SAYING GOODBYE TO START UP-FATE, DREAMS, AND LOVE STORIES
I thought I wouldn’t get to say this, but I finally had a new Kdrama that took up my attention and heart. And it was a surprise. When it comes to this show, I’m familiar with the works of Park Hye Ryun; Dream high was one of my first Kdramas to dive into, and I loved it, didn’t particularly enjoy Pinocchio and was obsessed with the scriptwriting of Why you were sleeping before I got bored of it as well. I absolutely adored the drama with I can hear your voice. These are unpopular opinions. Obviously, this woman is known as a great experienced writer with a lot of hits on her portfolio, and I think Start-Up made me finally get why:’
Ratings: Plot: 8.5/10 Directing: 8.5/10 Acting: 8.5/10 Satisfaction: 9/10 Overall: A Rewatch factor: 8.5/10
3D Characters and Their Journeys
From Episode 1, I was hooked into it emotionally; I had already found my self connecting to all the characters, their dynamics, their flaws, their story arcs. I was excited at the thought of Cyrano de Bergerac being used as a base for a love triangle, and this show focusing on a love story between the characters Christain (Dosan’s base) and Roxane (Dalmi’s base). Normally the new modern takes on this story gives Cyrano the girl because he’s the one who knows her deeply and truly. But this drama swerved on that; instead, it made me fall for Han Ji Pyeong as Cyrano, he had the qualities in the first episode, he was the one who wrote Dalmi the letters that got her out of depression, he was the one who was close to her family, and he was a bit jaded, not trusting, and had a harsh upbringing but it made me root for him and care for him so much.
I didn’t understand how Dosan would be better; I was very intrigued by where the story was going. But it’s not just the love triangle that caught me with this show; it’s the title, actually two of its titles;
We have Startup basically a business term for companies that are starting up with dreams of becoming massive; that’s intriguing you have entrepreneurship, inspirational ideas, inventions, innovations in the world of business, that’s really great cause I like watching how businesses grow and how people discover or make their dreams a reality. So I already felt connected and ready to feel inspired by a drama like this. Our characters all start broken, down on their luck, mocked and seen as nobodies and failures. They have to start all over again.
The second title is even more intriguing; Sandbox the actual place where they start up their companies, the place where our characters are destined to go and learn and grow; for me, the idea of Sandbox is already interesting it ties back to our main character her family, her father’s aspirations to find a way for entrepreneurs to be safe and survive through the obstacles, like falling soft sand when they fall,a safe space to land, it was his inspiration and her dreams. It’s a place of learning, the place where she’s going to grow and become who she’s meant to be. And for me, I found it so interesting and I wanted to see how she fulfilled her purpose of being the girl who inspired Sandbox.
And how the other characters found theirs as well. And this show did not fail me with that expectation; it left me so hungry to know, so desperate to discover, and just so intrigued about my self. Not only was the show focused on the business aspect of things, but it made a deal of focusing on our self-doubts, hates, and worries, all the obstacles that life throws at us; that make us feel small and make us feel like our dreams and wants are impossible.
We see Dosan someone who is incredibly genius and honestly amazing with his talent, but he has no self-love or trust or experience in how to be the person he should be. And we see how Fate/Destiny keeps moving him forward through the ups and the downs to get to where he’s meant to be, to be the person he’s meant to be, and to find the girl he’s meant to be with. She had already held and waited for him in her heart, and he showed up becoming her dream as she was his.
That’s the basis of the romance in this show, and I loved it. Because both our main characters are equal to each other, we watch the writers show us through subtext, hints, clues, plots why they should be together, why they fit, why they need each other, why they inspire each other, they were so made for each other it made my heart soft, but also it wasn’t just for romantic purposes, they also were each other’s partners from day one in this start-up environment they were thrown into.They found each other, in this harsh world that felt cruel, and impossible to them, they helped each other grow, find their voice, their dreams, their goals, and they found it with each other. So, of course, it made me bawl like a baby seeing Dalmi and Dosan hold hands at the end of this episode as CEOS of their now big company named after her father, who inspired her the whole time.
FAMILY; DESTINIES AND LEGACIES
This drama also delved deeply into family, again Sandbox is inspired by Dalmi’s father’s last wishes, and the first episode shows you, family is important; we see the break down of the Seo family, the break down of unity, happiness and dreams they had for each other as they all end up being separated because of different mindsets on what is more important. Money or Dreams.
This brings me to another character, the sister Injae, just as much as Dalmi is the main of this show fulfilling her father’s dreams and hers and becoming great, Injae also goes through her own journey of self-learning, discovery and acceptance. She and Jipyeong are similar in this way; they learn as the show moves on to leave the idea of material things, and obsession with money, to find the meaning of family with Dalmi and her grandmother. Everyone returns back to the Seo family, healed, grown and matured. And everyone discovers what it is that they want to do and they come back full circle to complete their character arc from the beginning.
It’s beautiful, family, love and dreams are what this show is focused on. How sometimes life seems purposeless, and a lost cause, a place where we have to keep gruelling and pushing and working with no purpose or meaning, but Startup showed that if you’re brave enough, trust in your abilities enough, and do the right thing, work hard, open your mind and fight for what you want, you can make your dreams a reality. You can manifest what you wish to because Fate is on your side, driving you, pushing you and showing you clues for what it is you’re meant to do.
We all have our own dreams, our own destinations, our own thing that make us feel complete, or we’re still in search for that, just by not focusing too much on the future and just being brave and doing all you can in the present with a right attitude, and hope, you’ll find who you’re truly meant to be. You’ll find your way; for why you do what you do. And I think that’s what Start-Up was in a nutshell, a show about manifesting and believing in the hope that you can be who you want to be, and you can make a difference. Cheesy I know, but it’s how I felt at the end of this show. I know people like to focus more on realism of the business aspect of things, focus on the logic and rules of the world that make Start-Up motto seem childish, unreal and cheesy, but sometimes in life, the things that happen for us, things that push us to our dreams, destination, to find our best self, happens illogically, weirdly without explanation. We call it luck, we call it Fate. Like Dosan a lot of people don’t believe in that, but I do, and I liked that this show believed in that. I like how inspirational and positive this show made me feel, and I like how it affected me. For others, it may not be your cup of tea, but it was mine, and I am so incredibly grateful for this show.
CYRANO DE BEGERAC; LOVE TRIANGLES AND THEIR PAINS
Now I can continue talking for ages about Manifesting, becoming big and successful, following your dreams, meeting the one, as this show showed, but I also need to mention the next part of this show that was a slight negative. The Love Triangle. Now remember this show has a literature base Cyrano, so of course, the love triangle was meant to be a big focus, the love triangle was part of the big picture for this show. People have said repeatedly that they hated that the writer focused on the love triangle, but when it was her aim from the start to flesh out her own characters based on Cyrano and tell her own love story through that, fans refused to accept it. And that’s okay you don’t have to like a love triangle, I didn’t, I hated it too.
Mostly because it made me dislike the character’s actions that didn’t still get the memo, i.e. Jipyeong. But what I do have to say about the love triangle is that it was needed, it was the most important device needed to push both Dosan to his growth and acceptance of himself, it made him have to tackle with his idea of how he sees himself, how he had no dreams, how he felt stagnant and alone, it made him have to deal with it when he was fighting for Dalmi.
And Jipyeong learnt about his flaws, how he hesitates, how he is too obsessed with material things, and money because that’s all he’s ever relied on, how he had to humble himself and finally become a good mentor. Jipyeong went through it because of the love triangle; he learnt a lot about himself and what he wanted because of losing in the love triangle. Plus Dalmi made him see how much he wanted to be part of her family.
The love triangle wasn’t the best thing about this show, there were times it was too drawn out or damaging or filled with plot holes, but I appreciate this new twist on Cyrano. Like I said, usually Cyrano gets the girl (not in the original version but its adaptations in modern times). The audience wants Cyrano to be with the girl because Christain is normally daft, and does not really know her etc. Christain is generally seen in a negative light, so for the writer to make Dosan, a newer version of Christain, someone who ultimately gets the girl from the start, who inspires her, who knows and loves her for her real self, who is her helping hand more than the Cyrano of the story, someone who grows and becomes so incredible. It’s amazing. She got me, she made me like Christain and want him to be with Roxanne. And I loved it.
JIPYEONG A GREAT SECOND LEAD
I loved this twist because even though it was apparent, it was Dosan, Jipyeong wasn’t just a bland second lead, he wasn’t stagnant, he wasn’t stale with no personality, he wasn’t just villainous for no reason, he was broken, and he was three dimensional, flawed, but understandable, petty but lovable. He had his own story to tell. He was important, he was Good boy, and he had his own way of making the audience root, and hurt for him. And that’s excellent writing. For people to be so obsessed with his character, to find similarities with his character, to feel for his character, that’s good writing.
That’s a writer who made all her characters mean something. For me, Jipyeong is a second lead, and I’m not too fond of second leads, but I liked Jipyeong, and I cared about his journey for a long time. I may have become upset and disappointed at his character later on, but he was a good second lead, he made me feel conflicted at times not just because he wrote the letter, but some of his actions for her were sweet and cute. But it was nothing compared to Dosan. So as much I understand why so many people loved Jipyeong, I won’t forgive the fangirls who became so delusional because of their obsession with his actor and their own feelings for him, they refused to see where the writer was going with the story.
It’s not she like she lied or did things out of the blue, the writer set this up, she put clues, subtexts, foreshadowings, quotes, moments to show you; Jipyeong wasn’t the kind of guy she wanted her character to be with. I wouldn’t want to be with someone like Jipyeong, and that’s why I’m happy he didn’t end up with anyone as of that time in the ending, he wasn’t still ready, he still had a lot to learn. This writer doesn’t care about looks, or on the surface shows of affection, she makes you pity and care and understand the second lead, but it doesn’t mean she accepts what he’s doing as right. That’s why she made him realise he was the one who needed to concede to Dosan, that’s why he had to apologise, that’s why he was the one at the end begging Dosan for an investment, he was never a good mentor to Samsan Tech, but now he will be.
So it’s interesting to see what people saw in Jipyeong that I didn’t, because it shows we all have our own perceptions of what we think is a good boyfriend, true love or soulmate. And fine you can have your perspectives but don’t hate the writer for wanting to show a love story between someone who was not problematic, is not your typical Kdrama tsundere, cold chaebol character, but he’s sweet, honest, proactive, genius and hard working. There was nothing wrong with Nam Do San, he might be unknowledgeable and slow to things because of lack of experience, he may have had such low self-esteem, but it made him modest, it made him kind, and he wasn’t problematic, manipulative, toxic or whatever people liked to call him because they needed Jipyeong to be the hero. Nam Do San was a tremendous male romantic lead. And I hope I see more characters like him for our main girls in other dramas. I want a guy like Nam Do San, not going to lie, I truly fell in love with his character, and their love story so touched me despite the fact I disliked the noble idiocy plotline. The love triangle was annoying, but I enjoyed how it ended. And I hope people stop ruining the ratings of this show because they’re petty that Jipyeong didn’t get the girl.
I also want to mention how much I loved the women in this show, they were great, smart. important and fleshed out again. All the women Dalmi, Injae, Grandmum, Mum, Saha every one of them had something to do in the show, they all grew, they all learnt, they all became so great. I like how this show even though Dalmi relied on people, she still had to learn and rely on her self later on, with the help of Injae. I love how this show was focused on the two sisters journey and manifestation of their father’s legacy. Not only were they the mind of the company, but they did speeches, the invented, they helped with other inventions and they were the face of Sandbox. They were absolutely great and inspirational to watch. And I loved that about this show as well.
I can talk a lot about Start-Up, about all the devices, all the subtext, foreshadowings, clues, hints, metaphors, meanings, that this show had in 16 episodes. In fact, you know I can because that’s all I’ve been doing since this show aired on my two blogs. I enjoyed analysing this show, and I think this show is now my favourite drama of this year, and I’m so grateful for it. On a serious note, it might be cheesy to believe in manifesting-dreams. All that finding true love business because sometimes life isn’t easy like that, luck is very different in reality. Still, for me Start-Up really inspired me, and pushed me, it made me question what I want to do, what I have to do for my own dreams/ purpose to be a reality, it made me ask my self about how I see my self, and how I work. It taught me a lot of business terms, and it also inspired me to write an analysis. It made me look deeper into Korean dramas yet again, and I appreciate it. I have really enjoyed this drama, and I don’t want to say goodbye. Maybe when I ‘mature’ and become colder this will all seem like rubbish to me, but I hope I keep on being this way, the girl who believes in love, the girl who believes in making dreams come true and fighting for what you want, the girl who believes in Fate and Destiny. Laugh all you want, but I like to be that girl, and I like to think that one day like Dosan and Dalmi, I’d get to where I’m meant to be and survive and make my own dreams, wants, aspirations become a reality. Thank you Start Up. And thank you to all who read my analysis of this show. It was a great time and it won’t be forgotten
