Strong Girl Nam Soon

Low stakes and oversaturation of characters

Before going into this, it was already pretty clear that Strong Woman DBS, which had one of the most iconic kdrama couples ever, was a difficult act to follow. I'm going to try and get all the comparisons out of the way first. While I wasn't a HUGE fan of the humor in SWDBS, it knew well enough to take serious moments seriously, and everything else was strong enough to make up for it; I loved the leads and the murder plot was thrilling and high-stakes. This drama has the same issue with its humor, but its other aspects are either weak or worse.

The humor just isn't my style at all. There's a lot of physical humor and over-acting; it might be fine if it was only used in select moments, but I felt like it permeated every second of drama, even big fight scenes and what should've been tense moments with antagonists. Overall it made the entire tone of the drama seem kind of off — as if nothing actually mattered because it was all for laughs.

The drug plot felt low-stakes not just because of the tone, but also just because of the way it was written. I don't think anyone going into this drama should expect any profound commentary on drugs or class issues in South Korea. The drama seems to try every once in a while with an offhanded comment, but it really doesn't go much deeper and it's even self-contradictory sometimes. There's parts where they touch upon it, but they also make its lead a "good billionaire" because she's kind with her money and because she pulled herself up by her bootstraps. It felt contradictory to any commentary, just so viewers could get some #girlboss moments.

In terms of characters — I'm not a fan of ensembles to begin with and this drama is a good example of why. It felt like there were so many characters and so many subplots that none of them got enough screentime to be complete, and less important subplots took over more engaging ones. The drama spent SO MUCH screentime on the grandmother's romance, which felt slapstick and unserious, while Namsoon and Heeshik's screentime began to dwindle. And as the drama went on it felt like more and more antagonists were getting introduced as random side characters, and because they served no purpose other than to trigger plot points and had no backstory or personality, they began to blur into each other.

The only antagonist that really had a good story was the villain Ryu Shi-O, but my bigger issue with him plays into my low-stakes criticism. He was just...a bad villain. He has physical abilities, sure, but his plans, goals, and motivations weren't that clear, and most of all I just can't believe that he couldn't piece together anything our protagonists were planning when they were being so obvious about it. I mean...Namsoon's acting...

With so many things going on, romantic lines didn't have enough screentime for good development. I'd already mentioned not caring about the grandmother's romance, and while Namsoon/Heeshik were the best in the show, it felt like they didn't really go deeper than both of them being cute.

Honestly, I think there's an audience for this somewhere out there — maybe someone who likes quirkiness and shenanigans — but it's not me. I'm giving this a 2 (and not a 1) just because it didn't utterly infuriate me as much as me just not really caring.

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THE BIGGEST FLOP IN KRAMA HISTORY ❗️

DON'T BOTHER WASTING YOUR TIME ON THIS BUFFOONERY!!!!

I know some of you will be like it can't possibly be that bad well TRUST ME IT IS... and if you don't want to trust me read a couple of the reviews or comments and see for yourself! The people who are rating this higher than a 1-3 out of 10 have seriously GOD AWFUL TASTE and if you are a child, I hope you grow up, bc immediately no. Nobody can honestly tell me they sat and enjoyed this 😭💀 If you did I will pray to the kdrama gods that you GET BETTER ACUITY! I really am rooting for you in the foreseeable future fr.

To the people who are considering watching, you are better off STAYING FAR AWAY from this nonsensical parody. Everyone in this drama is so goddamn overbearing that it makes my blood boil and will definitely make you want to stop watching by episode 3 or 4.

The fact that this show is called Strong Girl Nam Soon when her mom and grandma take over majority of the screen time with their own drama and love lives is soooo sad, it's not even funny. Main leads have zero chemistry and their kisses are childish and cringe. Seems like neither one of them is into it and is forced to be there.

The saving grace of the show is the villain, Ryu Shi Oh. I know many of you are like us and are interested in watching because you saw a cool edit or BWS is your bias. Either way... just continue watching the tiktok edits... don't bother supporting this sad excuse for a superhero / family drama just because your faves are in it. Idk if some people have a thing for dramas that are sooooo bad that they think they're good but I can guarantee this isn't one of those dramas.

AVOID THIS DRAMA AT ALL COSTS!!!!

REAL RATING A SAMSHING: 0/10

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This is the 2nd worse kdrama I watched this year. Just bad. I am not comparing to Strong Woman b/c I never saw it. I literally started watching this b/c of the short youtube videos of Si-O. I love a good looking guy, villian even better (that's my jam). I actually thought the 1st three episodes were fairly good even with some of the shenanigans going on.

The reason this show is terrible is the writing. Period, point blank. A show can be an over the top comedy/fantasy/drama. That doesn't mean the writing gets to be bad and the audience has to accept the many inconsistency in the story. The plot still has to be logical and reasonably entertaining but this wasn't. There were way too many unnecessary characters and too many unnecessary subplots.

This was the worst, non-climatic ending to a villian I have ever seen!! I didn't expect Si-O to do a complete 180, that makes no sense. But to not have an epic, all out fight scene with the "hero" and the villian was just plain stupid and Namsoon being immobilized by drugs doesn't count. They litterally end the villain and then there were 40 more minutes of show left. A show that, at this point no one cared about.

The best thing about this show is Byeon Woo Seok. That's it.

11/26/23

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Watching it only for the villain

Title itself says a lot. I am watching it currently for ryu shi oh. He could have been the spotlight, a hero but no. The story is all over the place. Sometimes i'm like, "whats going on and why am i watching this?" Because its so random and messy. Funny part is, I started watching this, mid series from like 8th ep for the villain and i still understood the storyline of the drama. Watch this drama if its your first kdrama. Otherwise no. Especially if you have watched strong woman do bong soon. Ryu shi oh is the only good thing. Good back story and could have had a good character development. If the producers wanted us to root for villain and hate the main leads then good job, it worked.

Rant on characters:

Hwang geum ju is the most annoying ml i ever felt. I didn't feel any motherly vibes from her even if the show tried. Only started crying and caring when her own son was almost dying from drugs. She literally owns a hospital and is fricking rich but didn't give an F when the father asked her for help. I didn't feel bad when she was crying and hugging him. Her character felt narcissistic in a bad way. Doesn't she care about the fact that she just got reunited with her long lost daughter?? Any loving/caring mother would have spend days with their reunited children since they were not there when she grew up. But this lady didn't care that her daughter is going right into the lion's den (ik nam soon is hella strong but still, she is her daughter that she just reunited with!)

The granny romance plot is just useless. Its not funny either. If the granny character did not exist in the story...the story would still be the same, no change lmao. Same like Geum ju, no care for her grand daughter or grand son, cares more about her lover.


Gang i-sik is a good detective, i cannot deny it, he cares for his teammate and doesn't stop even if he is in danger. But as a romantic lead, he had no chemistry with nam soon. He met her, saw her cute and was already falling in love without giving us any chemistry. Could have just stick with police/detective work.

The father of Nam soon. My second favorite character that i sympathized and felt something for. You can see that he deeply cared for his children, does show guilt for losing his daughter. Does spend time with her for the time he lost with her when she was a child, tried his best to find out his son's sickness, since he had no choice, he went to detective. Always get pushed back because of Geum ju, he didn't deserve that man.

Nam soon is fine . Her acting sometimes annoy me but she was fine. should have not betrayed Ryu shi oh. Has more chemistry with Ryu shi oh than gang i-sik.

Ryu shi oh, my man, he was the only interesting character with a backstory. Could have explored about it a bit more. You should be making me hate him but the producers made me empathize with him. Makes sense as to why he was the way he was. Him changing from his rage mode to soft mode when he beat up the truck driver on ep 12th and then immediately voice mailing nam soon made me feel something that none of the main leads made me feel. He doesn't force himself on her, openly speaks up what he feels towards her. He is a charming man. he didn't deserve this ending.

Other characters i liked were the "no make up pretty unni" lmao, that lady doogo coworker beside tseg tseg. And that Russian bodyguard who works for shi oh, i think his name is kyle or something.

Only rewatch value for watching Ryu shi oh scenes.

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l'ho vista sperando un finale migliore per Ryu Si Oh

sinceramente pensavo di droppare la serie all'episodio 4, l'ho continuata solo per Ryu Si Oh, che nel bene o nel male ha portato avanti da solo la serie, farlo uscire di scena così è stata una stronzata, con il modo giusto avrebbe avuto un glow up migliore..
Nam Soon di un imbarazzo totale.. non la commento nemmeno per quanto mi abbia totalmente delusa il suo personaggio, io capisco l'infanzia lontano dalla società, vissuta in campagna con quattro persone in croce, ma non credo che il popolo mongolo sia così stupido come in qualche modo lo rappresenta lei..
la madre? che dire.. pessima.. non solo si sente superiore al resto delle persone perché ha forza e ricchezza.. (no il fatto che si "sdebiti" con chiunque tratti bene la figlia non la giustifica).
uno dei temi trattati, come il delicatissimo tema sull'obesità, fatto passare per una storiella tappa buco..
la storia d'amore della nonna mi sarebbe piaciuta un po di più se il vero villani fosse stato il fidanzato della nonna..
il poliziotto, per quanto carino possa essere l'attore, lho trovato a tratti inutile..
questa serie è un vero FLOP

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Garbage Sequel - BWS & Min/Bong Cameo are the only Redeeming Factor (Hence 1 Point Each for Them)

No one can deny the popularity of Strong Woman Do Bong Soon. It might have its flaws, but is one of the most popular K-dramas that can be termed as a Classic of 2015-2020 times. The Bong-Bong & Min-Min couple is legendary both on-screen and off-screen, so this is definitely a series that you can recommend to others and rewatch.

Hence, when this spin-off/sequel was announced with such a strong cast, expectations were sky-high. For me, I was both excited and nervous, cause it is not easy to live up to Prequels, especially when they are such a hit. Still keeping the hope alive, courtesy the strong cast that the drama had got - I expected great things to happen! Alas, it did not and here is my breakdown of what went wrong and why only Byeok Woo Seok's portrayal of the charming antagonist Ryu Shi-Oh is the only redeeming point in this drama!

----------------------------------------------------------| SHORT REVIEW |----------------------------------------------------------

♥ Best Things About this Drama ♥

1. Ryu Shi-Oh: one of the best portrayal of antagonists in a long time. He will charm your pants off & definitely deserved more than what he got in screen-time. He is the reason, I could watch the drama every weekend and not drop it!
2. The cameo of our beloved Bong-Min Couple from prequel: Warning: This is just 5-10 minutes in early episode. But even in that short time, they did more than what transpires in the rest of the drama by the main protagonists.

✘What Went Terribly Wrong for this Drama ✘

1. Biased portrayal of women power: as a woman, I personally felt the 3 women were over the top and borderline abused their powers. The heroics were illogical and meh.
2. Unnecessary side characters: the poor couple, fake Namsoon and lover Barista - complete waste of talent, time! Randomly introduced, not fleshed out and then dropped without much notice.
3. Zero Chemistry of Main Leads: Zilch, Nada, Nothing you feel when you see them onscreen. The butterflies are zombies in the stomach after seeing them, especially when you compare to the toe-curling adorable couple Bong-Min in S1.

✧❅✦ SUMMARY ✦❅✧
• Overall hugely disappointing. I think those like me who watched it while it aired did it only cause of the villain.
• Anyone thinking of watching it now - you have been warned. Maybe you can watch the whole show in 2x to get the gist of it and slow down for parts/characters that you like.
• I know there is a Season 3 in the works - but if it is anything like this show, I am skipping it. The only factor we liked in this series is gone, so not worth it. Unless they take note and make it more like Season 1.
• My rankings for acting is 9/10 only for Ryu Shi-Oh, rest of the actors are great as individuals but they had very unlikable traits as characters. The rewatch score too is only cause I would like to watch the villain charm us again, and again.
• Just cause of Byeok Woo Seok and the Cameo of Park Bo Young and Park Hyung Sik - I am rating this series a 6. They individually were a 10/10 of course. But take them out and this series would be a 0-2 rating or entirely Skipped.


----------------------| DETAILED REVIEW - Expanding more on Best & Worst Parts of this Show |------------------------

✧❅✦ BEST PART OF THIS DRAMA ✦❅✧

❤️ Ryu Shi-Oh:
While we always want the heroes to win, good to triumph over evil, there is always some antagonists that are hearts bleed out for. You know that had they been in a better environment, had there been a helping/loving hand extended to them - they would shine bright, perhaps brighter than the main leads. You would not justify their evil doings, no, but then you would think that had you been there - you would have tried to understand them, maybe see things from their perspective and bought them to light. They are antagonists you would root for - as their characters are so well written and so well portrayed, that you can't help but be enamored and be a fan. Some names that come to my mind - Thanos, Joker, Pain, Itachi, Light Yagami, Yoo Ji-tae
as Woo-jin Lee, Darth Vader and so on. They have a fanbase and following of their own, and it is quite justified cause they are such impactful characters.

May be it is not the same level, but Ryu Shi-Oh would definitely be on this list for me. I had seen the actor in a charming puppy kind of ML role in 20th Century Girl, and I was smitten. But when he arrived in this drama, the aura/charms and overall screen presence were nothing short of earth-shattering. While from the start you know he would be doomed, but still you wanted to root for him - and that little moments were he left behind his dark persona and was just another boy trying hard to be loved and make his place in this world. Yes, his means were not right and we wish he had been dealt better cards in life, but he so far was the only reason - I looked forward to watching this drama every weekend, and the rating I give for acting and rewatch is solely cause of him.

I cannot wait for Byeok Woo Seok's other projects - cause going by the popularity of his video edits on SNS, he is the only good thing from this drama and I can only hope and pray that he gets opportunities that make him grow upwards and onwards - and for us viewers it will be a delight as always to see such a handsome man with such talent!

❤️ The cameo of Do Bong Soon and Ahn Min Hyuk:
Yes, you are reading this right! Even that less than 5-10 minute cameo was highlight of this show, which came early on and gave us hope. Unfortunately the light goes out with them, cause the rest of the show is just a chaotic mess, wasting talent.

✧❅✦ THINGS THAT JUST DID NOT WORK ✦❅✧

✘ Biased portrayal of women power/attempt at feminism:
As a woman, I was quite delighted at the whole notion of these series, where women run the show. In the prequel, maybe Do-Bong Soon's mother abused her power but that was one perspective, the others were doing it right. But here the women are powerful and they show-off, to the point that they debase their partner/children and common people around them. This did not sit well with me. Feminism or Women Empowerment means having an equal seat at the table, not overpowering someone just cause you are strong. This is just my opinion but this did not make me appreciate the dynamics the 3 women had, and most of the times it seemed so over-the-top. I know many would say had it been a man or story from male perspective, we would be okay with it. I feel that was the past, if we are having stories showing Strong Women, I think we can take a better approach and change perspective. What is the difference between the past portrayal and now, if we use the same formula?

✘ Unnecessary Characters and storyline:
The poor couple, the barista lover and the fake Namsoon - if you really think about it, had they been omitted the story would have remained same. Like they introduced these characters, but never expanded on their storylines and then dumped them like trash/incomplete stories in the end. Waste of talent, screentime and viewer time!

✘ Lackluster Main Lead and Love Story:
I can write pages after pages for the prequel Bong-Bong and Min-Min couple, they were the right mix for a K-drama couple. I think we all know how good they were on-screen that we still hope they come together off-screen (Too bad I feel this is another Leonardo/Kate Winslet story). But the main leads here were too sugar sweet to be liked. I mean they had their cute moments, but it was too over-the-top again and the chemistry was so off the charts. Like negatives for me.

The antagonist and FL gave better love/cute/adorable moments than they did. In fact, if you are active on social media, there is a huge amount of edit on this and you can see why!

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Do Not Watch!!!!

Seriously, I finished this drama when it was coming out. Technically I didn't cuz i couldn't even bring myself to watch the last two episodes. I initially went into this drama because I love love loved "Strong Girl Do Bong Soon" and because I absolutely love Byeon Wooseok but unfortunately my love for either of them couldn't make me like this drama one bit!

First the story line and plot, what the hell was happening? Such a messy story writing cuz when did Heesik and Namsoon even started dating? The timing was so freaking off! And the whole Ryu Shioh plot didn't make sense at all! Now a lot of people came at me and complained about how its only because the villain is handsome and if it was an ugly actor then I wouldn't give a freak. Nope absolutely not, because what do you mean by Shioh being tortured all his childhood and abused then forced into this and is still the bad guy? What do you mean he bought the orphanage where he was kidnapped from and turned it into a boxing ring? What do you mean he opened a store for his father that abandoned him so that he could sustain himself? Please just start making villain actual villains if you are going to give them this kind of endings! Even if they choose the ugliest (I didn't wanna use this word but that's what people were coming at me with) actor for the role of Ryu Shioh I would have still feel bad for him and wished him a better future and a second chance at life.

Now I won't even talk about the mom because honestly she was horrible!!! What were those comments about Namin's weight and always criticizing him for the smallest things ever? Didn't like the grandma either. Namsoon's character was very cartoonish and stupid honestly, the only reason she became a cop at the end is because of her super strength and nothing else! What do you mean she and her mother saw the good in Hwa ja even when she tried to murder Namsoon but they couldn't use their brain to think for a single second about Shioh's situation and what might have caused him to become this person? I mean I guess Namsoon did think about that but when you might ask? The moment Shioh was holding that gun to his head.

The only tolerable characters were the dad and the whole reason why I watched this show was because of Byeon Wooseok. I also loved the Minmin and Bongbong Cameo but that's all, everything else was not satisfactory at all!

I hope that the whole sad villain backstory will stop in kdramas and I hope you all know that I am a hundred percent not hating the real actors and actresses, I am however hating on the director and writer of this story cuz how did you write this and read it and was like yes this is amazing like what part of it made sense to you for you to make it a drama? That plus making it a sequel to one of the best kdrama that exist? Lets get it together and not make a mistake like this again!

Honestly a big reason why I am so mad is because this drama had soooo much potential, like so much potential where if the changed the plot just a tiny bit this could have been a great kdrama. They could have not given Shioh the sad backstory, if they still did give Shioh the sad backstory they could have made him work together with the police in the end to take Pavel down completely. I just said it shortly and you might think it doesn't make sense but obviously they did need to change a few things like how Shioh was forced to distribute the dr*gs and that he was actually secretly making the antidotes and he also secretly wanted to take Pavel down but didn't have enough power alone because he knew that Pavel had connections with the police as well and Geum Ja, the mother, the grandmother, Namsoon and Heesik could have formed a secret group with Shioh to take Pavel down and distribute the antidotes so that people who took the drugs could survive.

Honestly I could go on and on but I'll just stop here, I have ranted enough, I got everything off my chest.




P.S If you loved this drama good for you, I am glad you enjoyed it but this is just my opinion. Or maybe you went into it with a lower expectation so it is not as disappointing for you, honestly that is great but as a drama that was promoted as Strong Girl Do Bong Soon season 2 and sequel it shouldn't have been this disappointing.

If you want to watch this drama I highly do NOT recommend it, save your time, save your tears that will go to waste and save yourself! Kisses~~~

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Strong beginning, abysmal plot until the end. Or: A whole lot of " WHAT!?"...

Wow, I really liked the premise with three women having super powers and all. But around episode 2 or 3 it all just went down the drain. Nam-Soon is behaving and looking like a child - and without any kind of expertise becoming a cop. WHAT!? The sub-plot with the two homeless people was just for nothing at all, and except for Nam-Soons father all the male family members are whiny, pathetic and straight out anoying every time they're on-screen.

The main plot is as flat as a piece of paper. The super power are almost never used and I basically nothing substantial happens. And the ending made me REALLY salty because the final two episodes are a big fat "giving the finger" right into the audiences faces, saying it doesn't value the audiences time. No cool end boss fight, no climax, no nothing. Not even a cool quotable line...

[SPOILER]
Nam-Soon is confronting the villain, he tells her, her mongolian mother is having a bomb with her. But Nam-Soon can rescue her by taking the drug and not drinking any water within one hour. AND SHE TAKES THE DRUG! WHAT!? Why didn't she just knock out the villain (darn, she has super powers!) and then calls her mom and the police to deal with the bomb situation?

But, well, she is lying there, deeply in pain, gasping for air. And her korean mother and her grand mother are also suffering with her. WHAT!? Why do all of these three women are having super powers to beginn with? I do get that they're somehow connected to each other (and I like that idea!), and one could argue that it makes the ending more intense and that those women do have a weakness bla bla bla... But their powers are never utilised, except for pretty minor things. So why do they have those powers and why is it necessary to take those powers away from them?

And then there is this one moment, where Nam-Soon is out of her being in pain misery, getting up, noticing a door with a bomb on it. She grabs that door and throws it into the outer space (or reeeeeeally faaaaar away, at least) - so she is really strong. A moment later the villain comes, beats her up like it's nothing and explains to her she lost her super powers because of the drug. WHAT!?
[/SPOILER]

OK, I admit, there are a few nice moments during the whole show here and there. But all in all: Most of the characters are flat-out anoying or impossible to be taken seriously and many scenes are just fillers. Many of said scenes do not hold up to their premise of generating action, suspense or even interest! There's dealing with love-affairs, eating too much food and wanting to lose weight, whining about mommy and daddy are getting a divorce. But it all leads to nothing and is dealt with on a superficial level! The plot is full of gigantic (plot) holes and all over the place!

Even the acting is so-so. Some actors are really good, most are okayish to bad. The korean mom is all about looking cool and hot, the grandmother is a mixture of tough-as-nails and wholesome, and the female lead, Nam-Soom, is a mid-twenty something child in every way possible: smiling, talking, behaving, the whole package! Even her way of using her James Bond watch to film the villains office (while the villain is with her!) is screaming "Hey you, you don't mind me filming all of this, don't you!?". But of course the villain doesn't mind, because he doesn't notice it in the first place!

What a waste of time. Bad! Really bad! Really, really bad!

Well, at least the music is okay, and the policeman is actually quite believable.

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How could they mess this up so badly?

==Breakdown==
Background plot - 50%
Romance - 30%
Misc comedy - 20%

Background plot - terrible
Romantic chemistry - terrible
Misc comedy - terrible
Production value - Good

Note, the 6.0 for the cast include the guy who played Ryu Shi Oh (which is a 10+). Everyone else plus Ryu Shi Oh averages out to equal a 6.

I've never watched a show or read a book where I was actively rooting for the villain to succeed as much as I was rooting for Ryu Shi Oh. The only other example I can think of is 'Black Panther' and even then, I liked the hero a lot and felt conflicted. Not so with this show.

Ryu Shi Oh was the only good thing (other than the cameo from the original show). And it's not like he was just okay. He was AMAZING. What the actor did with this character was nothing short of miraculous. Thus, when you compare all the other characters and their nonsensical journeys and lack of chemistry to Ryu Shi Oh, it made this show so difficult (and frustrating) to watch.

How did the creators not understand what was happening while they were making it? It seems so obvious. If you have a villain that is 100% more interesting and compelling than the hero, you re-write the script and you reshoot scenes. You make the hero the second lead and you redeem the villain. Come on, people. But, no. We (and Ryu Shi Oh) were robbed. We were so, so, so robbed.

The other storylines were over-the-top and incredibly boring, to be honest. I tried watching them but ended up fast forwarding any scene that didn't include Ryu Shi Oh.

In summary, I can't recommend watching this show, not even for Ryu Shi Oh. Instead, save yourself the frustration and just watch edits of Ryu Shi Oh. You'll get the picture and save yourself the brain-numbing exposure to the rest of this tepid drama.

What a colossal waste of time.

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