Riders: Catch Tomorrow - first impressions

 It is visible from the start it isn't Main 3 drama. The synopsis from Asianwiki doesn't sound too exciting, right? 

Ki-Joon (Kim Dong-Wook) has been working at a large company for one year, but he is now sick and tired of being overworked at the company. He quits his job and starts a rickshaw business with friends Yoon-Jae (Choi Min), Joon-Wook (Yoon Jong-Hoon) and a former national cyclist Tae-Ra (Choi Yeo-Jin). Meanwhile, So-Dam (Lee Chung-Ah) begins part-time work at Ki-Joon's office. Ki-Joon falls in love with her at first sight. 

The only common thing is one over-controlling Mother-From-Hell.

Started to watch this because my friend, @arakiraz tweeted about this. But be advised, if nuna romance ends badly here, I will end you!

   Our three main characters are friends since school and they come from vastly different backgrounds. Out of them Junwuk is probably the most pitiful one, he's hardworking and smart, yet somehow can't get any steady work. He dreams of becoming a company worker with normal pay and all benefits that come from it. Meanwhile, Gijun works for one of the biggest companies - S-Group. (digression: this name sounds so nice to my withered from waiting heart I just smiled when heard it for the first time). He witnesses all kinds of abuse and malpractice inside the company (his co-worker went to the hospital, his work has been stolen, bribery etc.) and in result - he quits. And there's Yunjae, the son of a nigh-club owner who can sleep with any fairly attractive woman he sees.

Apart from our male protagonists, we have a variety of females here. Taera, a former national cyclist, was thrown out of the world of biking after being accused of doping. Judging from her diary, the accusations were false, but she got tired of fighting them off. And on the night she decided to end it all, she met Yunjae in his natural habitat which is 19+. Her telling him she just wanted to mess with him, not sleep with him, and showing him middle finger just before collapsing, was the highlight of the episode (also Yunjae praying to every God he could think of, even Sanshin). Sodam looks naive and fragile, but in reality she's a fairly strong woman, in quite dire situation - lack of money being the factor as she was fired from the café (where she met Yunjae who set his predatory eyes on her). She has her own will and opinions, she can put away her pride and ask for money, and most of all, she has dignity that prevents her to be a doormat for a paycheck. And then there's Miram, Junwuk's girlfriend, waiting for him to get a normal job and propose. She wants stability and financial support, even though she's a company worker. She supported Junwuk to the moment he failed in few consecutive job interviews after which he decided to break up. That's why she's accepting her co-worker's interest.

And yes, we do have a slightly disturbing pottery lady, hopelessly in love with Patrick Swayze from Ghost. This scene send me cackling like a half-mad crow.

The plot is fairly simple - to start a rikshaw business. However, as we are told, the start-up companies in Korea are bound to fail. Interesting thing though, I recently read that most millionaires in Korea inherited their wealth, and the number of self-made successful businessmen is horrifyingly low (the drama gave us the data of 1%). So I guess they used the real data to show that. I sensed a blade of criticism towards the laws and practices in Korea regarding starting new business and finding a niche for any new ventures. Here, the struggle is real (Sodam even asks Gijun when he'll start making money, cause up to that point, they're just spending).


I'll continue this drama, because I'm excited to see how the situation will develop, and hopefully the rikshaw business will be among this tiny 1% of successful businesses. Also, since I'm shallow, I'll be watching for Yunjae and Taera nuna romance (I hope!).

 And this lady knows how to handle the all-hands creeps. She also beat up the comic studio guy for touching her.