Am seeing a lot of comments and looks like there are many who wanted to make HJP the ML..I think bcos HJP backstory…
I feel that NJH's portrayal of a ML is an archaic one. As Kdrama audience continually mature, so does their taste and standards for a well written stories. And with the number of amazing western dramas coming out on Netflix, there is bigger pressure from Kdrama to deliver new modern takes on the old romance formula. Couple that with lackadaisical writing, and it's no surprise that a vocal majority are not loving Start Up. Ironically, as runtime of Kdrama continue to rise, the character development has not gotten sharper. Unlike most western dramas that for the most part, spend some time developing side stories, Kdrama still fall into the trap of choosing to only develop the story of the ML and the FL, leaving the development of the SL, and SFL as an afterthought and blurb. But because PHR wrote a wallflower for a ML, and a petty immature FL, the SL and the SFL in Start Up have never shone brighter, and their redacted scenes are met with stiff criticism.
In the current environment TV watching environment, here are some of the changes I have noticed:
1. Completely black and completely white characters are seen as boring 2. Mary Sue's and Gary Stu's are seen as boring 3. Shows that don't pass the Bechdel Test are seen as less complex and sexist 4. Toxic and codependent relationships are no longer tolerated, but rather criticized heavily.
With the accent of the #metoo movement, there is more emphasis to see women in relationship that don't portray the woman as weak and dependent on the man, or relationships where the woman is portrayed in a position of weakness. Take for example the "reality" show Bling Empire on Netflix, there is a big backlash right now on the relationship between Kelly and Andrew. Audiences are no longer ok with seeing toxic relationships play out on screen for the sake of drama. Audience are a lot smarter now, and the sooner Kdrama writers figure this out, the better the ratings on their dramas will be. There is just so many options in Asian drama of better wrought stories that Kdrama may start to lose it's monopoly on exported media. Luckily for Kdrama, it's cousin Kpop has never been hotter, and it's ascent has boosted the popularity of Kdrama as well. In fact Jisoo's upcoming drama Snowdrop, may be one of the more anticipated drama this 2021 due to the popularity of Blackpink overseas.
If your argument is that NJH never plays the SL, then that is more endemic of Korea's Kdrama environment where writers change script midway during live airings, popular vote can change endings, and there is harsh nepotism in the industry.
Nam Do san is a very rare ML...Never have we seen such an insecure ,peace loving ML ..Guess he will get ambitious…
In fairness, most people thought that the first 6 episodes were great, with Ep. 1 being the best one.
It's after Ep. 7 where things start going cray cray IMO. And NDS peace loving? More like the embodiment of going postal. Even the description of Living Buddha fits Going Postal to a T.
This article has helped me make up my mind about the letters. I've been saying that the NDS from the letters was…
The writer gives Jidal fans one final crumb in the end. When HJP tells SDM, your letters actually comforted me. This was PHR pretty much giving legitimacy to the letters.
This one line by HJP at the end, just proves to all of us that he didn't write those letters due to a favor to Grandma, he wrote them, because he was gaining comfort, love, acceptance from young SDM. That those letters meant the world to him. And it also showed us the letters meant more to HJP than it did to SDM.
But SDM is so smitten by NDS at this point, that HJP's confession literally fell on deaf ears.
Also, we remember how SDM blocked many potential suitors because of fake NDS. Guess what, HJP himself has never had a GF either, so it's entirely possible that he also subconsciously blocked all these potential woman due to SDM.
Lesson learned, if MDL loves a show, it's bad, and if MDL hates a show, it's great.In no particular order, you…
Point being, don't always trust the review and a comment section. Take the time to read the plot, and watch the first few episodes to see if you will like something or not.
There are many shows, like the ones i've mentioned that people didn't like, but other people did.
The ratings on MDL isn't so accurate anymore after they started fidgeting with the numbers.
Also, it's best to watch the show first then visit MDL, that way your experience won't be affected by what other people write. And then, when you enjoy the show that is panned heavily in MDL, I suggest you don't write about how bad the vibes are in the comment section or how you don't understand people's reasoning. Because you want people to respect your comments, you should extend the same respect don't you think?
There have been other people from the industry and field, who also disliked the portrayal, and felt it didn't…
Ahh, well I can't comment on other asian start up shows, since this is the first asian show I am watching about start ups. And yes, in terms of realism, kdrama does not seem to focus on it too much.
Their decision had very little to do with HJP tbh, at this point, they straight up hated HJP for his "harshness". And they can assume that SDM is desperate, but they had no way of knowing her intentions, her situation, or her goals. In fact, everything they know about her is based on the letters between HJP and SDM, which the two other members of SST did not really read as much. It's a big assumption that would be costly in real life.
I think you misunderstood the part about the words. When NDS, Cheul San, and Yong San didn't get the words, it didn't mean they were eliminated or kicked out of Sandbox, just that none of them could be the CEO of the company being formed. The thing you have to realize, the show makes it clear that Cheul San and Yong San revere NDS highly, because they would not be in their position without the genius of NDS. And so, they are super confident in NDS skills. And NDS has always been their CEO, so when it turns out that NDS wasn't going to be their CEO, after being so for 3 years, they are understandably disappointed. So even if WIJ, and SDM had not chosen them, they still had a chance to chosen by the other 18 CEO's.
I find it facetious to tell people, "ok I'm giving you a choice A or B". Secretly you hope they pick A. When they pick A, you tell them "you guys made this choice, not me". Then later, when they want to change the choice, you tell them "nuh uh, you guys chose already, plus I'm overriding your votes, because I really want A". In this situation, Cheul San and Yong San are given the illusion of choice.
Also, just because they are in Sandbox, doesn't mean that education doesn't matter or being a high school dropout doesn't matter. It just so happens the star aligned, and they got HJP as their mentor. In fact it was clearly showed with HJP's coworker Mr. Park, that not everyone loves to be a mentor, and not all mentors are created the same. Some will give you basic info, some may even be condescending. The reason we didn't see this is because all the mentors had personal reasons that motivated them to go beyond the scope of a mentor/mentee relationship. HJP answering 450 questions from SDM is a move most mentors will not bother doing. In fact, if SDM had been paired with a mentor with no personal reasons to go beyond his/her duty, she may not have been as productive as she became. It's kdrama, so the stars will always align, but in reality, given the context, and what we know about SDM, it's clear that without NDS, there is a chance nobody will choose her due to her being a college drop out. In fact, SST had a better reason for being chosen by other CEO's because they won the CODA competition, SDM had literally no reason to be chosen by anyone else. But just because someone is desperate or need you more than you need them, doesn't mean they would make the best employees. Because if you had this mindset, then you would hire all the homeless people, because nobody is as hungry and desperate for work as them. But logically the world doesn't work like that.
I posted that link about codependent relationship, because their relationship is very closely defined by it. But because it's kdrama it's romanticized and normalized. NDS isn't doing what's best for SST. There are a lot of decisions he does because of his personal attraction to SDM. It's no different from a guy who does everything for the girl he is attracted to. It was very clear, from many situations that the moves that NDS is deciding on are not in SST's interest, but are the best for SDM's interest. And this is the reason you don't go into business with a significant other, because it becomes hard to distinguish business decisions from personal ones. Like when NDS wanted to give all the shares to SDM, Cheul San and Yong San who knew NDS was interested in SDM, cannot see the situation as anything more than NDS wanting to give his GF more shares. In fact a third party consultant may see it this way as well.
I'm not sure which country your from, but where I am from, once you pay tuition, you can't refund it. If you drop from college, you forfeit tuition. You can try selling your books, but that's about it. Plus, if she wanted to be noble and make sure Grandma didn't lose her shop, well here's an idea, don't let her sell it. And if you can't stop her, don't let her pay your tuition. Your telling me Grandma secretly sold her shop, then secretly enrolled SDM into college, and secretly took the entrance exam for that college as well? I mean that's very highly unlikely. What most likely happened is that Grandma discussed with SDM about selling her shop for her to get into college, and midway through SDM felt guilty, and dropped from college. But from a financial perspective this doesn't make sense. Just to let you know, even if SDM only went to college for one semester, tuition in Korea is approximately $5,000 US dollars per semester. That is 5.5 Million Won. Do you know how many corndogs you would need to sell to make that money? Plus a corndog stand is considered a downgrade from her shop before. Which makes sense since she lost money in the tuition. For a supposedly smart person like SDM, this seems uncharacteristic.
I think the father ASSUMED that WIJ created a business to stick it to him. In fact, he came in and offered to be her mentor and etc... And offered her something for her to come back to his company. Also add to the fact that SDM keeps telling WIJ, she is only successful due to her father's money and position. I felt the show clearly portrayed WIJ wanting to create a company she started from scratch. It just so happens her two rivals were men, her father and step brother. The reason that WIJ was bragging to morning group afterwards, was because of the previous moves of Morning Group. Prior to the self driving test, she met up with her father and stepfather, and they were looking down on her, and they had just stolen her 2 developers. So it became a personal thing. But prior to that, in WIJ's mind, she does not care for her father, nor is there clear indication she is trying to stick it to him. If anything, she wanted to show the world she is highly capable of running a successful company without her father. In fact I'd like to add that WIJ is probably the most emotionally stable of all the characters. When SDM kept trying to stick up her success in WIJ's face, she just smirked, and ignored SDM. When her father kept trying to show WIJ she can't do anything without him, she ignored him as well.
SDM was in direct competition with her sister, a very petty competition that was very one sided. By the back half of the episodes, SDM's competition with WIJ had devolved into a sad one sided competition, and SDM is blind to it, until WIJ had to point it out to her. She later works for her sister, because that is her character development where she is ready to be humbled and agree that her sister is better than her. Prior to that, she kept thinking she is smarter/better than her sister, and she was making better decisions than WIJ. But she wasn't, and through HJP's advice, she finally lowered her ego, and pretty much begged her sister for the job. I really dislike how she uses the memory of her father to skew the interview process as well. Even Grandma had to tell SDM, can't she just let it go? Because Grandma knows that this time of obsessiveness does not end well most of the time, and she's right.
Difference of opinion then. HJP and NDS had such different mentality and philosophies, that I can't imagine them being fast friends. It's the age old tale of pragmatism vs idealism, and neither ideologies will every fully understand the tenets of the other side. Initially, HJP was acting like a big brother to NDS, but when NDS made it clear he didn't want the help, their dynamic shifted. And like HJP said "I will no longer act like your big brother". HJP actually says twice in the show, he does not like NDS. Maybe for you, it's easy to turn hate into love, but in reality, it takes a lot of time. And when the person you hate even takes the girl you love, it will take even longer, or you may never learn to like that guy. That is real life. But I guess Kdrama logic.
Oh, I agree, I would love to have someone like HJP. I feel that he is a very empowering BF, and there would be many interesting conversations with him :))))
In the current environment TV watching environment, here are some of the changes I have noticed:
1. Completely black and completely white characters are seen as boring
2. Mary Sue's and Gary Stu's are seen as boring
3. Shows that don't pass the Bechdel Test are seen as less complex and sexist
4. Toxic and codependent relationships are no longer tolerated, but rather criticized heavily.
With the accent of the #metoo movement, there is more emphasis to see women in relationship that don't portray the woman as weak and dependent on the man, or relationships where the woman is portrayed in a position of weakness. Take for example the "reality" show Bling Empire on Netflix, there is a big backlash right now on the relationship between Kelly and Andrew. Audiences are no longer ok with seeing toxic relationships play out on screen for the sake of drama. Audience are a lot smarter now, and the sooner Kdrama writers figure this out, the better the ratings on their dramas will be. There is just so many options in Asian drama of better wrought stories that Kdrama may start to lose it's monopoly on exported media. Luckily for Kdrama, it's cousin Kpop has never been hotter, and it's ascent has boosted the popularity of Kdrama as well. In fact Jisoo's upcoming drama Snowdrop, may be one of the more anticipated drama this 2021 due to the popularity of Blackpink overseas.
If your argument is that NJH never plays the SL, then that is more endemic of Korea's Kdrama environment where writers change script midway during live airings, popular vote can change endings, and there is harsh nepotism in the industry.
Now I get why NDS and SDM is called DODAL...
D - Dependent
O - On
D - Dalmi
A - And
L - Luck
It's after Ep. 7 where things start going cray cray IMO. And NDS peace loving? More like the embodiment of going postal. Even the description of Living Buddha fits Going Postal to a T.
This one line by HJP at the end, just proves to all of us that he didn't write those letters due to a favor to Grandma, he wrote them, because he was gaining comfort, love, acceptance from young SDM. That those letters meant the world to him. And it also showed us the letters meant more to HJP than it did to SDM.
But SDM is so smitten by NDS at this point, that HJP's confession literally fell on deaf ears.
Also, we remember how SDM blocked many potential suitors because of fake NDS. Guess what, HJP himself has never had a GF either, so it's entirely possible that he also subconsciously blocked all these potential woman due to SDM.
There are many shows, like the ones i've mentioned that people didn't like, but other people did.
The ratings on MDL isn't so accurate anymore after they started fidgeting with the numbers.
Also, it's best to watch the show first then visit MDL, that way your experience won't be affected by what other people write. And then, when you enjoy the show that is panned heavily in MDL, I suggest you don't write about how bad the vibes are in the comment section or how you don't understand people's reasoning. Because you want people to respect your comments, you should extend the same respect don't you think?
Their decision had very little to do with HJP tbh, at this point, they straight up hated HJP for his "harshness". And they can assume that SDM is desperate, but they had no way of knowing her intentions, her situation, or her goals. In fact, everything they know about her is based on the letters between HJP and SDM, which the two other members of SST did not really read as much. It's a big assumption that would be costly in real life.
I think you misunderstood the part about the words. When NDS, Cheul San, and Yong San didn't get the words, it didn't mean they were eliminated or kicked out of Sandbox, just that none of them could be the CEO of the company being formed. The thing you have to realize, the show makes it clear that Cheul San and Yong San revere NDS highly, because they would not be in their position without the genius of NDS. And so, they are super confident in NDS skills. And NDS has always been their CEO, so when it turns out that NDS wasn't going to be their CEO, after being so for 3 years, they are understandably disappointed. So even if WIJ, and SDM had not chosen them, they still had a chance to chosen by the other 18 CEO's.
I find it facetious to tell people, "ok I'm giving you a choice A or B". Secretly you hope they pick A. When they pick A, you tell them "you guys made this choice, not me". Then later, when they want to change the choice, you tell them "nuh uh, you guys chose already, plus I'm overriding your votes, because I really want A". In this situation, Cheul San and Yong San are given the illusion of choice.
Also, just because they are in Sandbox, doesn't mean that education doesn't matter or being a high school dropout doesn't matter. It just so happens the star aligned, and they got HJP as their mentor. In fact it was clearly showed with HJP's coworker Mr. Park, that not everyone loves to be a mentor, and not all mentors are created the same. Some will give you basic info, some may even be condescending. The reason we didn't see this is because all the mentors had personal reasons that motivated them to go beyond the scope of a mentor/mentee relationship. HJP answering 450 questions from SDM is a move most mentors will not bother doing. In fact, if SDM had been paired with a mentor with no personal reasons to go beyond his/her duty, she may not have been as productive as she became. It's kdrama, so the stars will always align, but in reality, given the context, and what we know about SDM, it's clear that without NDS, there is a chance nobody will choose her due to her being a college drop out. In fact, SST had a better reason for being chosen by other CEO's because they won the CODA competition, SDM had literally no reason to be chosen by anyone else. But just because someone is desperate or need you more than you need them, doesn't mean they would make the best employees. Because if you had this mindset, then you would hire all the homeless people, because nobody is as hungry and desperate for work as them. But logically the world doesn't work like that.
I posted that link about codependent relationship, because their relationship is very closely defined by it. But because it's kdrama it's romanticized and normalized. NDS isn't doing what's best for SST. There are a lot of decisions he does because of his personal attraction to SDM. It's no different from a guy who does everything for the girl he is attracted to. It was very clear, from many situations that the moves that NDS is deciding on are not in SST's interest, but are the best for SDM's interest. And this is the reason you don't go into business with a significant other, because it becomes hard to distinguish business decisions from personal ones. Like when NDS wanted to give all the shares to SDM, Cheul San and Yong San who knew NDS was interested in SDM, cannot see the situation as anything more than NDS wanting to give his GF more shares. In fact a third party consultant may see it this way as well.
I'm not sure which country your from, but where I am from, once you pay tuition, you can't refund it. If you drop from college, you forfeit tuition. You can try selling your books, but that's about it. Plus, if she wanted to be noble and make sure Grandma didn't lose her shop, well here's an idea, don't let her sell it. And if you can't stop her, don't let her pay your tuition. Your telling me Grandma secretly sold her shop, then secretly enrolled SDM into college, and secretly took the entrance exam for that college as well? I mean that's very highly unlikely. What most likely happened is that Grandma discussed with SDM about selling her shop for her to get into college, and midway through SDM felt guilty, and dropped from college. But from a financial perspective this doesn't make sense. Just to let you know, even if SDM only went to college for one semester, tuition in Korea is approximately $5,000 US dollars per semester. That is 5.5 Million Won. Do you know how many corndogs you would need to sell to make that money? Plus a corndog stand is considered a downgrade from her shop before. Which makes sense since she lost money in the tuition. For a supposedly smart person like SDM, this seems uncharacteristic.
I think the father ASSUMED that WIJ created a business to stick it to him. In fact, he came in and offered to be her mentor and etc... And offered her something for her to come back to his company. Also add to the fact that SDM keeps telling WIJ, she is only successful due to her father's money and position. I felt the show clearly portrayed WIJ wanting to create a company she started from scratch. It just so happens her two rivals were men, her father and step brother. The reason that WIJ was bragging to morning group afterwards, was because of the previous moves of Morning Group. Prior to the self driving test, she met up with her father and stepfather, and they were looking down on her, and they had just stolen her 2 developers. So it became a personal thing. But prior to that, in WIJ's mind, she does not care for her father, nor is there clear indication she is trying to stick it to him. If anything, she wanted to show the world she is highly capable of running a successful company without her father. In fact I'd like to add that WIJ is probably the most emotionally stable of all the characters. When SDM kept trying to stick up her success in WIJ's face, she just smirked, and ignored SDM. When her father kept trying to show WIJ she can't do anything without him, she ignored him as well.
SDM was in direct competition with her sister, a very petty competition that was very one sided. By the back half of the episodes, SDM's competition with WIJ had devolved into a sad one sided competition, and SDM is blind to it, until WIJ had to point it out to her. She later works for her sister, because that is her character development where she is ready to be humbled and agree that her sister is better than her. Prior to that, she kept thinking she is smarter/better than her sister, and she was making better decisions than WIJ. But she wasn't, and through HJP's advice, she finally lowered her ego, and pretty much begged her sister for the job. I really dislike how she uses the memory of her father to skew the interview process as well. Even Grandma had to tell SDM, can't she just let it go? Because Grandma knows that this time of obsessiveness does not end well most of the time, and she's right.
Difference of opinion then. HJP and NDS had such different mentality and philosophies, that I can't imagine them being fast friends. It's the age old tale of pragmatism vs idealism, and neither ideologies will every fully understand the tenets of the other side. Initially, HJP was acting like a big brother to NDS, but when NDS made it clear he didn't want the help, their dynamic shifted. And like HJP said "I will no longer act like your big brother". HJP actually says twice in the show, he does not like NDS. Maybe for you, it's easy to turn hate into love, but in reality, it takes a lot of time. And when the person you hate even takes the girl you love, it will take even longer, or you may never learn to like that guy. That is real life. But I guess Kdrama logic.
Oh, I agree, I would love to have someone like HJP. I feel that he is a very empowering BF, and there would be many interesting conversations with him :))))
Money is good isn't it?