In Netflix Korean drama Start-Up, K-pop star Bae Suzy convinces as an aspiring tech entrepreneur

The show follows a group of young people, each with dreams of finding success in the world of start-ups

Starring alongside the former Miss A member are Kang Han-na, Nam Joo-hyuk and Kim Hae-sook

2-MIN READ2-MIN

Bae Suzy (left) and Nam Joo-hyuk in new Netflix K-drama Start Up. Photo: Netflix

After 20-odd years spent peddling and polishing words in Hong Kong, Stephen McCarty now resides in Britain, from where he scribbles, daydreams and laments the state of the world.

Published: 9:45am, 1 Nov 2020Updated: 9:48am, 1 Nov 2020

More shiny, happy people from Korean television central casting seem to have dropped into Start-Up (Netflix, series one now streaming). Well-heeled, high-flying and in hi-tech, they glow with success and ambition – at least superficially.

A closer look, however, shows some of those heels to be scuffed, success to be a light at the end of an elongated tunnel and ambition a pipe dream, where it’s not a nightmare.

K-pop goddess Bae Suzy is Seo Dal-mi, who, as an aspiring technology entrepreneur, finds the going tough and the opposition tougher. Her nemesis is her sister, Won In-jae (Kang Han-na), already boss of Sand Box, her own tech company – and a clear pointer to where viewers’ sympathies are not going to lie.

Separated as children by their parents’ divorce, In-jae grew up to be cold, arrogant and ruthless; Dal-mi, close to her grandmother, developed the sort of humane characteristics that repeatedly saw her trampled on. Those are the qualities that In-jae, now Dal-mi intends to rival her in the business world, is only too happy to exploit once again, just as she did on the rare occasions that the sisters met post-divorce.

This being a K-drama, love can’t keep its pesky nose out of matters for long, although intriguingly, it begins as virtual love between young Dal-mi and homeless orphan and mathematics genius Nam Do-san (Nam Joo-hyuk), who is taken in by Dal-mi’s grandmother.

The two go through years as penfriends and never meet – meaning that when eventually they do, the scriptwriting possibilities for making their relationship saccharine sweet, or sending the pair careering off a cliff of romantic catastrophe, are legion. Especially when Do-san is himself bound for career glory as an Asian Silicon Valley company head.