Story:
When i first saw the plot of this drama and heard the title, i immediately thought of "Weightlifting fairy Kim Bok joo", and wasn't to excited about watching it. Now don't get me wrong, i looooved "Weightlifting fairy Kim Bok joo". I just thought it was unnecessary to make a new drama with the same plot, all over again. Especially since "Weightlifting fairy Kim Bok joo" just fininshed airing not too long ago.
But once "Strong Woman Do Bong soon" started airing, people started talking about it a lot and therefore, i had to watch it.
When i started watching it, i loved it right from the start.
Although it, in some ways, are similar to "Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo", it wasn't as similar as i had feared. It's mostly just the fact that both of the female leads are strong and doesn't live up to the stereotypical "pretty-like-a-doll" girls that we are used to seeing in dramas, and the fact that both dramas are romantic comedies. In a way you could say that "Strong Woman Do Bong soon" is the "adult" version of "Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok joo". "Strong Woman Do Bong Soon" is more "dark" i guess you could say.
You have the creepy kidnapper, and the adult jokes, that made it more "mature", while "Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok joo" was more sweet and not as "dark".
(The reason for why i'm using ("") when i say "dark", is because "Strong Woman Do Bong Soon" wasn't really that dark either. It's mostly just an absolutely hilarious and sweet drama, but it's "darker" than "Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo", if you get what i mean...why are both of those titles so long?").
Overall the story was great and entertaining all the way 'till the very end.
Acting:
I have officially added another actor and actress to my favourite-actors/actresses list. I have seen dramas with both before, and they both did well in those too,
it's just that i like to see actors act different types of roles before i make my mind up on wether i think they're good actors or not, and i can honestly say that Park Hyungshik and Park Bo young are great actors.
Their chemistry was great, they were such a cute couple and their bickering is the best thing i've seen this year, or the next best thing i've seen this year after the bromance.
Can we just take a minute to talk about how much i ship Hyungshik and Jisoo, like for real. I kinda hoped that this drama would take a turn and that Hyungshik's character actually was gay but...you can't always get what you want now can you?
Music:
The music was good, very fitting with the superhero theme that this drama has. I don't have much more to say.
It was good.
Rewatch value:
9/10, because i don't really rewatch dramas, but it's a drama i could've rewatched, if that makes any sense.
Overall:
All i have to say, is that i think "Strong Woman Do Bong Soon" is the best drama that has aired so far (of the once i've seen at least) this year! Loved it.
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The poor humor fails to hold up a very weak story with a very imbalanced message.
This drama wasn't trying to be too grand so it feels a little excessive to be too dramatic in denouncing it. I watched it for the humor, for a silly, bizarre story that didn't take itself too seriously. Which is largely what this was. The humor was humorous, even if sometimes it was quite cringey. The story was fairly cute, if love triangles don't bother you too much (they bother me, but whatever).Stories like this, that do this deliberate switching around of gender roles, are always failures when they try to say too much. I've never seen such a drama that didn't get a worrying amount of basic stuff wrong.
The general idea here is that the Do women are the strong ones in their families, both in terms of physical strength and personality. To borrow an old expression, they wear the pants. In that sense I really appreciated that Do Bong Soon was actually more meek and submissive than her forebears. The contrast was more compelling and it allowed for growth as her character, presumably, would learn that physical strength isn't the only or even the most important kind of strength. And that was a bit what they were doing.
The difference in how the two male leads treated her was also interesting. They both still had an instinct to protect the woman they cared about (which is good and fine), but one did so because she was weak (he assumed) while the other was doing so because no one should have to endure dangers and hardship no matter how strong they are.
That was pretty much the only thing they did right. The rest of the drama was deeply weird in its depiction of "strong" women. I'm not sure I agree with viewers who say that Do Bong Soon's mother was trying to get her to basically rape the main guy. I only watched till episode 10 so maybe that occurred after that. What I saw was a wildly overbearing mother who insisted that her daughter make the first move with a guy who would definitely reciprocate because he's a hot-blooded male. Tasteless and vulgar, yes, but not rape. Somewhat funny at first given how inappropriate it was and how much Do Bong Soon hated it. But it dragged on way too long.
I'm also not sure I agree with other reviewers who say she was abusing her power the entire drama. The fact is that yes, the way she was slapping people around who were much, much weaker than her was pretty excessive. But that's where the tone and message of this drama fails. According to its own rules, the Do women can be physically abusive with their strength if it helps other, weaker people, or at least doesn't serve their own interests. Which seems fine, but it implies that smacking people around because you can is generally acceptable as long as the person getting smacked around is "bad." Too, Bong Soon almost always beat up men who were hurting women, children or the elderly. Which, again, is fine within the environment of the drama. But her beatings were BRUTAL. By anyone's standards. And this enormous imbalance of power is never addressed. It's all okay, according to the writers, because she's a small woman who has been underestimated. And therefore deserves to be brutal? Or has the right to be cruel enough to make her a villain in any other story? According to the writers this is all fine because it's funny.
All the Do women in the drama (Do Bong Soon being only somewhat of an exception) are terrible. If this drama were described without specifying the genders of any characters, Bong Soon's mother would be assumed to be a hated villain and the rest to be backwards and sexist. Funny how that assumption is reversed when you find out they're women. I have no problem with women being depicted as overbearing and prickly. I have no problem with women being depicted as too domineering and somewhat cruel in a relationship, especially if they experience growth along the story. But domestic violence is never funny. The rest, sure. A person could make a kind of comedy out of it. But things like domestic violence are not funny. If the gender roles were reversed and the man was bruising the body of the woman, it would never be depicted as funny. So why is it funny for the woman to do so?
I found that alone disturbing and off-putting enough to make it impossible to continue watching. The thing is, this drama's story is not great. Its success relies entirely on the quality of the romance and the quality of the comedy.
The romance was a long drawn-out love triangle. I hate love triangles so I'm a bit biased when I say it was therefore unwatchable. Strange, though, because there was some mature dialogue about how childish and selfish love triangles can be and how acting only on one's emotions always hurts people. And then the entire romance is a love triangle? Actually more of a love... octagon? I lost track.
The comedy was, at first, wonderful. Silly and absurd and nonsensical but with just enough heart. But then it lost its footing. The gangsters in the hospital, especially the one who lost his teeth, were more gross than funny. Humor suitable for a five-year-old maybe. The mother's abusive nature was never funny, despite countless scenes that made us believe that the writers seemed to think so. Their attempt to redeem her was set against the backdrop of kindergarten humor so it lacked both logic and drama.
The humorous interplay between Bong Soon and her boss was genuinely funny. Her ineptitude as a bodyguard was logically acceptable because how the hell would she know the first thing about being a bodyguard? And the absurdity of hiring her was another nonsensical illogical piece of comedy that could survive the environment of a drama that doesn't make any other kind of sense. But her almost mercenary motives painted her character in a selfish light that was never remedied with growth. And then the humorous interplay was taken over by semi-serious, semi-humorous love triangle antics so it lost all its charm.
The general idea of great physical power making a person able to dominate any relationship was never really addressed even though they set it up repeatedly. The dominant mother was never called out for abusing her own power -- physical or emotional -- as a strong woman hurting weak people with her strength. Meanwhile Do Bong Soon was expressing sorrow that the serial kidnapper was using his strength to hurt weak women. Is using one's strength to hurt people only bad if you're male? The writers of this drama definitely thought so. Thus you get humor that fits this world view and it never sits right.
Ultimately the humor fails to hold up a very weak story with a very imbalanced message. Eventually the humor becomes as much of a drag as the rest. I wouldn't recommend this drama to anyone.
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Sounds a bit far stretched? I don't disagree, but that is part of the charm of this series. To this day, I cannot think of a drama that made me literally cry from laughter or squeek from delight. Bonus is a cute soundtrack, nearly perfect special effects you don't even notice, and some really great side characters. I was hooked on episode one, and the adorable romance between Park Bo-young and Park Hyung-sik has made me come back to this series multiple times. I hope you love it just as much as I do!
Like this review? Check out my blog: https://dramafox.wixsite.com/dramafoxblog
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you need to watch it, before u die
it's The best, i instally fell in Love with it, i am so happy that there Will be season 2, but so sad because of diffirent actors. I Will never forget it, it's Stilo in my heart. i was laughing like crazy, all my family though i have gone Mad?. i Love it! it's so cute and romantic. i really highly recommend it, i was happy it was mostly romantic, but sometimes thriller, so it wasnt boring. i was happy because there was only one sad moment in all 16 episodes, i really cried, but it was Stilo good.Was this review helpful to you?
Crazy mix of cute, creepy and cringe
First things first, you gotta know what you’re in for when watching this show. It’s above all a show that doesn’t take itself too seriously; almost everything about it is over the top. This has resulted in a crazy mix of extremes - extreme cute (our FL and the cutest OTP that ever lived), creepy (all villian parts) and cringe (basically anytime a side character was on screen, with the exception of Dad, Bongki and the SFL). It goes from one to the other in the bat of an eye. I loved the cute, could put up with the creepy and had to mark this show down because of the cringe.It is, undoubtedly, hands down the cutest thing I’ve ever watched. I ADORED every minute of the cute: this show has one of my fav strong FLs ever and the cutest OTP of all time. Bong Soon is perfect as a TINY, harmless looking little pipsquek who is actually a Herculean superhero. It’s completely awesome and hilarious. The OTP is adorable. The word “squee” was made for them. Their chemistry and interactions are perfect, such that even the absolute cheesiest scenes and moments still worked for me, and soooo many scenes were extra cheesy and would have been cringe with different leads. Min Hyuk especially was just flawless in his portrayal of a puddle of goo. I loved that he was always so supportive of BS, loving her in spite of and regardless of her superpower. Yes this is a traditional role reversal but MH is no pushover, he totally deserves his badass CEO title and I loved the scene where he went toe to toe with the baddie and took him down. He is assertive and cocky and makes no secret of what he wants, yet is always respectful and kind to BS and waits for her patiently (quite literally) to catch up with him. I loved it. The OTP scenes and interactions were SO CUTE I was slayed (exactly how MH crumbles to the ground in the face of too much BS cute), but it’s really not all fluff.
Another shout out to the SML who makes up the third in the ass-kicking trio. His chemistry with MH (yes, MH) and the scenes they had were LOL hilarious and also my fav. When these 3 get together they light up the screen and it is always entertaining. The final showdown scene with the villian was also SO satisfying. 10/10.
The reason I’m not scoring this show higher is the cringe - all the filler characters and the amount of time we spent with them. I actually ff my way through the entire sequences with Tak Baek’s gang, Mr Oh, Mr Gong and even BS’ mother. Those scenes were an example of over the top slapstick that crossed the line into cringe for me.
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This review may contain spoilers
If u like to watch strong female with romcom
I don't know why there are so many bad reviews here on this aap. This drama is already famous and beautiful altogether.(If you're not fan of romantic comedy with female action or mixed genres, pls do not watch it to later criticizing it badly)
(Try to enjoy the romance and humor they has to offer with going all protective)
I've watched it many times just to re-watch the cuteness of the couples.
She tiny, powerful, cute, beats all the bad guys (she's not a bully for teaching a good lesson to bad peoples), falls out of love from her long term crush after ignored for long, both of the couples are really cute, do not criticize for her being not able to control her power in the starting and getting overboard, she's smug which suits her, handling all those powers are not easy.
I only didn't like the character of her mother who's abusive towards her husband. Otherwise everything is fine.
The male lead, first rumoured as gay, but he later clarified his reason, he's cute and head over heals in love with her, smart, handle everything perfectly, a charismatic CEO, supports do bong soon, trains her, wants to protect her even though she's powerful.
The police force is showed useless but the plot needed this to let our three heroes catch the kidnappers.
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This review may contain spoilers
Sorry. I'm not against dramas poking fun at serious issues and if this one had done it with more cleverness and less ham-handed cheap laughs, it might have worked. I truly felt like IQ points were screaming and dying in my brain as I watched this.For example, I can’t stand the mother pimping out her daughter, even though it’s clearly being played for laughs, and the whole gay-not gay thing seems tonally off to me. (I’ve never been a big fan of the Coffee Prince/You’re Beautiful approach to homosexuality where the writer uses it as a device to advance conventional, heterosexual love. The underlying message seems to be that True Love can override sexual preference, as if homosexuality is a choice and all you need is to meet that one special person. And I disliked Personal Taste because of the male lead coyly pretending to be gay in order to advance his agenda.) Except for Do Bong-Soon and her grandmother, the women are weak and Do Bong-Soon herself isn’t very bright. Those things, added to the sadistic kidnap/murder theme, make me feel that there is a misogynistic streak running through this drama.
ETA: Another thing that bothered me is that stock value in the male lead’s company dives after news reports surface that he is gay. It’s played as if that’s funny. It’s not.
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Super entertaining, fun to watch drama, alone or with friends and family!
It's probably one of the most enjoyable dramas I've ever watched! It doesn't tire you out nor does it feel draggy. The story is very novel and fresh. The characters are well written: funny whilst maintaining a good amount of depth so as to not seem too superficial or fake. Also the comedic element is abundant in this drama without turning it into a farce. It does have a turning point, where the story gets slightly more serious but that does not take anything away from the plot, it rather enriches it and makes it more balanced.Moreover, the acting is great, the OSTs are beautiful and the chemistry between the leads is remarkable. All in all, it is a really enjoyable and entertaining drama, I'd definitely re-watch it (as I've already done, a couple of times) I strongly recommend it.
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I ABSOLUTELY FELL IN LOVE WITH THIS DRAMA !
From the cast to the storyline to the soundtrack, I loved everything about " Strong Woman Do Bong Soon ". The performance of Park Bo Young was fantastic and she just fitted the character. I liked the fact that she kept looking cute and shy while hiding her power. Usually, when I hear a strong woman I picture some bulky girl with a scary intimidating face.
Moreover, the chemistry was attracting. In some episodes, you can mistake them for a real couple. You can see the love that Park Hung Sik bears for his co-star. He nailed the romantic scenes.
Overall, I loved this drama and I recommend it strongly for people who are looking for a different storyline than the typical romantic comedies.
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Rewatching it for the 3rd time
Needless to say this is my favorite korean drama. It's the drama I've watched the most and honestly it's my happy pill. The chemistry between the main couple is extraordinary, loved how the relationship evolves as the episodes go by. Really love the mix of thriller, romance and comedy that this drama has. I watched it in a blink of an eye cuase it's really addicting. Will keep rewatching it in the future cause it's the drama I always come back to, and honestly I'll hardly get tired of watching it.Was this review helpful to you?
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Funny
I thought this show was very funny at times, and lovely at others. I wouldn't say it was as romantic as some other shows I have watched but was still good. I kind of felt it was too short. I finished it all in one day, but that's just me. I love binge watching shows and to be honest sometimes it's better if it's short rather than dragging on. Kiss scenes where good and I could feel the chemistry between the main characters to the point where I had to have a second look at my husband and wonder why I chose him ?Was this review helpful to you?
