If you love K-dramas about music and “Twinkling Watermelon” was your favorite K-drama of 2023, then you need to check out “Namib” before 2024 ends. Starring the legendary actress Go Hyun Jung and the rising star Ryeoun, “Namib” tells a unique story where an idol with limitless talent, like an ocean, meets a star maker with luck as dry as a desert, who, once a passionate CEO, has now been thrown out of her entertainment company. Airing on Monday-Tuesday in the time slot of the beloved rom-com “Brewing Love,” “Namib,” with only two episodes so far, has already shown its potential to become a social commentary on the idol industry as a whole.
Warning: spoilers for episodes 1-2 ahead!
As soon as the opening credits end, the screen first turns black before showing a woman running from door to door, searching for someone backstage at a live audition broadcast contest, “Star Rise.” She opens another door; the room is filled with contestants, with only one chair vacant. The tag on the chair reads “Yoo Jin Woo.” The camera pans to the live broadcast contestant schedule, contestant Yoo Jin Woo is supposed to go fourth and only has 10 minutes left to appear on stage.
The woman, Kang Soo Hyun, Yoo Jin Woo’s mentor, tries her luck one last time by running toward the roof of the building, where she finally finds Yoo Jin Woo. She holds his hand and brings him on stage, hoping he will give the performance of his life and rise as a star. But can he do that?
The first sequence of “Namib” is set a few months in the future. Still, before we can see Jin Woo stepping onto the stage of “Star Rise” and performing for a chance to debut as an idol, first, we must witness his journey of being mentored by Soo Hyun, the infamous “star creator.”
Soo Hyun is the woman every woman wants to be. At a very young age, she founded an entertainment company, Pandora Entertainment, which hosts one of South Korea’s biggest K-Pop groups, RAID. She has a sweet son and a stay-at-home husband (Yoo Sang Hyun) who takes care of their son.
While it is common for executives in the music industry to focus on making money, Soo Hyun is passionate about creating stars that the general public will fall in love with. Her honesty in seeking pure talent is highlighted when she reviews the lineup of trainees selected for a new group that Pandora Entertainment is planning to debut. One of her subordinates assures her that the trainees are the best for the boy group because the employees extensively researched their school records, and the kids come from well-off families, minimizing potential issues with parents. This foreshadowing implies that parents from lower-income classes often use their children as opportunities to climb the social ladder, which can be problematic for the company. Visibly offended by this, Soo Hyun questions when the company began debuting trainees with higher scores instead of those the audience would genuinely love.
While Soo Hyun’s authenticity toward her work proves her love for music over profit, she is no Robin Hood. If there’s one thing she loves more than Pandora Entertainment, it is Jin Woo (Lee Jin Woo), not the trainee she will mentor in the future, but her son, who shares the same name. Soo Hyun’s son, Shim Jin Woo, was left partially deaf as a child due to a road accident and now she wishes to buy a sock factory for her son, where he can be the CEO and live comfortably. However, her goal is derailed when she is wrongfully fired from her company due to false accusations of abuse of power.
Meanwhile, Yoo Jin Woo, a high school student and trainee at Pandora Entertainment, has a unique story of his own. A fun fact about him? He joined the agency with full scores. He can sing, dance, rap, play the piano, and replicate any choreography after seeing it just once. A not-so-fun fact about him is that his parents have been treating him like a circus animal to make money. Starting with busking on the streets at age 8, they later sent him to TV shows and ultimately left him at Pandora Entertainment, taking a 200 million KRW loan in his name. The same day Soo Hyun is fired, Yoo Jin Woo is expelled from the trainee system and ordered to repay the 200 million KRW because the company cannot contact his mother.
Now, Soo Hyun needs 1 billion KRW to buy the factory, and Yoo Jin Woo needs 200 million KRW to settle his mother’s debt. One thing leads to another, and Soo Hyun decides to buy Yoo Jin Woo’s trainee contract, train him, make him win “Star Rise,” and then sell his exclusive rights to an idol agency for 1 billion KRW.
What makes “Namib” immediately captivating is its bold exploration of the exploitative nature of the K-Pop industry. The company prioritizes trainees with privileged backgrounds over more skilled ones, revealing its focus on maximizing profit over genuine talent. This practice not only undermines the art but also demoralizes talented trainees from less affluent backgrounds, often causing them to lose their passion for music altogether. In one instance this theory is proven when Yoo Jin Woo is telling his friend and fellow trainee how the trainees who are going to be selected are already selected and the evaluations are meaningless so they should not expected the unexpected.
“Namib” also highlights another disturbing aspect: parents who knowingly hand over their children to these exploitative systems, treating them as money-making machines. By the end of episode 2, Yoo Jin Woo has cut all ties with his mother, but hopefully, the later episodes will further highlight the depth of the trauma he endured as a child to emphasize the horrors faced by children in the entertainment industry.
Another compelling element of “Namib” is the evolving dynamic between Yoo Jin Woo and Soo Hyun. Although Soo Hyun is not abusive or manipulative, currently, she views Yoo Jin Woo as a means to earn 1 billion KRW. As her husband points out, she is essentially planning to sell someone else’s son to secure her own son’s future. However, the initial sequence from the near future, where Soo Hyun and Yoo Jin Woo are on the set of “Star Rise,” suggests a more genuine relationship. Having never experienced parental love, Yoo Jin Woo may find the care he needs from Soo Hyun and might even befriend Shim Jin Woo.
So, we await seeing them grow together and following Yoo Jin Woo’s journey to becoming a star.
Start watching “Namib”:
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Javeria is a binge-watching specialist who loves devouring entire K-dramas in one sitting. Good screenwriting, beautiful cinematography, and a lack of cliches are the way to her heart. As a music fanatic, she listens to multiple artists across different genres and stans the self-producing idol group SEVENTEEN. You can talk to her on Instagram @javeriayousufs
Currently watching: “Namib,” and “Squid Game Season 2.”
Looking forward to: “Motel California,” and “Reborn.”