Strong Girl Namsoon (2023)

Could not match the Original

Strong Girl Namsoon started off on a great note and it was a breath of fresh air. However, it slowly started to lose sight of plot by focusing on an absurd number of characters that are not even secondary to the plot. They just don't contribute in any way.

Although I'm not writing this series off completely (at least not until the final 2 episodes have aired), I feel bad at how it went from being a wonderfully original and stand alone show to an inferior second season.

The highlight of the show was the Gang family's women and their super strength, their connection and how they handle their power. But the limelight should have stayed on Gang Namsoon since the show is named after her. The two MLs - HeeSik and Ryo Si Oh (which sounds a lot like Russia) were actually great for the plot and Namsoon's interactions with them was the only thing that made this show entertaining. Seeing some of the more lighter sides to Ryo Si Oh was enjoyable as was seeing Hee Sik falling in love and getting jealous. You could actually find yourself rooting for both guys are certain points.

Problem is all the distraction of the main plot with useless things like Namsoon's uncle being unrealistically weak despite having no real illness, Namsoon's grandmother's love story and annoyance with her husband, the Bread Song character and his assistant being almost unwatchable among few other moments that I only got through by speeding through the episodes.

There are some nice comic moments involving the 3 women showcasing their strengths along with cute moments involving Namsoon and the two men because of which I can still rate this series an 8. But it is a far cry from the original Strong Woman Do Bong Soon which is definitely one of my favourites. That's because they knew how to focus on the star of the show. It would have been okay to have all these extra characters if they had ensured that the focus doesn't shift too much to all these extra characters. Like the homeless couple who were interesting at the beginning but later became a chore to watch. These are the things that truly weakened the story and destroyed it's core value.

I hope there will be some redeeming qualities in the final two episodes. I'll be updating and possibly revising the review then.

The OST is nice. Sounds even better sped up. heh.

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It's a Drama

Okay At the beginning, we all tought this will get us hooked HOOKED ..............!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
At the end, we appreciate the effort and the patience of the actors themselfs for being part of this Drama,
We thank them for at least appearing. we dont want to criticize them actors, nor the writers or firectors, as we know this is just for entertainment, It might not be our generation age to watch this.... But im sure children will find it funny and well kinda refreshing, Ot has some LESSONS , avoid the DRUGS, do not take advantage of ELDERLY, which is important we all got the message. We all hope the story stops right there in THERE. No false hope. no cringy spinies sequel nothing,. I feel so empty after watching last ep.

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Who else watched this drama with great anticipation but was left with a sense of bitterness?

I will start off by saying that I believe this drama is likeable and fun to watch, however I feel like there are aspects of it that could have been handled differently to make the story have more sense and coherence.

THINGS I LIKED
First of all, Strong girl Nam-soon was fun and watchable. There were elements of suspence that kept me hooked to the series until the end and there were also a few adorable romantic interactions between the leads, which lightened the plot.
Compared to Strong Woman Do Bong-soon this drama is a totally different thing: the romance is much less, the chemistry is not the best and some things don’t make sense. Despite this, I still liked the series because it felt different and it has potential.
Also I enjoyed SGNS because it addresses some important issues of today’s world, such as criminal organizations, drugs, corruption, self acceptance (Nam-in’s case) and people’s hardships (such as homelessness and overworking).

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE
Now I will delve into the reasons why I didn’t like this drama. And they are MANY.

SGNS vs. SWDBS
Starting strong with a comparison between SGNS and SWDBS.
I’ll be honest. I really disliked how the powers of the three women were connected. It lost all the originality of SWDBS, in which the powers were just given from mother to daughter without the need to form a connection. It was exeptionally annoying, especially in that scene in ep. 15 in which Geum-ju tosses and turns like an idiot in the mud, drinking from a water pipe.
The way their eyes turned blue and all those effects just felt tacky and unnatural. It was like watching an American superhero movie: the hero, who’s got amazing powers with amazing effects, always wins and never develops psichologically. If I wanted to watch that I would’ve opted for a Marvel movie, not a kdrama.

IRRELEVANT GRANDMA’S LOVE STORY
Honestly all the grandma’s love story had good prospects… It conveys the message that even elderly people can still fall in love and experience a youthful, heart-beating love story… only that it didn’t fit in this drama. At. All. It was totally unnecessary and it just took away screen time.
And the grandpa? Jun-gan’s husband? Totally unnecessary. I feel like he didn’t add anything to the series. It was just a big waste of time.

NAM-SOON’S HOMELESS FRIENDS DESERVED BETTER
All the screen time wasted on the grandma’s useless love story should have been given to Hyun-soo and Teacher No. Their story was actually interesting and it would’ve been such a perfect add to the plot. For instance, they could’ve helped Nam-soon when she started working at Doogo, instead of disappearing for half of the series ony to appear again when they’re useful for the investigation. I genuinely liked them and I am very disappointed in how their story turned out to be left incomplete.

IMMATURITY
All the times Geum-ju (or others) told Nam-soon to have a baby I wanted to throw myself out of a window. It was so cringe!! And it never fit well with the atmosphere!
Also, telling Nam-soon to have kids is the equivalent of telling a four-year-old to start a family! The FL was too immature to have a baby and she barely knew Hee-sik!
I liked the ML and I liked the way he took care of Nam-soon, but I don’t think they can have babies yet!
Another level of childish was the grandma. You think she would be a mature and wise person since her daughter grew up with a strong will and a strong sense of justice… but no! Turns out the grandma used her daughter to get rich, leech off of her and then proceeded to not even care about her husband’s whereabouts when he left! She beat him to a pulp and she didn’t care about him anymore.

GEUM-JU
There’s one thing I want to say about Geum-ju: I don’t like her. She’s too unrealistic.
It felt like all the opportunities in her life fell from the sky, but not in a good way. Rather, in an unnatural way.
First of all she started her business God only knows how. She easily made lots of money and became super rich. Then, with all the drug situation approaching, she stumbled upon Opulentia (or even better, Opulentia came from the sky and knocked at her door) and she started getting all the top secret information without lifting a finger. Honestly she should’ve struggled at least one bit, but no she didn’t.
Also she was the biggest hypocrite ever. She yapped about how much she cared about Hwa-ja, and about how natural it was for her to help people, but apparently she’s not talking about her family. She didn’t look like she genuinely cared about her children. She never stopped Nam-soon from putting herself in danger and from risking her life. And she never ever cared about Nam-in. When that poor boy left her to live with his dad she just accepted it, and when he got sick she never showed interest until she discovered that he was drugged.

OPULENTIA
I don’t know if they will make a second season, but if they do, they need to explain Opulentia, because it is the biggest plot hole I have ever seen.

SI-OH
Can we all agree to the fact that Si-oh deserved better?
If someone told me that I could change just one thing in this drama, that would be Si-oh’s fate.
He deserved far more attention than what he was given. He has a tragic backstory: they could’ve certainly delved into it a bit more. His story with the mafia at a certain point became even confusing, since the writers didn’t address it properly.
Also, Si-oh didn’t deserve that insignificant death that they gave him. He died without a fight and that was unnatural of him. It is crystal clear that the writers just came up with something to get rid of him. He’s the character with the most psychological depth among all and he deserved a second chance.
He’s the only one that had some chemistry with the FL. I liked their interactions and it looked like she could make him genuinely happy. He also started reflecting on himself and he started wanting to change into a better person thanks to Nam-soon… I was furious when Nam-soon turned her back on him with such ease!!


Here I will point out some other aspects that should’ve gotten more attention.

CULTURAL HERITAGE
Can somebody tell me what happened to Nam-soon’s hair and traditional clothes?
I can’t believe how they totally erased her Mongolian cultural heritage and made her fit, in just one day, into the Korean rich girl standard! It was extremely disappointing to see her culture erased just like that, only because now she was Geum-ju’s daughter. She became an entirely different character.

BREAD SONG
Oh! So Bread Song was the Nozh the entire time! End of the series.
Honestly I am very fond of his character. He was fun and witty and I wish I had gotten to see him more as a villain. He would’ve been interesting.

NAM-SOON’S FATHER
Probably my favorite character after Si-oh. He genuinely cared about his children like a real parent would do. Even though he knew he didn’t have powers, he tried his best when he had to find the antidote for Nam-in. And on top of that, he knew when to step back!


LAST THOUGHTS
In this review I wrote all the things that I didn’t like. But if someone asks me whether I would watch this series if I went back in time, then my answer would be yes. It is true that it has plot holes and that some parts of it (all the grandma’s drama) are unlikeable, but overall this series is pretty good and easy to watch.

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Poorly written drama!

A Badly written story with great actors who tried to atleast make it watchable.

grandmothers love story was unnecessary.
bread song story was waste. He could have been main villain and written as most dangerous.

Ryu Si O.. he was portrayed as tormented boy, they wanted us to feel bad for him and support him, but then instead of showing his redemption, they put him on killing spree, even trying to kill Nam Soon (the girl he loved and trusted)

Kang Sik and Nam Soon love story was just there. no development.

The Homeless characters are just there. no significance.

oof! writers messed it up!

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Not as strong as I expected it to be

Its prequel, Strong Woman Do Bong Soon, left a strong impression on me as a casual rom-com enjoyer. As soon as a sequel was announced, I highly anticipated the drama since I believed they could give me another well-fine quality production. Which, they perfectly delivered during the first few episodes but the show lacked creative progress to the main storyline during the middle portion of its airing period.

Their comedy entertained me at some point but not by the rest of its elements. I can’t feel any romance lingering in my emotions towards the main couple. Byeon Woo Seok saves the whole show from falling apart. His character is very devilish but his appearance leads me to set aside his evil nature and focus on his fine-acting execution. The supporting characters are doing good but aren’t that capable of catching my whole attention.

I feel like the production will push through another sequel of the strong girl storylines but I wish that they give more time to flourish the script with a right balance of fantasy and reality. Nam Soon feels bland as the show's protagonist and I wanted someone who can deliver the story as what Do Bong Soon does in the prequel. I can’t help but to compare the two shows. Although, I still salute the sequel for a fine job of continuing to nourish the well-loved prequel drama.

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FELL IN LOVE WITH THE VILLIAN... NOT THE DRAMA!

I went in with no expectations, but that was a slap in the face.

Sadly to say I only enjoy the first two episode and it just went downhill. The plot is all over the place and pacing is not good. Compared to the orginlal, it's like a ant in the sand.

Honestly, the only thing that makes me wanna keep watching is the villian. He so hot and OMG HIS SMIRK! it makes you root for him and it got me feeling things. UGH, I fangirling so hard. I am obessed with him, instead of the drama. Well, you could say he IS the drama and th plot. I become a big fan of the actor and hope he gets more lead roles.

Also, not to mention how the main lead has no depth or background, hoenstly he just seem like a background character. And the female lead has more chemistry with the villian AND he actually has a actually background and reasoning to do thing. What do we know about the main lead..?? Like nothing LMFAO.

Honestly, these such a lose! It could have been an amazing enemies to lover as the chemistry is between the female lead and villian is SO good. I really trying hard not to compare with the orginial but the romance is SO BAD! it just come out of nowhere between the leads. Like no confession, but they are kissing?

The face that romance is bad gets to me, because the orginial is famous for the ROMANCE. How do you have a sequel but the romance between the male lead is like a dog and a frog trying to kiss?

I'm sorry but I'm not sorry. These series is a MISS, it had suck because it has so much potential. Maybe, the writers could still save it by turning it into a dark romance and shocking us all.

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High expectations hardly ever pan out

What I liked
- The cameo from Park Bo Young and Park Hyun Sik!!!
- The cast. I was really excited to see Seung woo who I've been a fan of since his time in Wanna One, and I really enjoyed Lee You Mi who played on e of my favourite characters in Squid Game.
- The background story of Nam Soon's parents

What I didn't like
- The drug storyline. It felt very heavy handed and I couldn't stop myself from thinking that this was very politically handled(?). This might sound out of pocket but kind of like propaganda, I can't think of another word for what I'm thinking.
- Because of how heavily they focused on the drug storyline it felt like the romance took a backseat.
- Si O's storyline. Specifically the romance(?) aspect with Nam Soon. I felt like there was so much potential there and it was all thrown away for the sake of the stupid drug storyline. The chemistry was there and I felt like it could've been a good love triangle but it was just used as something to create a couple of jealous moments for Hee Sik.
-It felt like there were too many things happening at once. There were so may side characters and they all had there respective storylines so it made it hard to focus on the romance of the main couple

Ultimately I feel disappointed by this. Partly that is because I had high expectations because of how much I loved "Strong Woman Do Bong Soon", it's one of my favourite dramas. But if I put that aside I think that I would've still been disappointed by this drama. I don't regret watching it, there were quite a few times that I was laughing and having a good time but I don't think that I will be rewatching this or recommending it to anyone.

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Don't recommending to watch

If you love "Strong girl Do Bong Soon", i don't recommend to watch this, and that memory would stay as sweet. The legacy of "Strong girl Do Bong Soon" cannot continue on this second season or this Sequel.

Average story with torture of 16 episodes, and not a single memorable characters in this drama. FL is also a bore character and her family. ML is also not special only villian character has something to offer in this whole series.

In the whole series felt like artificial and story wise needed more improvement,but story shrunk into a mafia, drug, money, average comedy, over forced cuteness. The chemistry between leads not feeling like natural. Despites all negative if you want to try then giving a chance it's all upto you.

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when you cast a perfect villain

Although it wasn't the best thing I have seen the chemistry between the main couple was good and I am obsessed with Woo Seok as the villain. We can all agree that he is a fine piece of cookie but I would have never expected that the evil character would suit him so much. His visuals and calm composure sell the show to me. I am still kinda sad that they had a really good story set up for him but didn't go much deeper. I think he deserved more. especially with this black-and-white attitude when it comes to good and evil. it could have been so much better. I think that his sweet and psychotic smile will live rent-free in my head for some time.

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Unecessary Plotlines and Poor Character construction

1. some of the acting or atleast the emotional scenes were bad and over the top, especially hwang guemju
2. they developed heesik and namsoon’s relationship tooquickly and so it lacked excitement
3. they should jit have made the villains so appealing and lowkey people you root for only to be so harsh to them in the end like the bodyguard and sio
4. bread song was a dumb plotline and he should have just ended up being ryu sio’s lost friend
5. also the random info that came after sio’s death was just unnecessary like him finding his father and the boxing ring ince being an orphanage
6. The vagrant people was an even dumber plotline, Idkw he had to be a jerk and then get treated dirty like that. it was so unnecessary and bad, i hated it
7. I hated Namsoons switch up on sio, I thought she would have more sympathy because of how they developed their story but that was untrue, she became like a different person which is understandable cause of what he did but they should not have made him such a character to sympathize with if they wanted us to feel namsoon’s anger

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Nothing is more dangerous than the delulu fangirls!

First of all, let's be clear! Not liking something is fine, but hate it for the SAME reason why you LOVED another show, is just DUMB as hell! You can read my review about Strong Woman Do Bong Soon, and you'll know what I mean.

All I can say, is that BOTH show is pretty much the same! Likable female leads, and basically every (mostly female) character is acting like a 5 year old. The ONLY thing that is better in Strong Girl Nam-Soon is the VFX! The story (in both) is the most basic thing you can see in your life. Predictable and sometimes too much and over the top. Especially in Strong Woman Do Bong Soon. As much as I LOVE Park Bo Young, and Bong Soon with Min Hyuk, their romance was like it was written by a 12 year old girl. If I'm being honest, Nam Soon and Hee Shik's relationship was more mature. Not to mention, he wasn't a typical pretty boy, either. I'm honestly fed up with the same love stories where the girl is in love with a guy who's a GQ model. It's not realistic at all and boring. That being said, one of the best thing in SGNS was the 3rd episode with Bong Soon and Min Hyuk.

The reason I liked both show is that the main actors were great, and they carried the whole show. I could tear the story apart into pieces if I want to, because it was so dumb (again, in both show) I can't even describe it. But when the creators know that it's "bad" for a reason, it makes it better. Both show is like a parody. What makes SGNS story better is that the main villain is actually acting like a villain, and you can take him seriously. While in SWDBS he was a JOKE! Also, in Nam-Soon there wasn't too much filler either.

There's nothing much to say about this show, really, because it's fun if you're not thinking about the story at all, a typical guilty pleasure.

I don't want to offend anyone, but I read some review and comments, and most of them were said, it's so sad that they killed off Shi Oh, and he should've been with Nam Soon. Most of you only hate this show because you can't put aside your fangirl brain. The guy literally murdered hundreds of people, but you want him to be with Nam Soon, because you think he's a pretty boy? And people like those saying this a crap show.

So, in short, Strong Girl Nam-Soon, like its predecessor, it's a dumb show, but still fun if you won't take it seriously.
Lastly, I honestly think the creators should make a team-up in season 3 with Bong Soon and Nam-Soon, I didn't like that they made some random guy strong too.

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Pleasantly surprised by this crazed yet serious comedy considering the awful & nasty ratings

What a pity: I suspect that many nasty and - lets say it - stupid critics are from people who didn’t bother watching throughout and understand the drama and take pride and strength at group lapidations…)
Starting ep. 4, after mother and daughter are reunited , the drama focuses on the drug plot and gets better and better after each episode.

Yes, this drama is an outrageous comedy, that at first glance doesn’t take itself seriously, Yet the craziness is there to balance a very serious and dark drug related main plot. It also shows that dark lords are recruited and bread from childhood (orphans) to serve their masters. Korean dramas are good at revealing this kind of universal sad truth…

This drama is original and well written, with a very engaging storyline relating to-drug trafficking, consumption etc. Balanced by outrageous comedic moments and characters.

Many critic the plot. I couldn’t fault it.
The first 3 to 4 episodes however don’t serve the drama, as they show the crazy reuniting between daughter and family , and do not fairly reflect what the drama becomes after these: a great drama. After ep. 10, it is simply epic.

Nam soon is reunited very quickly with her family without any unnecessary dragging, which I find refreshing for a drama, the main Plot being the new drug trafficking, very well developed over the series, and served by a great cast.
Nam soon personality is bubbly and lively, positive, considerate and thoroughly kind. Like her mother and grandmother (otherwise, it is explained that they would immediately lose their power). She is neither stupid nor a baby. She’s smart , but just utterly kind and self-confident, relying on her strength, trusting because having been brought up in an unspoiled and protected environment (in Mongolia). But again, she has a strong assertive personality nonetheless and is a quick learner…

The main plot, which is about the drug trafficking , is very well maintaining the suspense in an engaging way throughout the drama.
There is no secondary diluting plot which is also good.

Now about the main cast. They are all very good actors, from the younger generation to the experienced ones. All characters have interesting personalities. Thy are fleshed out. The drama being a comedy, they play extreme characters, and are really fun to watch, if you accept that you are watching a comedy but with a serious plot. Like a Jim Carrey comedy (think Dumb & Dumber).
It doesn’t take itself seriously so it is out of place to try & analyse everything to see if it makes sense… That is even stupid: don’t forget that the women in the family are all extraordinarily impossibly strong to start with… if you don’t accept that fact, then don’t watch the drama and criticise, that is not nice at all.
SPECIAL MENTION TO BYUN WOO SEOK who is just amazing playing the villain. I wish he gets great parts in the future and we get to see him more often.

About the romance between the FL and the ML, played by Ong Seong Wu (amazing in Moment at Eighteen) : some say they is no chemistry between then… then watch a true romance, which this one is not. Again, It is a comedy. But they are charming together and their cute interactions leave no doubt: The ML is flustered from the very beginning and it shows in his every look at her…
All in all, very unusual, refreshing and surprising. I wasn’t bored one single moment and didn’t feel the need for fast forwarding …A good entertaining drama served by a great cast and storyline, and very aesthetics settings and lights…
I’ve watched 100s of dramas and have become very picky and easily bored. I love being surprised. And this drama did it for me.

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