Last year, I was reviewing Start-up, a South Korean fictional silicon valley inspired K-drama. It was the kind of drama that blends comedy, futuristic tech as well as ambition. It wasn’t the kind of drama that you would watch for its cinematography nor the artistic value that a cinephile would appreciate. But lately, I find myself re-watching this K-drama. I have rewatched it 10x and it is still surprising to me that at the time 2020, the drama already featured AI and its application to autonomous driving as well as products that helped impaired people to identify things. It's one of the main reason why this deserves a rewatch because nowadays AI is becoming prevalent and the drama also touched on the topic where human will be replaced by AI and how regular people view on it.
When I watched it last year, I honestly took the drama at face value. There were some moments that were too boring to follow, especially when it comes to the conflict of the main character, Seo-Dal Mi with Han Ji-pyeong. However, as I rewatched it again, I learned a lot more lessons for running a Startup as well as the idea of chasing one’s dream.
You see, Seo-Dal Mi was the fictional character with the trope zero to hero. She was the underdog with little connection and even simply a high school graduate. She wanted to become a successful business woman as she drew experience from her father, a man who wanted to create “yelp”-like apps who later died due to a brain injury following an accident. There’s another character that contrasts Seo-Dal Mi, Nam Do-San, a mathematical prodigy who suffers from depression and impostor syndrome.
Nam Do-san is one of those characters that has the failed genius trope. He was the kind of guy who wanted to change the world with his way but lacked social and marketing skills. While he has good ideas, he was mostly more fitting to be a CTO than a CEO. While at first, he was the CEO, after meeting Seo-Dal Mi, CTO was more a fitting role for him. He eventually recovered from his impostor syndrome and regrets of his past. Do san character is going to teach you that sometimes when you're a kid and was put in a pedestal, it can be a burden rather than a blessing. From Seo-Dal mi he also eventually learned to redefine his meaning of success and his path to happiness.
I rewatched this South Korean drama because it offers some valuable insight. This drama also came when South Korea was at its peak of technological innovations. Somehow these days, all the dramas that I’ve seen are mostly talking about the end of the world, some biological warfare type of things and back to the era of flexing riches than drama that can be quite inspiring like this one.
Rather than watching the drama where I skipped the boring part, these days I watch this Startup slowly as I want to get to know more of the characters and their motivation. There are terms that I probably missed about a year ago because I was skipping some parts while watching it.
At the same time, in China there’s one Chinese drama that I keep rewatching titled 亲爱的，热爱的 or known as Go Go Squid!. The drama, while laced with romance, talks about CTF (capture the flag) competition aimed for cybersecurity enthusiasts. While the drama doesn't really talk much about the CTF itself, it was the main character that was quite inspiring and they made it seem like being a pro CTF player was a big deal. Talking about being inspired, I definitely do.
Do you have any tech-inspired movie/k-drama that you watched? While I tend to stay away from heavy science-fiction drama and series, I enjoy tech based drama and series like Silicon Valley, Hacker, MR Robot, you get the gist.
I don’t know why South Koreans don’t make dramas like Startup, Memories of the Alhambra, Rugal or even I am not a robot anymore. Maybe just maybe just like the news said that they’ve peaked just as discussed in this article The Future of K-Power: What South Korea Must Do After Peaking.
Screenshot from here MV가호 - Running스타트업 OST Part.5
 | 𝘔𝘢𝘤 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧-𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘺𝘦𝘥 𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘫𝘢 & 𝘤𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘰𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘶𝘳 . 𝘈 𝘵𝘺𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦, 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴, 𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘯𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘰𝘱𝘩𝘺. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘨, 𝘢 𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘭𝘦𝘥𝘨𝘦. 𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴, 𝘮𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸𝘴, 𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘩 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴, 𝘱𝘩𝘰𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘺, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘥𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘱𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵. 𝘖𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘣𝘭𝘶𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘰𝘯, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘪𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘪𝘯 𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘺. 𝘚𝘩𝘦'𝘴 𝘢𝘯 𝘰𝘤𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘧𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘪𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴. 𝘍𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘯 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘫𝘰𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯! 𝘋𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘶𝘱𝘷𝘰𝘵𝘦, 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬. 𝘈 𝘳𝘦-𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘨 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰𝘰. |
i don't have any tech inspired kdrama so i will keep this one in mind to be the first one 😃 and i won't skip the boring parts 😂, note it's on netflix and the story attracts me for having the AI concept, in fact i recently saw terminator zero on netflix and they are attractive stories for the reflections they leave because if i consediero that slowly we are being replaced, so is that positive or negative, are details that leave much to reflect because I notice the technological advances but I also notice how many people become increasingly useless, the latter happens in technology, engineering etc because in the end practically everything is done by the machine
I had a slightly similar thought to yours about you mentioning that in 2020 certain conflicts or AI elements etc. were already being handled in this product, In my case I saw 2001: A Space Odyssey very recently for the first time and never in my life I had never expected the concept in that film and they are not new movies, all these things have already been thought long ago but it is now that technology is making them reality and we are witnesses of that
It's increasingly real that AI is going to replace human. The problem is, a lot of people are going to be left behind because all these fast-paced tech trends that keeps changing every 24 hours haha. It's what makes these movie/series interesting simply because we're able to relate to it all over again.
Rewatching 10x is a bit overkill don't you think?😂
hahaha honestly, no. I like to watch/listen stuff more than I probably should.
Is this a remake of something? I feel like I've seen a western show of the same name
I don't think it's a remake but there's American series with the same name.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StartUp_(TV_series)
Ah that's probably what I was thinking of
That's probably that one. They have different genre though.
I love how you found new lessons in a second viewing. It's true that sometimes when watching a series for the first time, we miss nuances and details. Great input!