Why I Love Kim Seon Ho as Han Ji Pyeong, a Second Lead Character of Start Up
This article shows alignments to #TeamHanJiPyeong, the phenomenal second lead character of Korean Drama in 2020.
The past five weeks, Start-Up is a most talked-about Korean drama. The drama gets a lot attentions globally even though the plot is quite similar with other Korean dramas which the lead and the second lead have been head-over-heels for the main character. Seo Dal Mi (Bae Suzy) is the main character in this drama. Nam Joo-Hyuk plays a lead character, Nam Do San, while Kim Seon-Ho plays Han Ji Pyeong as a second lead character.
I don’t want to talk about romance between three of them. I just point out how interesting the character of Han Ji Pyeong. When you see the first six episodes, you might think “If only Ji Pyeong wrote his own name, if only he admitted that he wrote those letters to Seo Dalmi, if only, he won’t hurt himself anymore”.
During the press conference of the show, Kim Seon Ho said that the character of Ji Pyeong is a young and successful man. But, he never mentioned that Ji Pyeong will lead us to have second lead syndrome and swept us off our feet with his good manner and charismatic character.
I realize that Ji Pyeong is not only a softie man, but also “good boy” to Dal Mi and Dal MI’s grandmother. He is a kind-hearted young man who acts tough, but fragile inside.
Ji-Pyeong is an orphan who transforms to be successful business man. We can see his struggle to cut-off society’s perspective about how an orphan lives, his goals and dreams, and his affection to Dal Mi. He steals our attention since the first episode. From an orphan, he transforms to be successful man, financially stable, having a lot of sport cars — of course he got it with his own struggles.
Yes, he is successful, but when it comes to personal feeling, he denies and suppresses all his emotions.
He doesn’t understand what he feels for Dal Mi, he feels no right to be her man because he never sees himself as the source of happiness. Sometimes he shows his affection to Dal Mi in sharp stinging words.
You have to remember that he is an orphan, survivor of childhood trauma. He only thinks Dal Mi as an acquaintance who offers fake happiness. He is the first love of Dal Mi, yet they never met. They’ve only met through letters exchanged in the birdhouse. Ji Pyeong chose to use the name of math genius, Nam Do San, in his letters as a favor to Dal Mi’s grandmother. Fast forward, they grow up, but Dal Mi never recognizes Ji Pyeong. She thinks Nam Do San, her pen pal, is a brilliant albeit unsuccessful computer programmer.
The screenwriter makes Ji Pyeong as prince charming in this drama.
Ji Pyeong knows that there’s a big chance that he will not end up with Dal Mi, but he still shows his affection and love to Dal Mi.
He supports Dal Mi when she doesn’t know what to do, like he did when they met through letter exchanges. He analyzes everything, helps others (also Nam Do San, his rival) to be successful, and does small unimportant thing that could lead him to Dal Mi’s side. He never gets affection from his parents so he wants put others above himself.
But whoever Dal Mi is gonna choose to be her partner, I still LOVE Ji Pyeong’s character. He stands for himself, struggles to remove his childhood’s trauma, and still has goals to be a lovely man.
Last but not least, Kim Seon Ho is the best actor portrayal as Han Ji Pyeong.
