Despite being hardly known outside Korea and Japan, webtoons (comic strips or manhwa published online) are on the rise. South Korea is the leader in the advanced technology that allows the comic and graphic novel industry's digital transformation, and their market grew by 65 per cent in 2020 only. Korean companies specializing in this art form are rapidly extending their arms outside Asia, thanks also to the general increase in global popularity of South Korean culture, the so-called Hallyu. Like manga, they offer well proven stories to film and drama producers, minimizing risks and therefore, the entertainment industry's interest in them is growing rapidly. They are definitely here to stay, and we will hear more and more about them in the next years. Wisely, The Florence Korea Film Fest this year for the first time dedicates a whole section to them with 4 film adaptations. “Start Up” is one of them.
“Start Up” is screening at Florence Korea Film Festival
Taek-Il (Park Jung-Min) and Sang-Pil (Jung Hae-In) are 18 years old, best friends and fed up with school. All they strive for is starting to have an independent life on their own and build up their future. Sang-Pil is an orphan and lives with his sweet granny who seems to be heading towards dementia and Taek-Il lives with his young mother (Yum Jung-Ah), a former volleyball athlete with a powerful dunk shot she often aims straight to Taek-Il's face! The two friends are determined to drop out of school and find a way to earn money, but while Sang-Pil doesn't have anybody to answer to – apart from his senile gran – Taek-Il chooses to go for a bold move and leave the house. With his inseparable scooter, he ends up hungry and confused, in Gunsan, North Jeolla Province, in a Chinese restaurant where he finds a cheap bowl of noodle and also a job as a delivery man.
Owner Kong (Kim Jong-Soo) is a gentle and understanding man with a secret in his past and he can't resist helping others. In fact all his employees are a bunch of weird humans; run-away Taek-Il, another incredibly clumsy delivery boy and the very bizarre and mysterious cook Geo-Seok (Ma Dong-Seok). Last to join the gang is a bright red hair girl, Kyung-Joo (Choi Sung-Eun), who knows how to box and has a rumbling start with Taek-Il. This motley crew learns to live and work together, meanwhile, back in the city, Sang-Pil joins Global Financials as the youngest employee and is paired to the senior worker Kim Dong-Hwa (Yoon Kyung-Ho). Sang-Pil thinks he has found the ideal easy way to earn lots of money and naively ignores that it's just the “same old, same old” loan shark debt collecting job. He will slowly realize that, and he will have to question himself about being really cut for this job or not.
This tale of young best friends with a different and often clashing set of values, aching for entering adulthood with their own legs and starting to earn money, independence and credibility is certainly not new (“City of Rising Sun” comes to mind). However, Choi Jeong-yeol's fresh take on this brotherhood coming of age tale is, without a doubt, entertaining and up to date. None of the dark nihilism of the late 90's post crisis youth is here, although the appeal of easy money in becoming a small-tie crook is sadly still a recurrent theme in Korean cinema.
Based on the webcomic series “Shidong” by Jo Geum-San, “Start Up” retains that farcical touch that is typical of comics (webtoons, pardon me!) in the strong dramatisation of the characters; the often beaten up Taek-Il, the tomboy Kyung-Joo, the volleyball mum and especially the very physically comic cook Geo-Seok. Ma Dong-Seok is genuinely funny in the odd clothes of the eccentric cook who likes karaoke, K-pop band dancing routines and pink sweaters while harbouring a secret life and a secret desire to escape it. His robust build clashing with the camp look is a great slapstick comedy generator. Needless to say, he steals the show!
Oddly, Sang-Pil's capers, that unravel on a parallel level in the city, are much less funny and comedic. His descend into the low rank gangsterism is not amusing and it is where the film verges towards the cautionary tale. All the characters have strong desires and internal struggles, and it is well clear at any point, but comedy and drama are well measured and there is a lightness of touch in the storytelling and also in delivering a feel-good finale without sugar-coating it.
Quite refreshing is to see some female characters deviating from the usual pretty template and displaying some different kind of qualities, not least, their kick-ass skills. However, it would have been even more refreshing if their backstories were a bit more developed. The two leads are good, especially Park Jung-Min who had proved already to be not just a pretty face in his role of transgender woman Yoo-Yi in “Deliver Us from Evil”. Veteran actor Yoon Kyung-Ho in the role of senior-but-still-a-nobody debt collector is also able to give a humane side to his character.
All in all, “Start Up”, despite being firmly rooted in its demographic pool, is a rather watchable and enjoyable piece of entertainment where the webtoon spirit and mood are well transposed into the live action adaptation.
