Do Bong Soon is played by Park Bo Young, who was in one of my favorite dramas,"Oh My Ghostess", yet I didn't recognize her at all. With her super cute bob haircut, her amped up adorable personality, and her petite stature, it was exciting to see her character with this unexpected superhuman strength. I loved her character's origin story, and I'm always a fan of the anti-damsel in distress, so I was already interested in this drama from episode one. She really plays the sweet girl you don't want to mess with role extremely well.
She is matched with Park Hyung Shik as Ahn Min Hyeok, and I don't think I can accurately describe with words how charming, and just beautiful to look at he is in this role - it's *swoon* overload. He is not even my type, at all, but it's like they put a special perfection filter on him, and he played every scene in a way that made it impossible for me not to fall for him. Together their adorable couple rating is off the charts! Their chemistry is perfect, so perfect that the cheesiest scenes and moments still worked for me, and soooo many scenes were extra cheesy. He is also so supportive of her, which makes the traditional role reversal refreshing to watch. To me they came right up to the border of being obnoxious in their cuteness, but never crossed it, because they were such a good match.
The rest of the cast was mostly awesome too, considering all the genres that they had to cover. Ji Soo as In Gook Doo completes the love triangle, and plays his part really well, although I honestly couldn't stand how the actual character behaved. Gook Doo may inspire 2nd lead syndrome in some, but he was too controlling and self-righteous for me to really root for. I loved Bong Soon's family, BFF, and especially grandma. I also really liked the villain, who I think was played by the actor better than the character was actually written. He was creepy and sinister, yet kinda seductive and attractive, which I think is a recipe for an excellent villain/nemesis. Then there is the supporting cast MVP Kim Won Hae. I didn't love him in his first role, It was just too corny and gross for me, but his second role was hilarious in its absurdity. I applaud his ability to take both roles to such extremes. The cast is definitely full of memorable characters.
Part of the reason I deducted some acting points was because a lot of the comedy just wasn't my to my taste. Korean humor can get too silly for me sometimes, which was part of my issue with some of the performances. There is a whole gangster subplot that annoyed me. There is a Monk that is completely ridiculous. Then on a more serious note, Seol In Ah's role was pretty useless, and forgettable. There is also a family drama plot that I forgot all about until the end when it's obvious that they were missing. These criticisms are because of the writers, more than the acting, which is why i deducted even more points from the story. Don't get me wrong, I liked the story a lot, and loved watching Bong Soon become more confident and evolve into a Shero, but the story as a whole is all over the place. The thriller part is intriguing enough to drive her motivation, but it went from being seriously creepy to resolving with a more comic book feel. There are a lot of parts of the story that I felt were left without a real explanation, or resolved too quickly, but all of this was forgivable because of how much I still enjoyed watching every episode.
I also forgive the last episode, which had mostly filler, but I loved the very end (obvious but perfect), which made me very curious about what a second season would be like.
The OST was good, and matched the show well, especially the "Super Power Girl"Theme! However, I did not fall in love with any of the songs, not even Park Hyung Shik's ballad.
Now comes the highest score for me - rewatch value. I gave it a 9.5 because I could definitely see myself watching this more than once. With all it's flaws, and silliness, I just had so much fun watching, and couldn't wait to watch the next episode! I almost gave rewatch a 10 but I would definitely skip through some of the comedy scenes.
Overall, I would recommend this as a cute twist on a superhero story that encourages female empowerment, not in a subtle way... in a walnut hammer over the head way! I also love the message of not underestimating someone based on appearance, and helping others selflessly. I think it's best to just embrace that the plot is chaos, the comedy is ludicrous, and enjoy the fact that it may not always be coherent but it all supports this character's journey to her destiny (well, maybe not the stupid monk). I also highly recommend it to anyone who is on the lookout for a talented and crush-worthy actor, because I think Park Hyung Shik definitely fits the bill.
If you're looking for maturity, a substantive plot, characters with great depth, and no clichés or exploited stereotypes... back away from this drama slowly and don't come back to it until you're in a lighter mood.
This is the drama equivalent of a bag full of candy! Not every flavor in the bag will be good, but most of it is delicious, and the sugar high makes it all worth it!
Oh, and if there was a Bong Soon video game, I would totally be excited to play it!
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This review may contain spoilers
Actually, first episodes had me hooked. I liked that the heroine was more like an "anti-hero", selfish and a bit rude, the contrast between thriller and comedy was interesting at first, but then...I don't know, I got confused. There was too much stuff in there, and none of that was developed the right way. The comedy was horrible. The gang (the poop liquor and the beatings. UGH just NOPE), the monk (I mean what's the point of introducing a new irrelevant character at almost the end of the show??), the abused father...what's funny in that? I can save the gay misunderstanding only because both male leads had great chemistry LOL
DBS's mother was the worst mom I've ever seen so far, mine included. She abused the poor husband and told her daughter to force herself on the male lead :/
Also it bothered me a lot that DBS never took her job seriously (well it's HS in the first place who hired her just to have a children-sized desk in his office -.-''') or seriously get a thought about her powers and responsabilities.
The thriller part was the one that got me disappointed the most. Basically the culprit is a random psycho dude and he has really nothing to do with DBS except for they live in the same area...
I think this show could have been something but it just tried to be so much things and failed everyone, except maybe the fluffy romance
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I thought it would be a light romcom but it turned out to be such a weird amalgamation of thriller-romance-comedy-mystery-supernatural that it was gruesome to watch. First of all, there is no plot in this drama and its all fluff. There is no build up to any climax and it falls very flat after first few episodes. All the episodes are the same and have the same format that there was no compelling reason for me to stay even though I ended up pulling through to finish it. They go on dates, look for the culprit, and show some slapstick humor with guys in suits (and that wasn't even funny). Was the mystery aspect worth staying for? Not at all. It was so poorly written, predictable and weird. The suspect is a psychopath who targets skinny women -- this was discomforting and out of place in a drama that is supposed to be a romcom. Because it tries to be so many things, all of its "subplots" it attempts to execute is poorly done and awkwardly paced. It goes from cute and fun to outright disturbing and ridiculous farce. I ended up skipping over parts of the drama during the parts where there were just a bunch of random men trying too hard to be funny with their buffoonery and horseplay. It was just so immature and hard to watch and was completely irrelevant to the plot and characterization. Many of the "plots" are so insignificant, such a letdown and not worth staying for at all either. For example, when the person who was making threats to Min Hyuk was finally revealed, it is then forgotten about for the rest of the drama. It was pointless and anti-climatic. A lot of things happen in the drama without meaning. The drama was not mentally stimulating even though it was mentally exhausting.
Don't get me wrong, I do like romcoms but this was just too messy and predictable that I couldn't enjoy it. There are some cute moments with Bong Soon and Min Hyuk and they do a lot of aegyo if you're into that. It tries to appeal to the audience by being intentionally cheesy but I found it cringey and cliché. In addition, I was initially looking forward to seeing two of the male actors I love in one drama but even their presence there wasn't enough to make me enjoy it in the slightest. It was just so boring to watch them in that stupidly predictable love triangle. It would have made so much more sense to have Bong Soon and Gok Doo end up together, especially after they had been crushing on each other since high school. But somehow they just keep missing each other by the second. It was frustrating to watch even though we all knew the outcome of the triangle. Gok Doo, one of the main characters, felt like a side character and he literally has one emotion throughout the entire drama. Everyone in the drama just felt so insignificant and static. I know having the gay man in the drama was supposed to be funny but it would have been offensive since he was portrayed in the most typical way ever and I swear he screams everytime he's on screen. It felt like I was in some sort of replay loop whenever interactions with the side characters came into play. Bong Soon's mom was the most useless mom I have ever seen and I hated how dense and simple minded she was portrayed as even though an attempt was made to justify her actions towards the end. I also found Bong Soon so annoyingly reckless and discreetly pretentious everytime she whined about having her power yet flaunting it to other people and even abusing it while being unnecessarily disrespectful to the employees of the company. She was so childish, naive, and high maintenance and I just don't get that it's the reason why the two boys are heads over heels for her. The way she and whines cries reminds me of a child that you want to slap but you just can't because they're a child. I didn't have much patience for her even though everyone found her cute. The cuteness and fluff was just way over the top that it left a bitter aftertaste in my mouth.
Unless a drama has particularly beautiful OSTs, I usually don't pay too much attention or notice it. But I absolutely hated the music here, and maybe it's because its associated with my dislike towards the drama itself. It was so annoying to listen to that I'm so glad its over now.
Overall, this drama was a letdown and caused me a lot of grief, I don't even know how I didn't end up dropping it after episode 6.
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An insult to women and men at the same time
This is surely the worst drama that I have ever watched and it's not because of the production value (which is very impressive sometimes), it's because of its awful writing. This drama is an instant drop in the first two episodes. I dropped it when it came out in 2017, but I made myself a promise to finish it one day, so here we go.Let's start with the bad (there's a lot – I should have made notes while watching):
- Do Bong Soon's character is the typical fake strong female character. We start with Do Bong Soon helping an elderly man and saving a bus, which are very heroic feats, but the character goes downhill very quickly. Do Bong Soon eventually becomes CEO Ahn Min Hyuk's bodyguard. She completely fails at being a bodyguard. She lets the CEO get hurt because of her, she lets a cop get hurt and she also lets the villain escape multiple times. The writers completely failed to recognize that she heard the main villain's voice at a pharmacy. When girls start getting kidnapped in her neighbourhood, she does nothing. When her friend almost gets kidnapped, she lets the kidnapper go even though she could knock him down in one hit. Why? After some time, Do Bong Soon is an intern at her own personal Planning & Development department with the CEO. Once again, we see her doing nothing all day. If she is shown doing anything, it's working on the same character model and drag and dropping things into a presentation. This was a missed opportunity to show women working in game engines and programming, but instead they showed us a pathetic character who thinks she deserves to be in the actual Planning & Development department without any actual skills... After Kyung Shim gets kidnapped, she goes to beg Min Hyuk for help and then completely invalidates his feelings. After Do Bong Soon rescues kidnapped women (at a location which only took everyone ages to figure out), she goes on to confront the main villain in a dramatic way that makes her lose her strength (even though she basically abused her power all throughout the drama and even hurt innocent people). After losing her strength, she is absolutely useless. She goes unconscious from two blows to the chest and she doesn't even try to free herself from her restrains at the brink of death. She does nothing but cry even though she received training in combat from the CEO. After escaping from her death, the three leads formulate a plan to catch the killer by exposing her out in the open to a sniper rifle while only she wears a bulletproof vest. I suppose headshots don't exist in her universe because that was so stupid.
- Do Bong Soon is not a strong character. She couldn't even tell the man she liked that she liked him. She is very childish and doesn't have much personality outside her powers.
- Na Kyung Shim (Do Bong Soon's friend) only cares about her face and looking pretty after being beaten up by the serial kidnapper / killer.
-Do Bong Soon's grandmother enters the scene at some point and beats up some goons. Which is fine and all, but the first thing she does when she visits her grandchild's home? She verbally abuses Do Bong Soon's father.
-It's inconsistent powers-wise. Do Bong Soon can't run, but she can jump high and basically fly as shown in the last episodes?
-Bomb designed to kill Do Bong Soon explodes into fireworks... What??
-Domestic violence. Do Bong Soon's mother is seen regularly abusing her husband, both verbally and physically. This abuse is sweeped under the rug with comical music played in the background. Even though the writers seemingly tried to redeem the mother in the last episode as having pushed him only once, it's just not believable. She was also physically and verbally abusive towards Bong Soon.
-Extreme homophobia, awful representation of LGBT community and queer-baiting in almost all of the episodes. It's so toxic that it took every ounce of my willpower to get through the scenes.
- Bong Soon and her mother and basically all the female characters are obsessed with Do Bong Soon snatching away Min Hyuk and having sex with him and basically raping him. These are not strong women.
-Min Hyuk goes to convince Do Bong Soo's father Do Chil Goo to return to his abusive wife because he cannot marry Do Bong Soon in such a situation. What a sad moment.
- All three leads are very misogynistic in some scenes. Do Bong Soon's character is misogynistic in itself. She is the opposite of strong and actually serves as a bad example for women.
-It has Kim Ji Soo, who is a known bully, but that's not really the drama's fault, so I would be willing to let that pass.
-Do Bong Soon has her own gang of high school kids.
-The characters are absolutely brain dead most of the time with no logical sense.
-Poop jokes.
-Racist representation of Indians with random Buddhist monk a.k.a. the scammer.
-There is no natural comedy in the situations, only poor writing. The romance was just pure fluff, nothing more.
-Min Hyuk and Bong Soon were extremely possesive.
-Useless police as always.
The good:
-Hee Ji's character was the only normal female character in the entire drama. I wanted to see more of her, but we got very little of her.
-Excellent villain who deserved so much better. He was the only consistent character and the reason I kept watching, but sadly writers didn't allow him more time to shine. The actor's performance was absolutely amazing.
-Some scenes were shot in a beautiful manner, but this got overshadowed by how despicable the characters were.
I need to cleanse my brain from this drama.
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The entire artistic production would receive 9/10 from me for a romcom drama like this. The direction was great; the set and props were outstanding; the cast was full of both eye candy and skills. The cinematography was amazing. It was good to look at. I just wish they gave much more effort into blending their multiple genres together.
THE CAST:
I'm never a fan of any of them, but I believe they did a really great job. The set of 3 leads owned their roles. I even believe that the writers wrote this story with Park Boyoung in their mind. Tiny and cutesy role is definitely for her, and she's a good actress as well. This is only my second drama with her, however, and I believe that the next one with her is gonna start boring me a bit. Her tone and acting is just so *her* like she was in Oh My Ghost. This happened to me with Hwang Jungeum in every single drama she was in as well.
THE STORY:
The story, however, was a strange mix of romance, comedy, supernatural(?), police investigation, and even bloody thriller. How would they mix into a good storyline? There's no way. I believe they needed to take out at least one, or tone down each of them to make everything flow.
The dynamic of this storyline is super strange. It was like an incredibly bumpy road instead of a smooth rollercoaster. The comedy element was almost too forced that it wasn't funny. Some parts were even disgusting that just made me fast-forward throughout the show.
The thriller part started out really strong in the beginning which tipped off the consistent cute and comical tone of the entire Do Bongsoon character. That villain character was just too over-the-top that the entire sub plot around this guy doesn't fit in with the tone of this story at all.
Plus, the entire reason Bongsoon and Hyungshik got together was because *his* case, not the one in her neighborhood. He was being threatened, and that case was solved so easily and quickly. It was definitely just there to bring the two together.
The love story between the two/three leads was nothing special. Nothing really developed or had an impact on any characteristic change. It was just there out of nowhere. I have to admit that they were cute and fluffy together though. They were almost too cheesy together and I usually don't prefer that kind of super cringy stuff, but I believe it helped even out the darker tones regarding the villain. It still isn't the ideal way for such purpose.
But all in all, I wouldn't keep watching until the end if it wasn't entertaining. Like I said, I liked the cinematography and the cast a lot (surprisingly, given that I'm never a fan of any of them). It was something to watch in my free time and I did take my time to finish it. The bad parts weren't soooo bad that it let me down. At least the first episode started off nicely. If you wanna see for yourself, I don't recommend you against it. I have a reputation for dropping series halfway through if the first few episodes are slow and have too much flashback. This one was fine.
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The thriller aspect with kidnapper storyline just becomes tiresome halfway through, with the usual moronic police investigation/constant mistakes in capturing the uninspired villain.
I found the comedy scenes totally unfunny and embarrassing.
The romance was ruined for me by the coy and overly cutesy acting by Park Bo Young. I am not a fan of ayego.
My biggest problem with this drama was the main female lead Do Bong Soon. I disliked her thoroughly and cannot understand how others found her likable and described her as an admirable strong woman. For me she is nothing but a two-faced, passive aggressive bully. She casually assaults people and then acts all sweet and innocent as if butter wouldn't melt. I found her hypocrisy a total turn off. She is smug and rude to her superiors at work. She bullied and assaulted people everywhere she went, if it had been a man doing these things everyone would have been up in arms . By the end of the drama I started to dislike the actress as well - as it is her portrayal not just the writing that i found so unpleasant.
Other things I did not like:-
- the contrived love triangle which went nowhere and made me question why it was introduced it in the first place.
- the way DBS mother treated her husband was totally unacceptable. If I were him I would have divorced that useless harridan in an instant.
- the main male lead's besotted act went rapidly from cute to cringe.
- the cliched depiction of the gay character.
All in all an utter disappointment I had looked forward to this drama as the 3 main leads were all on my like list but after this debacle I will have to rethink my stance.
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The first two episodes were nice, the story started good and at the end we were given a side-plot that looked very promising -also it was interesting to see something completely different from the cute, lighthearted main plot.-
As the episodes progressed, the problems began.. on one hand we had the queerbaiting and homophobic comments, on other hand we had the domestic violence thing; which I don't think should be a theme to laugh at. (I mean, if you're going to have it in the story, make it a way to bring awareness to it, don't use it as something that's supposed to be funny??)
More episodes in, the interesting side-plot I mentioned before turned into something completely creepy; and the contrast with the main plot was huuuge (plus if you were looking for an easy to watch, lighthearted drama, trust me this isn't it.)
And of course, to make things even worse, the fillers that no one cared about turned into another side-plot, yay! but nooo this time it didn't even make sense at all ?? you can totally take it off the drama and it won't change anything (trust me in this one, starting from ep 10 I think, I started skipping it and surprise surprise nothing changed)
Everything in this drama was a mess, the storyline got completely wrecked and by the end nothing made sense. The only thing that made me keep watching was the main couple (trust me, I included it in my otp list on tumblr) but not even that was enough to save this drama.
It's a shame such a good actors and such a cool pairing with a lot of chemistry was stuck in such an awful drama, I had a lot of expectations for this one because hell yeah a super strong woman as main character is something I wanted to watch, but, as I said earlier, not even the actors or the chemistry between them could save this for me.
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This review may contain spoilers
I honestly have no idea how I was able to continue watching until the end. *contains a lot of small details that may be spoilers. Read at your own risk.*
There are so many little details to criticize and talk about in this series that would probably take me hours to write, so I'll just pick out the most important parts and summarize it. But with the mixed reviews of high and low ratings, I understand that it depends entirely up to each person's preference and personal taste. Here's my personal take.
THE ROMANCE:
I can enjoy some cliche and endure a little bit of cringe so I was able to stomach those moments and just gobble it up as it is. I found Bong Soon and Min Hyuk's relationship at the end pretty cute despite being over the top sugar cringe for many. I personally think their relationship gradually blossomed and it was a natural (and quite predictable) course of events. I think that was the sole focus of the whole story and therefore has the most proper development. BUT, before I got to enjoy that taste, I had to endure the horrifyingly out of place and annoying love triangle. I'm a HUGE sucker for well-done love triangles, don't get me wrong, but I couldn't even bat an eye on this one even if I wanted to. The love triangle scenes got my eyes rolling I just wanted to get it over with. Gook Doo's dense character felt unnatural and was a bit hard to sympathize with. It just didn't feel right. The other characters' romance were barely given any screen time, and rightfully so cause it wasn't even... anything special. In fact it was so shallow. Some guy holds someone else's girlfriend's hand and just like that she's in love. Girl you thirsty??
THE COMEDY:
The slapstick comedy is a hit or miss and is solely reliant on each person's sense of humor. I would admit that I laughed out loud on some particular scenes, mostly on the circumstances and their facial expressions (like Min Hyuk's secretary's high-key scared expressions, or the gang in the hospital's interactions). I know my boyfriend is a huge fan of exaggerated comedy like this, and when we watched a few of the hospital scenes together (Kim Won-Hae is one of our favorite actors) he was dying on his chair. After awhile of being repetitive though, it gets tiring and unnecessarily placed in awkward transitions, so I personally skipped them because it served no actual meaning or purpose to the plot anymore. Most of the side characters are there for comic relief, and tbh some of it is actually unbearable. I think they tried to make Bong Soon's parents' relationship one of those comical gags, but the portrayal was plain domestic violence and made me feel more concerned instead of relieved. Some of the characters were also static and exaggeratedly stereotypical that their sole purpose of existence was just that, to be pointless comical background characters with no personality aside from that one trait or stereotype they were given. Other than that, they are not memorable and the plot would've still moved the same without them. It's quite sad.
THE SUSPENSE:
The first time they laid out the mystery, it seemed exciting. The president needs a bodyguard, meanwhile the neighborhood is having a dreadful serial kidnapping case. Who could this person be? Is it connected?
I was hoping there would be some grand plot twist in the end. But all we get is an underwhelmingly forgettable mystery plots. The president's mystery case had very little impact and was painfully predictable (Oh, did you say he trusts one of his brothers? You don't say...). The other mystery was also not very memorable and was there for... basically nothing?? The motives behind the culprit was just... questionable. It'll leave you asking... that's it? that's all there is to it? It was beyond underwhelming. Imagine you were having a good night sleep and dreaming of something really nice and some random drunk dude decided to wake you up. That's how aggravatingly useless the point was.
THE CHARACTERS:
Honestly, this whole series revolved only around the relationship of the two main characters Bong Soon and Min Hyuk (just their relationship, barely the character development). The rest of the characters are given one trait that you could summarize in one sentence and that was that. Gook Doo is a dense and upfront policeman who only realized he likes his childhood friend too late. The mother is an abusive b*tch whose actions are never justified and her whole character is intolerable. The father loves his daughter very much and is constantly abused for.. being a good father and hardworking husband?? The brother is a nice doctor. Gook Doo's ex being lowkey thirsty. The gay employee being... gay? Yah.
THE GAMING COMPANY:
Okay so I'm fully aware this is the most useless subplot they have that people shouldn't even pay attention to and blindly follow through, but as an artist who knows a thing or two about game development, I felt really confused and triggered about this whole subplot of Bong Soon wanting to work for a game company. She wanted to develop a game with herself as the main character. First of all, as far as I know, you can't get hired for just your ideas. You need to be able to DO something. What exactly can she do? All I see was her trying to decide on weapons of her character model by clicking the screen... I have so many questions... Is that on photoshop? What exactly are you clicking? Who drew your model? Are you the artist? Then why is she drawing with a goddamn MOUSE??? What exactly is the planning and development team? Planning sounds like project management, development sounds like programming.. but those two are usually different teams as well..? I'm a little confused.
The most accurate portrayal was Min Hyuk drawing her character on a tablet. Yes, that's how you do digital art. Wait, the president can draw--?? Is that what he contributes to the com- WHAT?
Holdup it's not even the biggest bullshit I've seen: After she pitches her game, few weeks later it's ALREADY OUT? Do these people know planning takes months and coding can take years??? How is it out alre- HOW??????
Anyway, I know these are very minor details but I would have at least appreciated if the writers did a little research on the basics of making a game or at least consult someone who works at one.
OVERALL
Overall, I think the bad outweighs the good points in this drama. There were too many things that the writers wanted to do and so they packed almost all the genres in this drama and it just became a complete chaotic mess. The main plot was underwhelming, the subplots were pointless, the characters forgettable and underdeveloped, the comedy and romance were tolerable at best. The transitions were jarring and sometimes confusing. Every theme was fighting each other to overpower the other but they all ended up mediocre and exhausted.
Halfway through I asked myself why I was still watching this, and I really thought about the answer. There was nothing that kept me going. Nothing that made me want to continue. I was simply bored.
I've given my two cents and have stated my concerns/opinions so you can figure things out on your own.
The verdict of this is drama being worth a try is entirely up to your taste.
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The strengths of this drama:
1) The actors played it very well. The main "love triangle" and the antagonist were done quite well. This is mainly because of acting ability and not due to the writing of the drama.
2) Even though common troupes were used, they touched upon it in a sensitive and realistic manner. To expand upon this point, when the second lead's girlfriend began to "waver" she did not straight up just cheat on him and his friend did not automatically turn his back on him. She was up front with her opinions to her current boyfriend. He was also hesitant to pursue anything since he was friends with her ex-boyfriend. Often times you see characters that just follow the plot and don't follow logic. My second point is the common troupe of the second lead that realizes his love too late. This is one of the most over-used plots in dramas and should be done away with. However, they added a nice touch by focusing on his anguish and how he expresses his feelings to both partners of the new couple.
My main problems with this drama:
1) The lack of defined plot. There were approximately 3 main plot lines and 6-8 side plots that were just poorly written or poorly handled. Can any viewer definitively tell me every plot and its resolution? I felt the need to skip over certain plots because they dragged on and did not have any importance or significance to the story at all. Firstly, as soon as I started watching I knew that the two leads would end up together and the second lead would get snubbed. Not even trying to change the plot line. Of course it had to be selfish rich guy that changes and cares only for her and does things behind her back until she coincidentally finds out and they fall in love. Instead of the person that she had liked for 7 years and just missed saving her by a step. Always. I could have not watched this drama at all and told you the plot "twists" and "endings." Oh wow, family issues when it shows that her mom does absolutely nothing and emotionally abuses her father? Wow, how new and insightful with 0 character development or relevance. Oh wow, it turns out she gets her powers again and instead of living in fear of using it, which she never was by the way, becomes a hero and helps people. Wow, so new.
2) The amount of random comic-relief side characters is ridiculous. The only serious characters in this story are the main three characters, the serial killer, the brother and his love interest. Every single other character was there for comic relief or not relevant enough to remember their names. I don't know what the purpose of all these characters is. And I don't understand how this drama can confuse quality characters with a hundred random useless characters. Can anyone tell me the name of the mob boss? How about the secretary's name? How about the name of the school gang leader?
3) This drama was boring. There were definitely highlights and extremely important moments to remember but the fact is that due to the mixing of multiple overall plots and the usage of comic relief characters, it takes away from the character development of the main characters and the main plot. After watching the thrilling portions of the drama, didn't you want to know what happened next? Not wait until next episode for there to be development and have to wade through a sea of nonsense and random fighting or shopping scenes. How about after a romantic scene, shouldn't there be build up towards the main plot? However, every time there was a transition between genres there was meaning lost. For example, do you remember why the murder killed the first girl? Most people will forget that important plot point cause it was submerged under a ton of other nonsense. Secondly, do you remember who was the first suspect for threatening the President (Hyunsik)? All of these major plot points become nothing once you have a hundred of them that drag on and do absolutely nothing to build upon each other.
Overall, for everyone saying this is worth watching, let me ask you this: is this a drama that you would watch again? Is this the drama you will remember in 10 years? I don't think so. There are many better dramas than this. Just because you like Hyunsik or Ji Soo or Park Bo Young does not mean this is a good drama. In my personal opinion, this was a very poorly written drama that could be fleshed out and narrowed down.
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Misogyny, homophobia, domestic violence in a comedy, as comedy? Oh, no.
The creative team behind Strong Woman Do Bong Soon assembled all the ingredients necessary for a delightful screwball comedy. Fun wacky premise? Yes—a diminutive woman is born with the strength of your typical superhero. Of course, she wants to go through life without being noticed, so she must hide this gift. Charming and beautiful lead actors with good chemistry? Yes—but then we expect that from every K-drama at this point. A powerful man in need of protection? Yes—a CEO accustomed to being in charge must hire the Strong Woman to be his body guard. Naturally, their agendas clash to create comedic plot points. Villains appropriate to a screwball comedy? Yes—not one but two dysfunctional families and a group of inept mobsters are the comic foils to our two heroes. Action sequences in keeping with the screwball premise? Yes—at one point, the titular Strong Woman singlehandedly brawls with 30 mobsters and vanquishes them all in true cartoon-violence style. That is to say, it’s both funny and satisfying. Having assembled these ingredients, the creative team delivers a finished product that delivers on the promise of its premise. For much of the time, Strong Woman Do Bong Soon is a textbook example of what a viewer would want from a screwball comedy.But this creative team was not content with the strong comedic elements they compiled. They must have concluded the story needed some drama too. So, to their wacky tale featuring cartoonish-feats of strength, leads squabbling with parents whose goals for their kids differ from the kids' own goals for funny, if typical, family conflict, and a half-hearted but light love triangle, this creative team threw into the mix the following additional and super-amusing ingredients: brutal, violent misogyny; kidnapping and torture; multiple ways to ridicule and demean gay men; and turning domestic violence into a joke. To say these elements do not mesh with the elements discussed in the fist paragraph would be to grossly understate the degree to which Strong Woman Do Bong Soon went off the rails as a series.
Once the viewer decides no longer to overlook the brutality of scenes that involve the stalking of women, the beating of women, the mental and physical intimidation of women after their kidnapping; once the viewer can no longer stomach the tired, cliched portrayals of gay men whose only purpose in the story is to make the point that being gay is disgusting and gross and to serve as the butt of jokes for others; once the viewer decides that domestic violence is never funny even if the perpetrator is the wife rather than the husband—well, once the viewer really reflects on those things Strong Woman Do Bong Soon ceases to function as an innocuous screwball comedy. At that point, it’s just an unwatchable mess.
And that’s a shame, because when the series wasn’t being actively misogynistic, insultingly homophobic, or miscasting a social problem for comedy, the rest of it was quite entertaining. This show was popular in its day—and plenty of fans continue to choose to overlook the issues I mentioned above, precisely because the screwball comedy ingredients actually deliver effective screwball comedy. But I cannot imagine people will watch this mess in the future and think it aged well.
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SWDBS follows Do Bong Soon, who has a supernatural ability that gives her incredible strength and it runs in the females in her family. Combine this with Park Hyung Shik as the leading male with hilarious side characters and it seems like it will be a match made in heaven. But this drama from the beginning has always suffered from tonal problems because of its other plotline that has to do with kidnapping. With one half of the show so cute and funny, it does not blend with the other half of the show that happens to be very serious. The writer had a hard time blending comedy and thriller together and the drama starts to suffer in the end because of it. Even with these problems I still believe that you will have a great time watching this drama, especially the first half but you might become frustrated towards the latter half.
It also suffers from pacing problems and at times it will linger on scenes that do not move the plot forward. And also, the kidnapping plotline itself is just not strong. There is nothing really exciting about it because everything is really obvious. The best thing about the plot itself is the romance between the two leads because everything else is not as strong.
The cast is hands down the best thing about this drama. I came in knowing that Park Bo Young will be great. She is a really good actress and I've always felt that she has been able to add a lot of depth to the characters that she is given. Park Hyung Shik was a surprise for me. I've never watched him in a drama before but after this I know I'll be watching all of his past dramas and future ones too. As we know, a lot of idols are cast in leading roles because of their popularity and looks but Park Hyung Shik is not just a handsome idol (and he is handsome!) but a really good actor and he showcases that in this drama. He had a lot of strong scenes that surprised me and I’m already looking forward to seeing him in something new. His character Min Hyuk will make your heart swoon. If you watch this and don't like the plot, I will guarantee that you'll love his character. The way he looks at Do Bong Soon will make your heart melt.
Ji Soo will be a bit of surprise for many if you seen his past work before. Ji Soo is usually the guy to give you second male lead syndrome but he definitely is not able to do that here. Unlike others, I did not have that much of a problem with the character itself. The rest of the cast is good too. They are hilarious and it’s a joy to watch them.
I will give fair warning to people. If you get offended by some jokes then this will not be the drama for you. There is a lot of gay jokes and people weren't particularly happy with the domestic abuse either (and with good reason.) So, if you are bothered by gay jokes, I wouldn't suggest watching this because they never really let up on it either. It's not just one joke but multiple ones.
Overall, I must say for myself personally I really liked this drama and though I think it started to drag towards the end, I still really enjoyed it. It's a drama that you'll have a lot of fun with. I think if you pay attention to the leads and the hilarious moments then you'll really enjoy this drama. My best recommendation is to not pay much attention to the kidnapping plot line. I really feel like it holds the drama back from being really good. Despite the story not being strong, I think a lot of people will still enjoy this drama. I think this is one of those dramas, that you have to watch without paying too much attention to the plot and just enjoy it. Because once you start to pay attention to it, it will fall apart.
That being said, if you like a swoon worthy male lead and a badass female lead who kicks ass then you'll love this drama. If you like your story strong, tight, and with good pacing then this might not be the drama for you.
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