Strong Girl Namsoon

Mixed feelings

My expectations for "Strong Girl Namsoon" were high, but the plot attempting to address too many stories across three generations of strong women turned out to be chaotic. From romantic aspects to personal growth and justice, the narrative felt scattered, leading me to moments of boredom where I contemplated abandoning the series. Despite a strong cast, the script had issues with numerous unresolved storylines involving antagonists, which seemed more intriguing than the main plot. I did finish it, but I wouldn't recommend it. I anticipated a more enjoyable experience akin to "Strong Woman Do Bong Soon," and while there were amusing scenes, it fell short of my expectations.

Read More

Weirdly Addicting

I must preface that I was completely captivated once again with the acting skills of Byeon Woo-seok. I was in shock for a while because the other two dramas I have seen him in had characters that were so sweet, and his eyes reflected something wholesome and kind. Yet this character was deeply sinister and violent.

Most of the story was good, super human strength passed down to the females in the family. They were smart, fearless and capable to a point.

My favorite was the Grandmother. She way coy and flirtatious, but carried about her business in a no nonsense attitude. She loved her family and was willing to sacrifice herself for them.

The stunt work wasn’t that good. When Nam-Soon was carrying men or heavy things her body placement and angles made the scenes look cartoonish rather than believable.

The story line wasn’t too bad. It was entertaining for the most part. Some of the acting was odd and didn’t really fit the character buildup of the FL in the first few chapters. There was no growth into her character except for the little bit in regards to the fire and her jumping in and out of windows to rescue people. She goes from naive free-spirit to instant actress and investigator in a heartbeat. She was eccentric and her character was over-acted in my opinion. (side note, they should have left her hair long, the haircut she had was t flattering at all.

The FL’s mother was portrayed beautifully. She appeared narcissistic and self-absorbed but had a heart for justice and second chances. And let’s face it, she rocked that leather riding suit like a pro.

The story progressed at an excellent pace, and the breadcrumbs that were left of Si-o’s character made you feel a little guilty for disliking him so much.

The only side story that was ended oddly was the homeless couple she first met when she arrived in Korea. The way the female character treated her male counterpart was a fitting ending. But it should have ended with him regretting his choices as she walked away.

I don’t really remember much of the music as it seemed to blend in too much and didn’t stand out enough to make an impression.

Overall, it was a good show, but it will be a long time before I rewatch.

Read More

I have to say that I liked this series a lot more than Do Bong Soon. Not only because Wooseok was there (wink wink) but I also found it more interesting than the first one. As always, the cast was great, but the ending left me cold, but since a few people told me what would happen, I was pretty much expecting it. Most also told me that the first episode was much better, but I stand by my opinion xd. I also laughed a lot and there were moments when we saw how important family is. Honestly, I didn't expect it to be fun, but I was really hooked from the very beginning. I really liked it and I can only recommend it. But considering that it ended the way it did, I hope there will be a sequel, we'll see.

Read More

All the quality you'd expect of a monkey with a typewriter.

This show was written like terrible anime filler episodes. The main characters constantly attack and villainise the main "villain" with an unhealthy obsession. This story is really about the main villain who is being bullied and betrayed by the main characters. Every character written on the "good" side are over-exaggerated, jester-equivalent archetypes that go through zany and irrelevant side events that can be literally skipped over and you miss nothing. The main character Nam-soon is an aggressive, thoughtless character that is clearly on the spectrum that other people tolerate, for some reason, despite the constant, cringey and awkward moments as she bumbles through the whole story. Her mother is a woman who thinks she's the smartest person in the room and constantly acts like she's 4D-chess-playing James Bond but has all the grace and cunning of Paul Blart the Mall Cop. The writers try so hard to make her a strong female role, but instead made her a cringe-inducing clown. The grandmother is just there. She has no purpose in the story other than to fill air time with something that isn't relevant to the story. She does not add anything to the story other than filling the episode with more mindless, nonsensical events to fill space between the 10 minutes of actual story. The main male character? Hard to notice he's even there. You could have cast a lama in a hat and it would have added as much to the show and they did. The writers wrote this show around the pain and anguish of the main villain and what brought him to do the awful things he does. They made the audience sympathise with him, his story, and his struggle, only to have him be betrayed, bullied, and antagonised by everyone in the show. You feel deeply sorry for the character and it makes the main "good" characters seem like clueless, awful, playground bullies. Even at the end of the show, the characters struggled to understand why the villain would do all those nice and caring things if he was so "evil." Their view was "oh, he was born in the wrong family, I guess, otherwise" and I quote "he might have been smart." If you want a show where you deeply hate the main characters and strongly sympathise with the main villain only to have them be abused and mistreated by people that the world says are "good", all while wasting your time with hours and hours of useless "obligatory anime beach episode" filler with all the filling capabilities of an orangutan throwing poop, then this is the show for you. Otherwise, do yourself the favour and don't watch it.

Read More

Better than expected

Byeon Woo-seok is definitely the most eye catching thing about this show but overall I don't think it deserves all these low ratings. Story wise, it isn't as good as it's predecessor, but enjoyable enough. BW does a great job as the villain Ryu Shi-o. He manages to not fall into the pit of a 2D bad guy and his character was better written than that of Gang Nam-soon whose overly bright personality just got on my nerves after awhile.

BW really shows his range here as the character is a million mile away from his role in Lovely Runner. Wearing tailored suits and a menacing glare, there is no doubt he's a dangerous killer, but you are also given insights as to why he is like he is. He deserved a better ending to his story, but what got me about it was Ryu Shi-o was an intelligent character, but really it was so obvious Gang Nam-soon was a spy. She barely tried to hide it, which was something he surely would have noticed day 1.

Read More

Fun, Fun, Fun

I cannot understand all the bad reviews for this show. Its just a fun show that never takes itself seriously with the possible exception of the bad guy. If you start with the framework that everybody in the show is crazy then you will undoubtedly enjoy it. I laughed all the way through Namson's naivety and cluelessness. The lack of logic in her heroic deeds was just part of the weirdness.
Her beautiful mother, Guem Joo, was equally as reckless and crazy with her "save the world" obsession. Most of the other characters were no less quirky, especially the totally dysfunctional family.
Anyway, I watch a lot of K-Dramas and the characters in this one were some of my all time favorites.

Read More

Nam Soon & Bong Soon are my new favorite superheroes!! Outdo Marvel by far!!

Loved this drama! Don’t listen to the nonsense comments , this drama gave me the chills in a good way! I get like the ending kinda sucked,
but I can’t stop raving how much Nam Soon & Bong Soon are my new favorite female superheroes ?‍🦸‍♀️

I mean c’mon most superheroes ( like Marvel’s Avengers ) are kinda rough around the edges and such but Nam-Soon has such unique super powers that she’d oust all of them !! And she’s born with them unlike half of marvels characters who got them through unnatural circumstances… ( hulk, Spider-Man , Captain America, etc. ALL lab experiments!)

Read More

Promising and Fun Start that became Unwatchable

THE GOOD: The show was really amusing for the first several episodes. A superhero premise demands suspension of disbelief and this one is almost a parody (which actually made it better and a lot of fun). Enjoyed the BA mom, naive/pure daughter, and comedic relief grandma . The boy toys were a satirical reversal of older superhero shows. CGI was in keeping with the overall campy vibe. It all worked... at first.

THE BAD: Unfortunately, the characters became one dimensional and grating, especially grandma. Romance lacked chemistry and credibility. The villain was boring. The plot line was unfocused, tediously slow, and increasingly uninteresting. Although this is subjective, the daughter's hair cut made her significantly less attractive--the actress is a beautiful woman and mom has unlimited money, so how could she look worse after the makeover? The actors deserved better writers.

THE UGLY: By Episode 8, there was a growing evangelistic worldview being preached that is out of place in a light, entertaining RomCom. Socialism = Good, Capitalism = Evil (which seems odd coming out of a divided Korea that clearly displays the opposite). Women = Strong/Intelligent, Men=Weak, Dumb, and/or Evil. (Etc.) When the sermonizing outweighed the entertainment, I quit watching.

Read More

don’t buy into the hate - it’s an entertaining show : )

y’all are a bit weird!! why the hate? I don’t get it. Yes we all have a crush on Byeon Woo-Seok but it’s kinda cuckoo to base our opinion only on that. He was playing a villain after all. albeit one who actually had a heart at times and had a tough upbringing, still a villain though.

Personally I would like to say that this show was entertaining!! i liked it. I laughed, I shed a few tears, I swooned and I wanted to to know how it would end. I ain’t disappointed. it’s not perfect, it has its loose ends and so on but it’s definitely entertaining, kinda cute too. I really like Nam-soon ‘innocence’ - it was refreshing and it made for some funny scenes. There are lots of characters to discover, surely you’ll appreciate at least a few.

my only negative feedback would be that this show is poorly titled it should have been ‘strong women’ as it really about three generations and not one.

I have yet to watch the first one so can’t compare.

that’s my two cents. Give it a try if only for the beautiful landscapes of Mongolia and to have a few laughs.

Read More

Amazing to spread awareness of drugs if it reached the right audience in the right way

I understand that they wanted to bring up the issue of drugs and spread some awareness, all the suffering it causes because it was really disturbing seeing people getting addicted to them and behaving senselessly under its impact.
But it is really an immature action by the writing and directing team for making the role of the drug dealer oh-so glamorous and pitiful to create discussions and mixed opinions. Because, rather than understanding the main importance of the drama, those unnecessary scenes of the so-called romance and chemistry and his past has diverted the attention to the villian.

Every person has a hard life but what makes heroes and villains polar apart is that heroes feel content by being selfless and helping others, and we humans are not capable of being as selfless as them because we are not perfect and selfless as them. But villains are villains because they value their emotions more than others and moral conduct. We people have both good and bad in us, but what eventually makes us good or bad is what we decide to follow despite how our life has been. Modern-day romanticisation of villains and evil characters has become extreme. In modern times, it is taught that it is ok to not be ok and to have flaws, but I don't understand how a person is able to forgive an evil man after all his wrong doings.
Has everyone clearly forgotten basic humanity, treating him like a total victim by considering all the people he had affected just for his business as pigs for slaughter. Like do they not have a life and family too? What is so important in this man that he can affect and kill people just like that as if they are minfless dirt under his shoes?
Yes, he had a traumatizing past that no one should ever experience, but what gives him the right to give such an experience to everyone around him?

I can understand if fans find the cast's acting cringy because they just want the female idol to be a relatable, hopless romantic, funny person and fall for the handsome, charming male lead and have lots of chemistry. But this drama is not the typical romance drama that you are looking for. The actual male lead of the drama is a true hero who protected the female lead, helped her when in need, trully cared for, while the villian only found her as an asset because of her powers, testing her for her limits, plotting her family's murder, threatening her with drugs. But people find this to be true love and call her out for betraying him... I mean, what else could she have done instead? What would you have done? Would you also abandon your loving and caring parents for a druggie and drug dealer who is anyday ready to kill people and treat you torturously if you disappoint them?

Read More

disappointed

I was looking forward to this drama as swdbs was the first drama I've watched and my fav. I have been disappointed.

The first episodes were so good! I kept looking forward to saturdays and sundays. But I feel like the story was focused more on the grandma's love life than nam soon's. The chem was so much better with the villain than with the ml, that I started to lose interest. At ep 10-12 (I think) the relationship between nam soon and hee sik started developing too fast that it was superficial. I was team ml but i hated the fact that it was so focused on the villain. I understand that they did that to enhance the effect of breaking the villains heart, but it overpowered the chemistry between nam soon and hee sik. + I didn't like how the fl acted like a child. at first it was cute or wtv but later it felt like hee sik fell in love with a child.

I'm not saying Its super bad, but I wouldn't waste my time watching it if I were you.

Read More

Decent but lacking in many ways

Strong Woman Do Bongsoon is one of my favorite dramas, so I was really excited when they announced Strong Girl Gang Namsoon. Unfortunately, they did not really deliver with this follow-up series.

For one thing, why is it called Strong Girl Gang Namsoon when for a majority of the show it feels like her mother, Hwang Geumju, is the protagonist? While I liked that we got three different storylines with three different generations, I often felt they preferred Geumju over Namsoon for the main story.

Namsoon was incredibly irritating to me for half of the show too. She was so headstrong and never thought before she acted, but there was rarely a consequence to her actions. It was annoying to just see her doing what she wanted with no repercussions despite being constantly warned. She felt very much like a Mary Sue.

I hated the storyline with Bread Song. It felt so disconnected and annoying for the entire show and for it to lead up to a cliffhanger in the final episode was even more irritating.

The only good thing about this show was Ryu Sio, played by Byeon Wooseok. His character’s backstory was incredibly interesting and made him very sympathetic to me. I kept hoping there would be a bigger evil that would give him a chance to become a hero, but it didn’t happen. I was disappointed especially in the way that his character ended and finding out that Binbin, his only friend, was alive and still evil.

The romantic bits between Namsoon and Heeshik were cute, but it felt like they instantly fell in love within 3-4 episodes and no time was spent directly developing their relationship. While it worked for me, it was not the strongest. Also, why did they never come back around to the fact he got hit in the head with her horse’s bell?

I really am disappointed that the show ended by setting up for another one. It left too many loose ends, which is not something I’m used to with k-drama. I’m blaming it’s rising popularity in the West that’s leading to things being done in parts or seasons instead of just finishing up a show in one go like they used to.

Overall, this series is quite funny and had some great storytelling, but had too many plotlines going on that made it convoluted and silly. The final episode feels like a speed run to tie up loose ends and also set up a follow-up series which left me feeling disappointed. Aside from the name and concept, this show is really nothing like Strong Woman Do Bongsoon and it barely deserves to be considered related to it. If you are a fan of the original series, you really won’t miss anything if you skip this one.

Read More