For those who love Ok-dramas about music and “Twinkling Watermelon” was your favourite Ok-drama of 2023, then that you must take a look at “Namib” earlier than 2024 ends. Starring the legendary actress Go Hyun Jung and the rising star Ryeoun, “Namib” tells a novel story the place an idol with limitless expertise, like an ocean, meets a star maker with luck as dry as a desert, who, as soon as a passionate CEO, has now been thrown out of her leisure firm. Airing on Monday-Tuesday within the time slot of the beloved rom-com “Brewing Love,” “Namib,” with solely two episodes to date, has already proven its potential to change into a social commentary on the idol trade as an entire.
Warning: spoilers for episodes 1-2 forward!
As quickly because the opening credit finish, the display first turns black earlier than exhibiting a lady working from door to door, looking for somebody backstage at a reside audition broadcast contest, “Star Rise.” She opens one other door; the room is stuffed with contestants, with just one chair vacant. The tag on the chair reads “Yoo Jin Woo.” The digicam pans to the reside broadcast contestant schedule, contestant Yoo Jin Woo is meant to go fourth and solely has 10 minutes left to seem on stage.
The girl, Kang Soo Hyun, Yoo Jin Woo’s mentor, tries her luck one final time by working towards the roof of the constructing, the place she lastly finds Yoo Jin Woo. She holds his hand and brings him on stage, hoping he’ll give the efficiency of his life and rise as a star. However can he do this?
The primary sequence of “Namib” is ready just a few months sooner or later. Nonetheless, earlier than we are able to see Jin Woo stepping onto the stage of “Star Rise” and performing for an opportunity to debut as an idol, first, we should witness his journey of being mentored by Soo Hyun, the notorious “star creator.”
Soo Hyun is the lady each girl desires to be. At a really younger age, she based an leisure firm, Pandora Leisure, which hosts one among South Korea’s largest Ok-Pop teams, RAID. She has a candy son and a stay-at-home husband (Yoo Sang Hyun) who takes care of their son.
Whereas it is not uncommon for executives within the music trade to deal with being profitable, Soo Hyun is captivated with creating stars that most people will fall in love with. Her honesty in looking for pure expertise is highlighted when she opinions the lineup of trainees chosen for a brand new group that Pandora Leisure is planning to debut. One among her subordinates assures her that the trainees are the very best for the boy group as a result of the workers extensively researched their college information, and the youngsters come from well-off households, minimizing potential points with dad and mom. This foreshadowing implies that oldsters from lower-income lessons typically use their kids as alternatives to climb the social ladder, which might be problematic for the corporate. Visibly offended by this, Soo Hyun questions when the corporate started debuting trainees with larger scores as a substitute of these the viewers would genuinely love.
Whereas Soo Hyun’s authenticity towards her work proves her love for music over revenue, she isn’t any Robin Hood. If there’s one factor she loves greater than Pandora Leisure, it’s Jin Woo (Lee Jin Woo), not the trainee she is going to mentor sooner or later, however her son, who shares the identical identify. Soo Hyun’s son, Shim Jin Woo, was left partially deaf as a toddler as a result of a highway accident and now she needs to purchase a sock manufacturing facility for her son, the place he might be the CEO and reside comfortably. Nonetheless, her objective is derailed when she is wrongfully fired from her firm as a result of false accusations of abuse of energy.
In the meantime, Yoo Jin Woo, a highschool pupil and trainee at Pandora Leisure, has a novel story of his personal. A enjoyable truth about him? He joined the company with full scores. He can sing, dance, rap, play the piano, and replicate any choreography after seeing it simply as soon as. A not-so-fun truth about him is that his dad and mom have been treating him like a circus animal to generate profits. Beginning with busking on the streets at age 8, they later despatched him to TV exhibits and finally left him at Pandora Leisure, taking a 200 million KRW mortgage in his identify. The identical day Soo Hyun is fired, Yoo Jin Woo is expelled from the trainee system and ordered to repay the 200 million KRW as a result of the corporate can’t contact his mom.
Now, Soo Hyun wants 1 billion KRW to purchase the manufacturing facility, and Yoo Jin Woo wants 200 million KRW to settle his mom’s debt. One factor results in one other, and Soo Hyun decides to purchase Yoo Jin Woo’s trainee contract, practice him, make him win “Star Rise,” after which promote his unique rights to an idol company for 1 billion KRW.
What makes “Namib” instantly charming is its daring exploration of the exploitative nature of the Ok-Pop trade. The corporate prioritizes trainees with privileged backgrounds over extra expert ones, revealing its deal with maximizing revenue over real expertise. This observe not solely undermines the artwork but in addition demoralizes gifted trainees from much less prosperous backgrounds, typically inflicting them to lose their ardour for music altogether. In a single occasion this idea is confirmed when Yoo Jin Woo is telling his good friend and fellow trainee how the trainees who’re going to be chosen are already chosen and the evaluations are meaningless so they need to not anticipated the surprising.
“Namib” additionally highlights one other disturbing side: dad and mom who knowingly hand over their kids to those exploitative methods, treating them as money-making machines. By the top of episode 2, Yoo Jin Woo has minimize all ties along with his mom, however hopefully, the later episodes will additional spotlight the depth of the trauma he endured as a toddler to emphasise the horrors confronted by kids within the leisure trade.
One other compelling factor of “Namib” is the evolving dynamic between Yoo Jin Woo and Soo Hyun. Though Soo Hyun will not be abusive or manipulative, at the moment, she views Yoo Jin Woo as a method to earn 1 billion KRW. As her husband factors out, she is basically planning to promote another person’s son to safe her personal son’s future. Nonetheless, the preliminary sequence from the close to future, the place Soo Hyun and Yoo Jin Woo are on the set of “Star Rise,” suggests a extra real relationship. Having by no means skilled parental love, Yoo Jin Woo could discover the care he wants from Soo Hyun and would possibly even befriend Shim Jin Woo.
So, we await seeing them develop collectively and following Yoo Jin Woo’s journey to changing into a star.
Begin watching “Namib”:
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Javeria is a binge-watching specialist who loves devouring complete Ok-dramas in a single sitting. Good screenwriting, lovely cinematography, and an absence of cliches are the best way to her coronary heart. As a music fanatic, she listens to a number of artists throughout totally different genres and stans the self-producing idol group SEVENTEEN. You may speak to her on Instagram @javeriayousufs
At the moment watching: “Namib,” and “Squid Sport Season 2.”
Trying ahead to: “Motel California,” and “Reborn.”