An interesting drama showcasing the background behind the Korean entertainment world, its business practices, its hiring procedures, its production values, its competition between the different big talent agencies, Namib (2024-5) stars an attractive cast who bring their characters to life very realistically. After several working titles during production the title Namib was chosen because it meant something beautiful.

I was mostly impressed by the male lead's beautiful performance, Ryeo Un (Twinkling Watermelon, The Secret Romantic Guesthouse), followed by the veteran lead actress' performance, Ko Hyun Jung (Sandglass, The Queen's Classroom, Spring Days, Dear My Friends, Return, Queen Mantis, films The Actresses and A Tiger In Winter). I was also happy to see actor Yoon Sang Hyun again who had been instrumental to the success of classic Korean dramas such as Secret Garden, I Hear Your Voice, My Fair Lady and Gapdong. Another Secret Garden alumni actor also showed up, this time playing a villain type, Lee Seung Jun (Hyde Jekyll and I, Descendants Of The Sun, Item, Castaway Diva, and many more!). Two other fine young male performances were given by Lee Ki Taek (Moonshine) and Lee Jin Woo (Crushology 101), and a humorous hire was made with older actor In Gyo Jin (My Country: The New Age, When The Camellia Blooms). All he has to do is enter a scene and you feel like laughing! He just has that kind of a face. :)

The drama was written by Eom Sung Min and co-directed by Han Sang Jae and Kang Min Gu, and it is available to watch currently on VIKI, Viu, and Genie TV. It flows smoothly as a story and it boasts a very nice OST, appropriate for its K-Pop themes.

The Story:

Talented, hard-working, successful K-Pop music producer Kang Su Hyun (Ko Hyun Jung) has trained potential music Idols with her own flair and due diligence for many years. She is well respected at her company, Pandora Entertainment. However, her own family life is difficult; her teenage son Shim Jin Woo (Lee Jin Woo) is hard of hearing because of a car accident he suffered from as a child, and her husband Shim Joon Seok (Yoon Sang Hyun) resents his wife because she is the major breadwinner of her family while he has played house-husband for a decade, responsible for the daily care of their disabled son. He had given up his own music producer career to take care of their son. Now his wife is co-CEO of Pandora and his career is in the tank.

Then suddenly, because of external interference by jealous rival entertainment company execs, Su Hyun unfairly gets fired from Pandora Entertainment. To try and salvage her career in the music production industry Su Hyun considers starting a new project to create her own Star. She begins her own independent agency and she scours older videos of wannabe K-Pop Idols from Pandora's library of talent, in the hopes of finding someone who had been overlooked by Pandora for stardom.

From this personal investigation she chooses a handsome young man of mysterious background named Yoo Jin Woo (Ryeo Un) as her first and primary trainee for future stardom. Yoo Jin Woo had trained to become an Idol for the past 10 years but he had scary family troubles that had held him back from being chosen as an Idol, such as his parents' unhappy marriage and their abuse and neglect of him. The agencies look for Idols who have secure family backgrounds, for publicity purposes. Yoo Jin Woo had failed that test multiple times, even though videos had shown him very talented musically from childhood: singing, dancing, and playing the guitar beautifully.

Yoo Jin Woo now restarts his training in earnest with Su Hyun, and she even allows him to stay at their apartment home since he's broke financially. Happily, Yoo Jin Woo gets along very well with her own hard-of-hearing son Shim Jin Woo and he even intercedes for him when he's bullied at school due to his disability, essentially becoming his bodyguard as they finish up school together. Then Su Hyun smartly encourages her estranged husband Joon Seok to work as Yoo Jin Woo's new music producer, preparing him for performances in future. This helps their marriage become more secure over time.

Lurking in the background, spying on this independent entertainment family, are several rivals in various competing companies such as Star Rise and the new CEO of Pandora, Jang Hyun Chul (Lee Seung Joon), who hates Su Hyun, unfairly blaming her for the early death of his sister. He seeks revenge on her and her new Idol trainee. He secretly hires a nightclub exec named Chris (Lee Ki Taek) to approach Yoo Jin Woo and promise him a future lucrative job in the nightclub industry, paying even more money than he would receive if he became an Idol. He gives Yoo Jin Woo an entry level job for a few hours in the evenings as a guard at the nightclub, but Yoo Jin Woo is cautious about him and his promises from the beginning. Chris and CEO Hyun Chul are up to no good, and even specialize in promoting illegal drugs to vulnerable people. Then to make matters even more stressful for Yoo Jin Woo his selfish mother (Lee Joo Young) reappears in his life after many years and tries to coddle up to him, hoping to get money out of him now that he might soon be successful financially as an Idol. Old wounds die hard and Jin Woo has trouble forgiving her.

Finally Su Hyun and her husband are successful with making Yoo Jin Woo a Top Star Idol. Su Hyun even nobly and sacrificially hands him over to a more successful established music agency, Mega Entertainment, run by its clever CEO Park Sung Hoon (Park Jae Yoon). Yoo Jin Woo has become like a second son to her and she wants him aligned with the very best agency in South Korea. Villains Jang Hyun Chul and Chris are also eventually exposed and arrested for their interfering crimes and sent to prison.

I usually don't give away End Spoilers in my reviews but in this drama's case I am going to make an exception because I thought the ending was disappointing in that it has Su Hyun taking off for TWO YEARS after she releases Idol Yoo Jin Woo from her agency, and then she travels the world -- and we have no idea WHY! Hello??? She has a disabled son, a husband who needs help with running their new agency, and she has a mother with dementia who is in a nursing home!!! How do you justify an irresponsible ending like that??? Plus how was she affording a trip around the world? On what money, when she gave away her Idol for no money! I was just shaking my head in amazement. It seemed like the ending was just tacked on with no real thought as to what a responsible mature woman would do after achieving her main professional goal. Otherwise I would have definitely given this nice drama an A grade. At least she finally walks into a Christmas party at a restaurant in the last few minutes with family and friends there and everyone is thrilled to see her. (WHY, after she deserted them for two years???). LOL!

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