Strong Woman Kang Nam Soon (2023)

GARBAGE ON STEROIDS!

***DISCLAIMER: These are just my thoughts on the show as a whole. We don’t have to agree and I’m not here to argue with anyone.***

AND THE AWARD FOR WORST KDRAMA OF 2023 GOES TO STRONG GIRL NAM SOON!!!!! (Except nobody is smiling, cheering or clapping and all you hear are crickets)

THIS SHOW IS SOOOOO BAD I WANT TO GIVE IT A ZERO BUT THAT’S NOT POSSIBLE SO I GIVE IT A ONE. It is the definition of unserious. Though this review may come off like I’m hating (which I most definitely am) it’s mostly shock and disappointment. I had high hopes going into this and it just did not meet the mark AT ALL.

This show just lacked depth. The plot made no sense whatsoever and you basically have to turn off your brain to watch it. The focus shifted from Nam Soon to the mother, Geum Ju, and her heroic tendencies / saviorism, and unwavering determination to bring down Pavel and the Korean drug cartel. Even Nam Soon's grandma and her whole love affair got more attention than her. To say this drama did not live up to the hype or potential would be an understatement.

All the characters were unlikeable except for Nam Soon (earlier episodes) and Shi Oh… at least when he was around Nam Soon he didn’t treat her like a 5 year old. I sort of feel like her being childish / silly with him was healing his inner child so I was happy to see him smile and be content with her. I also liked Nam Soon's father... he was so supportive and seemed to genuinely care for his children unlike the mother who was always working / busy and could never see what was going on under the surface or spare five minutes of her time to get to know them better. Geum Ju was a horrible mother and I will not stop saying it. Her over the top emotions and tears coming out whenever her children were in danger and on the verge of death says so much. I don't even want to get into her fat phobic / insensitive comments and how that took a toll on her Nam In's mental health. While this show masked it as humor, it was in poor taste because it just was not funny at all.

It is safe to say I wasted almost 2 months of my life watching this tom foolery. That’s time I will never get back. The last 2 episodes were absolute bullshit and they lost the entire plot. Tell me why Ryu Shi Oh died by suicide within 20-25 mins of episode 16, Bread Song turned out to be Nozh, Grandma was supposed to die and didn’t and Nam Soon who is such a half witted, untrained and reckless girl became a cop? MAKE IT MAKE SENSE.

Ugh and don’t get me started on Hee Sik’s gold digging family, Nam Soon’s mom flaunting her wealth and the obvious lack of chemistry between Nam Soon and Hee Sik. That last kiss was an immediate no, no hate to Yoo Mi, but why did she kiss him like she was eating noodles??! Everything about that kiss seemed weird / unnatural and awkward. Anyway I know people who shipped them from the get go would have eaten it up, but it just was so cringe in my opinion.

It's the way they tried to outdo SWDBS and FAILED. Again, you seriously can't outdo the doer and this show is proof of that. The plot was lackluster / sucked big time, the acting was over the top and it seemed like they were putting on a comedy sketch (a seriously bad one) rather than a serious drama / tackling real issues. Except for Ryu Shi Oh, the characters were dull, one-dimensional, and devoid of depth. Nam Soon was even more childish at the end than at the beginning. When she received her award, she acted like an immature hyperactive toddler / a crazy person in serious need of a mental facility. Not to mention her continual lifting up of Hee Sik (bridal style) was another a major turn off. I need someone to me why she was always acting RIDICULOUS?! My goodness, it was like she didn’t have an off switch and was always behaving like damn fool or a deer in the headlights. She appeared to always be on drugs and that’s putting it LIGHTLY. If you told me she snorted 5 lines of COCAINE and also did METH or MDMA I WOULD BELIEVE YOU! In my opinion, Nam Soon doesn't appear mature enough for a relationship, let alone marriage... and when Hee Sik eventually proposed – it was so underwhelming. NEXT!

I could not feel anything for the main couple or root for their happiness because there was no development whatsoever, it felt like they just forced their relationship down my throat. Nam Soon clearly had better angst / chemistry with Shi Oh and it was easier to see their potential because they had so many good moments together. Even Bread Song and the mom had more tension filled interactions – which is saying so much. The way the proposal was at the same cherry blossom tree as in SWDBS was a major eye roll moment. Also, the stupid, overbearing heartfelt moments between the Joong Gan and Jun Hee like? PLEASE SPARE ME. LITERALLY NOBODY WANTED TO SEE THAT. Even in the end, they attempted to build up the suspense and make it appear as if it would be the death of her character after she had used a lot of her power, but they still let her survive. It would have been more dramatic if she had died... and Jun Hee and her ex-husband were obliged to mourn her together.

I still can’t believe Jun Hee was just a bland / flavorless and spineless character (literally such a freaking simp) had no connection to the Russian mafia and didn’t turn out to be a secret bad guy. THAT WAS SUCH A MISSED OPPORTUNITY. The fact that he was just there to be Joong Gan’s sidekick and lover sent me over the edge. The amount of screen time the grandma's whole arc took up just because the writer was trying to live vicariously through her character was so annoying!

Additionally when Nam Soon and her adoptive mom both happened to nearly be killed by bombs was just so predictable. Your telling me the writers couldn’t have come up with a better plot?! Even bringing in this new guy to play adult Bin Bin at the end was strange – he had no connection to the people we previously knew and never popped up in the story before (at least not as an adult), so it was difficult for me to feel pity or anything else for him. Yes, he spared Shi Oh’s life by not betraying him / killing him as ordered and that was the only bonus. Everyone literally thought Bin Bin would have been either Bread Song or the kind man at Opulentia helping Geum Ju out with her investigation. AGAIN, ANOTHER MISSED OPPORTUNITY.

The only thing I liked about this drama was the fact that the girl vagrant took the money back from the male vagrant after he discarded her / threw her to the waste side. I have been praying on his downfall ever since he broke up with her and I’m glad to see he lost everything in the end and ended up penniless and homeless while she was free to live her best life without him. I also liked when Nam Soon's father suggested that all the single males live together. I could definitely see it because they would have started their own "weak men" empire (for lack of a better name) or something like that! Now that is something I'd watch. When Nam In said te refused to live with them out of fear of ending up like them I DIED, he was so real for that!

Needless to say I really HATED this drama and would never watch it again. I would rather kill myself or rip out my eyeballs instead. Even banging my head repeatedly on the wall would be better than rewatching this ridiculous parody. I stuck around for Shi Oh and in the end they gave him the worst possible death, no redemption arc and completely ruined his character. He had so much potential to be a better person and a changed man but the writers destroyed everything. I still refuse to believe he actually tried to kill Nam Soon and her family when he found out her identity. Though, what is enemies to lovers without both parties trying to kill each other? (iykyk) It’s even more sad when you think about the fact that he tried to help his birth father out and even bought an orphanage and turned it into a boxing gym. I won't stop saying it but – RYU SHI OH DESERVED SM BETTER THAN THE HAND HE WAS DEALT!

Anyway, I guess they just couldn’t allow him to live after he spiraled, went off the rails and took so many innocent lives. What gets me is that Geum Ju and Nam Soon believed Hwa Ja was capable and worthy of being saved but they could not extend the same right or courtesy to Shi Oh. I mean seriously? Hwa Ja even tried to murder Nam Soon at one point…. just because she was unsuccessful in her attempt does not make what she did excusable or justifiable. I don’t care what anyone else says but the fact that Nam Soon’s mom forgave her after all that and basically adopted her as a daughter was absolutely insane and I will never understand it. This show proves that Geum Ju's and Nam Soon's empathy is conditional on whether they feel pity for someone's situation or not. Ryu Shi Oh never chose this life and it's unfair because he had gone through so much as a child to just hang on / survive. Literally everything he did was just so he could finally escape / find a way out from Pavel's control. He was a victim or circumstance but the stupid characters in this show could not even see that. It's ironic because when they were starting to realize at the end it was ALREADY TOO LATE.

My favorite character was and always will be Ryu Shi Oh. They could never make me hate him! I understood all his motives and rooted for him endlessly — even when he was on his killing spree. Honestly he was not evil enough in my opinion. I’m not gonna lie, if I lived his life I would’ve been worse. It’s unfortunate Byeon Woo Seok was not enough to save this drama and make me turn a blind eye to how horrible the overall production and acting was. If the writers had gone with an enemies to lovers plot / dark romance, this show would have been so much better. I mean – most people were watching for the villain and rooting for him instead of the ML or even Nam Soon and her family. This drama was way too childish, and it was difficult to find benefits or reasons to stay. Each episode progressively got worse, and I had to force myself to watch for the sake of completion.

I sincerely hope the writer gives up and just ends this TRAIN WRECK / TOILET FIRE IMMEDIATELY. This shit show does not need a part 3 or spin-off. Whatever she writes next she will ruin it even further and it would just be wise of her to stop now.

I could have lived my life without watching this drama or knowing it was a sequel to the original Strong Woman Do Bong Soon. If you are contemplating starting this because you liked SWDBS, I suggest and strongly advise you skip this drama entirely and watch some edits instead. Their five minute screen time is not worth over 18 hours of torture and misery. Please save yourself and quit while you are ahead.

If you think I'm lying / joking then watch this circus act and see for yourself.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you though.

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P.S. No hate to new watchers or persons who enjoyed this drama. I'm happy for you, truly. I'm glad some people were lucky enough to be warned beforehand and able to go into this with very very very LOW expectations.

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(If you actually made it this far ilysm!)

(づ ᴗ _ᴗ)づ♡


As always,

Thanks for reading & happy watching!

˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

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Lower your expectations if you don't want to be disappointed.

BUT WHAT HAPPENED??? everything was going so well until episode 3, the ep cover launching feels like I'm watching a comedy that my uncles would laugh at, the story had everything to become interesting and the romance too, but it seems that the screenwriter wanted to try something new and now the story is uninteresting, boring, strange, a dubious comedy, and this HORRIBLE romance where ML seems to be fall in love with the girl in the second episode? like a drama made in 2023 with everything good, and yet the original drama crushes this poorly made work, the acting in this drama is HORRIBLE I thought that AT LEAST the acting could save this shit, but what happened to the actress? she does so many good works, all of are dead, your adults matter, her appearances are incredible, the Her productions are perfect, why did she have to put herself through that? the main character seems like a stupid and inattentive child, and on top of that the couple has no chemistry at all, i would rather have closed eyes and imagine that they never made a second drama of the original. simply despicable.

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I'm gonna be sick

The most I can say is
CRINGE CRINGE CRINGE CRINGE OMG the cringe!!
The acting is just bad. The female lead has the personally and
maturity of a 8 year old. From the moment she popped up till the last ep. The mother
and grandmother characters over the top especially the mother of the female lead. You got
a fake daughter come in and do all that and even go to the lengths to try and kill your real child and you
forgive her and want to treat her like your child. They were also full of themselves and the over
acting of both actresses is a joke and that's just sad for an actress like Kim Hae Sook. I saw no spark between
the female lead and the male lead. Nothing at all romantic. The male characters in the strong woman family
are have been written to be morons. I do have to say though that the acting of the
actor in the role of the villain was the only good thing I can say about this show besides the fact that
its over. I'd say his acting in the was the best out of all the cast. The acting from the rest of the cast was god awful!! The female lead was annoying and I have to say it again had the mentality of a I'm gonna go lower that 8 years she acted like she was 4. I guess that's how the director wanted the cast to act but
this was bad on so many levels and I don't see how he didn't have some noise cancelation headphones
while directing this mess. Having to watch this was bad enough but also having to listen to all that terrible acting was even worse. Now I guess they're planning on making another one LMAO
I hope its not going to be on Netflix. They can do better than that mess!

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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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Cringe at best, Insulting at worst

as a big fan for the prequel, this sequel just the WORST. i said this with all the amount of respect i could gather and it is almost nil.

The MC, cringe. the family, bad. the hero, bland.

and the one star i could give, all of it for byun woo seok. he alone carry the whole story. and I dont understand, for a character that you plan to kill at the end, why oh why, you give him THAT much depth and background.

and i know yumi is a better actor than this abomination, she could easily pull an innocent and naive character properly. but nooo, she gotta be an 8 years old the whole time. why?

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The Enemies to Lovers trope would have done this wonders.

Mediocre. What a mediocre series. I have so much to say but I'll start with my headline.

What a wasted potential. I'm not saying she should have ENDED up with the villain because the way this was written, it would NEVER WORK. In order for it to be a good "Enemies to Lovers", it needed the villain to be the male lead so HE is the focus of the story. Some people will say they didn't like him and that is completely valid because he was written to be UNREDEEMABLE. If he was written to be LIKED, people would have changed their mind about him. All the writer needed to do was make him smarter, make the female lead smarter too in the way she spies on him, slow burn it a little and then build it up from there into his redemption or a anti-hero ending. Then you will have the greatest progression for a love story that is refreshing and not boring. And for people who hate villainous characters, I promise you, one story that doesn't conform to the standard isn't going to make all the usual romance in kdrama fade into oblivion. There is always wholesome drama that airs EVERY season. We are not running out of stock from those to watch. So there is no need to be agitated that people liked a bad guy as if there isn't thousand of dramas with cute good guys characters. There is something for everyone. For this one in specific, the enemies to lovers would have done it WONDERS.

Despite what I said, I have to say, this drama, even without the romance, was TOO MESSY. It started out good. The first 4 episode were pretty enjoyable but the writers decided to half bake everything else. Too many side plotlines that go NOWHERE. The story was BARELY moving forward. So many unlikeable characters taking the spotlight for no reason. I wish the male characters were more well put together. None of the male characters had more to their story than being useless (except the dad) and don't get me mentioned on the brother constant target for fatshaming. It made me roll my eyes. I thought his story would conclude well as a life lesson that if you fatshame your child, you can endanger their life which is a message I don't mind seeing depicted but then they kept showing scenes of him eating or just talking about food as if that's his only trait... it feels like even the writer didn't learn a lesson from their own storytelling.

Also the FL doesn't feel like a FL here. Her mom and grandma took most of the spotlight away from her. It would have been more enjoyable to see both mom and daughter work and plan together but still have the daughter as the MAIN focus. Instead, she got sidelined in her OWN story. She have all these super powers and abilities yet all of it disappeared in the other half of the story. As for the grandma, if she was the character who ALWAYS save the day when her daughter and granddaughter in trouble, she would have be a badass character.

As for the romance, it was BAD. What is the point of watching a romance drama where the male leads already in love by episode 4? Let's say, okay, we like the early romance because some dramas actually do them too... but... there is no build up? No confession leading up to being together? One day, they are together. They just throw a scene with both of them and hope they convince you into liking it. The kiss scenes are all randomly placed and the grandma have MORE of a romance storyline than the FL. People only like the romance because it's the male lead and female lead. Not because it's actually well written.

I gotta give it to Byeon Woo Seok's. His back must hurt from trying to carry this drama. The villain was the only interesting character in the show. I loved the FL at the start but like I said, she got SIDELINED SO HARD, there is nothing to say about her. I've made a character analysis of Ryushio if anyone's interested. https://mydramalist.com/729535-strong-woman-kang-nam-soon#comment-15450791

The villain got all the package. Good backstory, goals, ambition and was even soft to watch him when he wasn't being a menace to society. He progressed the story when nothing else was. They made him dumb in not figuring out the FL identity so they can extend this to 16 episodes but that can be forgiven because without it... OOOOOF. Would there be a story??? The villain is the best thing about this show. He brought a good amount of the international watchers. I was never going to watch this show if I didn't come across his edit. My sister also WASN'T going to watch either if it wasn't for these edits. There is too many good dramas airing to be wasting it on a mediocre one like this one.

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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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Minus.

I'm not even going to compare this to the OG, because I refuse to count this as anything remotely connected to Strong Woman Do Bong Soon. Strong Girl Namsoon is in a league of its own. One of the worst dramas I've seen.

I wanted to drop it post ep4, but damn, Ryu Shi Oh is one fine character who has me captivated; 10/10 for that role? Maybe because he was the only one with some story going for him. 0/10 for everything else happening in this show hence, I've come to a generous 1/10.

The story and acting deserves a MINUS. The amount of rubbish they've stuffed into this show is mind boggling.
Could have been a 4-6 episode mini series and called it a day, because everything else was just fillers.

Absolutely nothing worked about this show apart from the Bong-bong Min-min cameo ❤️ and Ryu Shi Oh's character because at least he had a backstory going for him.

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how is it so bad… literally

It’s both funny and sad how bad this kdrama is
unless it’s target audience was kids below 10, I don’t know how anyone could take it srs

…the absolute terrible plot that beats even the most unpopular shows, the cringe characters, the cringe backstory of every single character, the cringe dialogues…. I think its the first kdrama that made me feel absolutely nothing but rage and disgust
It gets worse when u understand russian, there was literally no reason for them to go out of their way to make this mafia thing up and speak absolute gibberish, I’m not even joking ☠️☠️☠️ even a tiny bit of effort would make it better but I guess the audience is supposed to eat it up anyway ?

u can just see it’s a low effort low quality piece of something no one needed in their life…. I was hoping it gets better since I had nothing else to watch anyway but now I just wish I never even knew this thing existed

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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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