new fans here including myself. I'm glad that he got the fame and recognition as what he deserves it.
And it was a really great rant you had here, David. I watched the whole thing in one sitting and kept nodding to what you said the entire time. I really liked the writer's previous work in While You Were Sleeping. She has that style by making multiple scenes where a main character having an emotional connection with an elderly character which I really adore. Because it is not overly done or cringy. Jipyeong's interactions with Halamoni were actually the highlight of the series for me. Without them, this drama is just a typical business/romantic comedy drama you can watch elsewhere. Unfortunately, Samsan Tech guys are written off as immature and unlikable characters making it hard for me to root for them. They were funny in the beginning. But they did Jipyeong dirty and kept making him their emotional punching bag. I can't stress enough how Jipyeong remains professional through and through. Jipyeong really hard carried the show!
It's the accuracy for me , duuude you literally spoke my mind , was thinking the same way through but I couldn't put it all into actual words thank you for this .
"Thank god this is a Disney drama" 😂😂
it’s the fact that everything almost revolves around han ji pyeong. the drama started with him, all major supporting characters were connected to him. EVERYTHING!! ALL OF THAT YET HE STILL WASN’T FIRST LEAD? dude no.
We should stop romanticizing this kind of toxic relationship. Being abusive and violent is not sexy, it’s scary af. I’m thinking about all the teenagers watching K-dramas (mostly young girls) who now mention Do-san as their ideal type. K-dramas writers have a responsibility towards their young public.
Totally agree! A dangerous message for naive girls! Naive teenager girl will fall in love with a naive and immature guy like Dosan but Dalmi isn't a teenager anymore but acts like a naive teenager girl with NO self-confidence, it proove if you didn't have self-confidence, you will be influenced by too toxic guy
Agreed! Although Do San was not abusive toward Dalmi, he was borderline obsessive. His happiness was dependent on her and his infatuation with her was baseless? I don’t understand why he clung onto her so hard... Maybe he was in love with the idea of how she perceived so highly of him, because he was so insecure. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm. Both characters lost a lot of their charm towards the end of the series, and they deserved each other.
Agree,its scary😂
and i still can't believe some of them thinks dosan is a relatable character and they can relate to him like?!?!? you can relate to a manipulative sad boi who would do anything for her to the point beating up your OWN mentor just because he make your girl sad??
My thoughts exactly. Romanticizing toxic behaviour for the sake of a plot will inevitably mislead ALOT of people. Although I also think it's partly their fault if they can't see through it. 🤔
The drama started off really interesting but as the show progressed, it become more draggy in a sense because they were so focused on the whole love triangle thing rather than the start-up. Furthermore, i absolutely despise Nam Do San’s character simply because one, there was no character development whatsoever and two, he’s so childish and insecure. He gets super jealous and selfish whenever it comes to DM it’s so annoying.
I hated how the show started with Jipyeong and the whole story about the letters and the grandma only to bring in NDS at the end of ep1. HJP on the other hand, his character is just so likeable yet tragic at the same time. He was so willing to sacrifice everything he had for her happiness.
I also disliked how the writer put little to no effort in SDM and HJP connections with the letters. Especially after she found out that JP was the one who actually wrote the letters, they didn’t talk about it or emphasise anything about it other than the part where he confessed to her. Seeing how the letters meant so much to DM and played a huge role in the plot, i’m surprised it was rarely talked about especially after DM claimed the person behind the letter was her “first love” and compared every guy she has ever been with to it. But when it was revealed that JP wrote them, she did not even consider him as a potential LI.
Exactly, the Samsamtech members have absolutely no idea how to start a business and when something goes wrong they go to JP for help but gets offended when he tells them the truth. HJP has been nothing but helpful, caring and the only person who’s doing shit in the show. I’m sorry but it’s true. And i’m relieved to see i’m not the only person who feels this way. Team Jipyeong all the way 😤
The actors and the character portrayals were fantastic but the plot was just eh. Overall a decent drama, but it’s not a drama where i’ll rewatch.
I definitely agree that the letter plot was just kind of discarded which made like half the plot of the drama useless, but HJP was not just "nothing but helpful" through the whole drama. YES it's his job to tell people the truth, but there is literally no need to do it so harshly and Do San proved him wrong most of the time, but HJP just keeps being unnecessarily mean to him. Do San proved himself by winning the CODA competition when HJP doubted his skills, he got into sandbox all by himself, and near the ending too HJP advises Dalmi not to go ahead with the bid but Do sAn says she should, and they end up winning. But as you said HJP did help them out a bit, but their success is not solely thanks to him, and Dalmi probably never saw him as a love interest because from the start he was just a mentor to them, and after learning that the letters are fake it doesn't matter who wrote them. I never really saw any chemistry between them, she was always awkward around him but honestly even tho i'm team do san i hated how dal mi didn't properly "reject" hjp and say smthg like "thanks for being my first love," it might have eased the backlash a bit.
I hope you don't think im trying to start an argument, i can't use emojis on my computer so everything i write comes off borderline passive aggressive sorry :((
*I’m surprised you didn’t mention Do SAN’s crying every five seconds. So unattractive after the tenth time. It wasn’t even that deep 😂*
Yes this was a fool who didnt understand people relationships emotions or even metaphors yet the writer has him 1/2 romance philosopher crying and pretending he can grasp what sailing off without a map even means. Its some of the worst script writing in history.
Ikr!!! 😂😂😂 and he didn’t mention how Dosan came back after 3sec from USA !!!🤣🤣
@@michaelskeels4442 true
I loved the first few episodes, but once it was clear she would end up with Dosan I stopped watching. I just couldn't find a reason why she would have fallen for him?? and I whish they'd have focused more on the start up, that kinda got me hooked in the first place
I sincerely thank you, David, for making this video:
I'm learning to write plots these days, so my analysis to the plot was really close to yours, especially:
1. how the entire 1st episode was dedicated to HJP's past, which got most viewers attached to him
2. how the writer seemed to have forgotten what NDS's character was like in the beginning: rational, logical, nerdy, cute
and yes, ppl change with love, but not their core and inner characteristics - that's just too unrealistic
3. how the sister and other side characters had so much potential, but they were thrown away
tbh I was excited about the sister's character as a good and experienced rival, but her appearances kept diminishing esp in the latter half
3. I'm not surprised that the scene "because it's you" became a meme in Korea. it was really hard watching that cuz of all the cringe and the eye rolling. it's hard to take the actors/actresses seriously when it's super cringe-y and Disney-like in an otherwise realistic situation. The writer was aiming for a realistic drama (based on startups, business facts, etc) so all the more reason that the audience didn't like the unrealistic romantic plot. Actually, the drama started with romance as a subplot but at some point it broke the main plot forcing the romance to be the main.
4. I ABSOLUTELY agree about HJP being a professional and sincere advisor and that it did not make the LEAST sense that they were all super illogic, emotional, and just overall unrealistic, and hesitating cuz of weird misunderstandings (brother killer? wth?? that part seemed too forced, like it was an attempt to make some kind of a backstory for the character, but that failed miserably)
5. NDS throwing/breaking/punching was an absolute turn off for me. When he broke that name plate, it was supposed to be "romantic" (??) but I found that absolutely useless. He could've totally made a point withOUT using violence. Also, when he punched HJP and then asked for help, it was the last straw for me. I really tried to like the character, but no, too selfish and unreasonable, and thinks violence is the answer. It's sad to say that cuz I really like the actor himself.
Suggestion: from a writing pov, if the writer really wanted to make the story better, it would go like this:
the backstory we've seen at the beginning to be NDS's, and then he would use HJP's name for the letters.
but then NDS would not be successful and looks for HJP to pretend to be successful
--> that will get us attached to NDS and appreciate his love and struggles to please Dalmi, instead of feeling like he cut in the line and got handed her on a golden plate.
BONUS: I absolutely loved Yoo Jingoo's cameo appearance! I rewatched that scene later, just cuz it was a nice "development" point for HJP and ofc I'm a fan of YJG
Or han ji pyeong could have been the main character.
Great review. I don’t like how Nam Do San never felt the consequences of his violent actions. Don’t forget that he also charged at his friend when they found out Dal-Mi was going to be CEO. Glorifying a violent, insecure, petty character was not a good look for this writer.
I liked the pairing of Dal-Mi and Do-San but definitely agree that their characters lacked substance and growth. Ji-Pyeong was definitely more of the main character
I don’t think Dalmi was ever in love with Dosan (from the letters), but rather the idea of him.
The reason she gave for loving Dosan was disappointing. It was definitely a missed opportunity on the writer’s part.
Yes because Dalmi is like a naive teenager who has no experience in love, idealize love, fall in love fast because he's handsome, has only big hand = so naive, dumb and blind girl who ends with a naive immature guy like her, that's the truth, we didn't hate with no reason
@@newjeansfan238 👏👏👏👏
Yeah, but think about it, if she gave anything else for an answer it would be problematic too. I guess the message they were trying to send is how both NDS and SDM finally finds love in being able to be themselves to each other after many months/years of hurting one another by projecting their identity issues on one another (NDS treating SDM as manic pixie dram girl / SDM treating him as letter version NDS). But it fell really flat since the premise was NDS’ inferiority to HJP, it felt like their love bred out of mere insecurities
yeahhh...It was all in her head.
I think the writers didn’t really convey the reason why Dalmi would choose Dosan? They really needed to make it clear especially for the JP fans.
Other than Jipyeong, all the characters were bland af. And I feel like the whole history between grandma, Jipyeong, and Dalmi was just ignored later on. Like why did the grandma not encourage Jipyeong and Dalmi's relationship, she clearly likes Jipyeong and has a long history with him right? She tells him not to be lonely towards the end but how the heck is he not going to be lonely when Dalmi turns away from him? The writing really sucked towards the last several episodes.
And now nam do san , dalmi and grandma would go on trips together and leave ji pyeong alone . Even if he doesn't have dalmi cause dalmi doesn't deserve him . He should at least have halmoni . But nope.
Totally agree with you, the story at the end made no sense, a disaster.
I'd have to disagree and say that I loved In Jae's character too.