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Start Up: Why Kim Seon Ho's Han Ji Pyeong & not Nam Joo Hyuk's Nam Do San should've been the flag bearer
Start-Up Ep 9 premiered on Saturday night and it shed light on the uneven balance between the character development between Kim Seon Ho's Han Ji Pyeong and Nam Joo Hyuk's Nam Do San.
The past four weeks, Start-Up has torn everyone apart between Nam Do San (Nam Joo Hyuk) and Han Ji Pyeong (Kim Seon Ho). The lead and the safely tagged second lead have been head-over-heels for the leading lady Seo Dal Mi (Suzy). With every passing episode, the writers have been presenting an incident featuring both the men, oscillating my stand between Ji Pyeong and Do San. On one hand, Ji Pyeong swept me off my feet with his "good boy" image with those moving letters years ago and now, smoothing Dal Mi's sail at Sandbox.
On the other, the naive yet intelligent Do San puts others before himself generates a warm vibe in your chest. From building an app for the visually challenged to making sure Dal Mi and her Halmeoni (grandmother) share all moments of joy, he has proved to be a good boyfriend. However, with the events unfolding in Start-Up Ep 9, it suddenly felt that the writers have drawn an unbalanced triangle between Do San, Dal Mi and Ji Pyeong.
Let's take a quick walk down to the first episode. Han Ji Pyeong walked cross past Halmeoni's corn dog shop in soaked clothes, with his plank featuring his achievement covering his head and nowhere to go. The orphan found a home with Halmeoni, a place of shelter, food and some attention that might not necessarily be love but enough to be deemed as care. As he grew older and pushed Halmeoni away, due to a misunderstanding, and spent his 20s alone. When we meet the older Han Ji Pyeong, we watch him attempting to interact with virtual assistant AI technology in a lavish yet empty house, depicting his life if I could say.
When he crosses paths with Halmeoni again, under the pretext of a favour to return, he finds himself seeking an invisible sense of approval from Halmeoni that he could be a part of her small world. From going above and beyond to assure Do San is present at the networking event to accompany Dal Mi to setting his feelings aside for Dal Mi and procuring the letter with the intention to give it to Do San, he makes sure that he is there for the duo.
However, the writers aren't giving enough wood to bite on with regard to Do San. Apart from his self-conscious weighing him down for cheating at the Math Olympiad to dropping out of college and failing his father, the writers aren't offering enough structure to this character. He found purpose after Dal Mi's grandmother encounter the vision problem. Dal Mi walked into his life owing to Ji Pyeong's lies.
Given the writing invested in the second lead, Start-Up could have been lead by Han Ji Pyeong instead of Nam Do San. If I have to root for Dal Mi and Do San for the endgame, I will need more. Until then, I think I will set camp at station Han Ji Pyeong.
Do you think the writers have justified enough that Do San and Dal Mi are meant to be? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
