I just finished episode 4, this is SO BADLY WRITTEN it's insane, and I'm not only comparing it to 'Do Bong Soon',…
It's really coming from the script. So it's a choice from the writer. And yes, it's quite bad, a downfall from the first drama. And probably this screenwriter made some other good dramas, but I didn't watch them yet. (Mine, Woman of dignity, but I've drop Melting me softly)
So, why she does something like that now? Lack of inspiration? Or just on purpose? You certainly know the most famous kdrama screenwriter: Kim Eun Sook. I watched some of her older dramas and I liked.
Then ~2010, she gave a interview explaining she was changing her style. Instead to make complex drama about thematic like City Hall, she aimed to create the most popular thing. It made a scandal. Even myself was bitter about that. Where is the sincerity of the author?
Then she made ultra-popular dramas. Secret garden, Descendant of the Sun, Goblin. I still like the first one, but the others were boring, too cheesy. But anyway, she made the good choice about rating. Goblin is the most popular show. She said she didn't making art, but in spite of herself, she still have to put her creativity in it, so there is still visual art in Goblin. I could read the script episode 1, and the descriptions are more poetic than I expected with mood. (often, screenplay are more concise). Here the first scene (aproximative translation): ----------------------------- #1. field (night)
An endless field of buckwheat flowers in a deserted field. The white buckwheat flowers bathed in the cold moonlight are melancholy. In the middle of a field of swaying buckwheat flowers, a longsword is silently stuck. The rusted and dull blade and the mossy handle bear the traces of time. ---------------------------- (note, I find strange she repeat so much "buckwheat flowers", so it could be a translation error, you don't repeat things like that in a screenplay)
It gives a lot to the director about the intention, the atmosphere, create a visual picture in the reader's mind. It's a lot of text for that. But as the drama is slow, it's ok. This scene in the field, the director will create slow shots, then the editor will keep it long and smooth (and boring, LOL!).
So anyway, even for a purposely popular show, she does something good on the page. Just, I can't endure so many things in the story.
Then, it wouldn't surprise me than Baek Mi Kyung made the same kind of choice. On MDL, people are used to kdramas and watch tons, they forgive less. But see the rating on Netflix. (and whatever I say, they still love the slow and boring Goblin, ahah)
In Strong Girl Namsoon, we can find a lot of inconsistencies. It screams: just do that to move the plot in the direction I want, even it's stupid and unbelievable. But it happens often in any drama, even plot-holes if needed, as the goal is to be enteirtaining and have emotions in scenes, or hitting power. So, the writer choose something loosy for a better good. Just, there is a limit I think. Do that too much, and it becomes painful if nothing make sens.
Note also this: audience can detect easely inconsistencies once they watch the drama, but they are very difficult to detect when creating and writing the screenplay. Plus, the production can create additional flaws. Directing/Editing. Because it's difficult to track all, and many people are involved. The character change clothes when it shouldn't. The prop guy choose the wrong one, anything. Or the set is not exactly what needed, or someone always ends to forget something. And they are all in a hurry, have to work fast. Pale-Pale-Pale korean way of working.
Information can be lost in the process. And the screenplay has to be precise on the main points, but can't describe everything. It's supposed to be read at the same speed you watch the drama. One page = One minute on average. Lot of cuts to do in the text. I said it's a technical document. A strange one. Not a novel, but need to keep flavor a bit like a novel, but also give the specifications. Just like in an engineering or architecture firm. The designer gives this, and the other workers don't question what's there, they build what's on the plan, step by step.
In the kdrama "All of us are dead", there is a giant explosion in a building on a construction site. And the scene after, you see a plastic curtain beyond, on the stage. Impossible! It should have burn. Why is that? Maybe the shooting happened before the explosion? Someone forgot?Just they couldn't remove that? (no autorisation, or the curtain was stick to the wall and they couldn't remove it)
Then, about what you mention, the shocking attitude of characters. It doesn't mean what the writer says. The writer is neutral (well, it should be). If you want to make a character looks bad: make them say bad things and do bad things. Grandma attitude is unacceptable, but see, it creates a conflictual scene when she argue with the mother later. The mother fatshame the son. Obviously, there should be a pay-off later, so she regrets, or have consequences: the son take a pill to loose weight even from a random girl. So, I dislike the drama, but the writer doesn't do everything wrong, she keep a narrative logic on many points.
I just finished episode 4, this is SO BADLY WRITTEN it's insane, and I'm not only comparing it to 'Do Bong Soon',…
Hi, you've got this one all wrong. I guess I should explain why. Aigoo. Let's go...
Sure, Baek Mi Kyung is a screenwriter (I said writer for short). She creates the story AND produces a screenplay. A formatted technical document containing visuals, dialogue and the precise order of scenes. And even within a scene, the cinematic order (suggested and not necessarily using technical terms such as camera angle). Even short cuts (flashbacks, quick changes of location) are part of the screenplay, and don't come from Editing (what many people wrongly believe).
The director only has... a director's role! He studies the screenplay, understands the story as much as possible (possibly in discussion with the screenwriter). Then, he uses his composition skills and technique to convey the story as best he can. Feeling, theme. Example: a blocking shot to create opposition between two characters. His work is already huge. He and his team produce shooting sheets, indicating camera positions, the type of shot to be used, etc.
The director never asks the screenwriter what he wants in a scene; it's exactly the opposite. Especially for kdrama screenwriters, where each role is highly defined, and failure to respect the screenwriter's vision is a source of conflict. The only time a director asks for a change is if it's technically impossible or if there's a budget problem.
Example, screenplay W two worlds, Ep09, scene #89: "Sung Moo turning the chair towards Soo Bong... Soo Bong, ...?!!!! A man in a black silhouette without a face is sitting. " The screenwriter wanted an obscure silhouette, like the black silhouette of the unknown character on the manhwa page. However, the director didn't have the means/budget to do it. This was replaced by a kind of faceless zombie, fulfilling the same narrative role.
Note: in Hollywood, on the other hand, when a screenwriter gives a screenplay, there are often tons of notes from executive producers and the screenplay undergoes huge transformations, which explains why an originally good screenplay loses its essence, becoming formulaic, targeting a wider audience, as revisions are made. Screenplays can be found on the Internet in their final draft, and sometimes as a comparison with previous drafts.
In Korea, as in the West, a director always has the last word and is allowed to change anything. But Korean directors almost never do. Still in W, the director made a few changes in the last episode. And that's about all the director changed in the entire drama.
With time and patience, you can find some original kdrama screenplays on Korean websites. With even more patience, if you don't speak Korean, you'll be able to translate them. You'll see just how accurate the screenplays are, unaltered by the filmmakers.
So, most of the flaws in a drama come from the screenwriter. Even the tone is apparent in the screenplay. Here, a "cartoonish" tone.
I think the grandmother's love interest is a scammer.
Well, he doesn't try to scam, he's just a barista. It's her trying to get him. Maybe he doesn't want her and just want to be friend, no more. ... and of course, going to the toilet in a hostel, no more. ^^
I wish that they could make a villain a ML - Im tired of those ''good boy'' characters. I just want something…
I notice the normal men have unbalanced relationships with the super-strong women. And all the couple break after some time. The FL could build something better with the villain, but the problem is: he's the villain. LOL.
There is room for a comedy montage: the power comes from immemorial times. Only all ancestors did bad things, so no one was aware they had this power in the family line.
also the fact that they painted abs on the mom, its so unnecessary
I consider the mom and grandma quite unlikeable characters now. Not only for that, but also other points. But maybe the writer does that on purpose? Later there is a scene when the mother question herself. Also, it creates slow scene, when the pace of the drama is down episodes 5 and 6.
Fatshaming in Korea is sooo normalized unfortunately
I've a fat girl in my kdrama. Indeed, I use a bit fatshaming coming from secondary characters, to make that more realistic in a korean context. What they say is so stupid that can maybe funny, but it's more for the reader to understand who they are talking about in a scene.
It's not a thematic of the story, as the fat girl accept herself very well and doesn't care about what think others. I didn't used a sideplot about the girl on the way to accept herself. Not enough time and not the central point. It's accidental I put that fat girl in the story, because she was from the previous drama. Then I used that in the best way I could.
A reader asked me if I was trying to do some kind of body posititivy. I could just answer no. I focus more on the story and the logic of events. I show the good and the bad, remaining neutral, and telling it with details from real life (As I've known fat girls and they told me their problems or happy moments).
This kind of thing is very harsh when it comes from close family. It creates a spiral of self-depreciation for fat kids, and finally amplify their problems. We don't have details about that in the story. But we can guess this character didn't suffered from that. Just I can't use more screentime to relate that because the story is fast paced, and as you know, a drama can be boring if we use too much time on backstory, side-plot, when the audience want to follow the main plot and main relationships.
Product placement with a weird violet vibrator with heart shape.
The plot was more simple than that: it's the same drug. I don't understand why the villain diffuse that. But we'll see later? So, drug effect is triggered when people drink water (what exactly? Euphoria?). Also give super-strength (when they stop drinking?). The villain drink a kind of blue liquid. Like water, but certainly a bit different than water. A kind of water that doesn't produce after effects.
The training session scene is so lame. The sons make real efforts in the sport room and are harrassed by the mother and granma. When they don't make effort. They have just the superhuman gift from birth. And I don't see the point of this scene. Looks like filler. But maybe there will be a payoff later?
Ep6: so... where is the big red button for emergency stop of the supply chain???! No. Just ignore that. The goal is to make Samsoon intervene. Reallyyyyyyyyyyyy. 😓
Hey, what do you think is the reason that the villain is so obsessed about becoming so strong?
No idea. Isn't it a motivation in itself? As additional purpose, it could be secret contracts with military? Something else? I didn't see a clue about that in the drama yet. So, I can't make hypothesis.
I never watched a drama so over-simplistic, so phoned at everything. It's like it's designed for mental idiots. Each minute I feel my own braincells dying. Let's start ep6 now, to continue my brain suicide. 😅
1 
So, why she does something like that now? Lack of inspiration? Or just on purpose? You certainly know the most famous kdrama screenwriter: Kim Eun Sook. I watched some of her older dramas and I liked.
Then ~2010, she gave a interview explaining she was changing her style. Instead to make complex drama about thematic like City Hall, she aimed to create the most popular thing. It made a scandal. Even myself was bitter about that. Where is the sincerity of the author?
Then she made ultra-popular dramas. Secret garden, Descendant of the Sun, Goblin. I still like the first one, but the others were boring, too cheesy. But anyway, she made the good choice about rating. Goblin is the most popular show. She said she didn't making art, but in spite of herself, she still have to put her creativity in it, so there is still visual art in Goblin. I could read the script episode 1, and the descriptions are more poetic than I expected with mood. (often, screenplay are more concise). Here the first scene (aproximative translation):
-----------------------------
#1. field (night)
An endless field of buckwheat flowers in a deserted field. The white buckwheat flowers bathed in the cold moonlight are melancholy.
In the middle of a field of swaying buckwheat flowers, a longsword is silently stuck.
The rusted and dull blade and the mossy handle bear the traces of time.
----------------------------
(note, I find strange she repeat so much "buckwheat flowers", so it could be a translation error, you don't repeat things like that in a screenplay)
It gives a lot to the director about the intention, the atmosphere, create a visual picture in the reader's mind. It's a lot of text for that. But as the drama is slow, it's ok. This scene in the field, the director will create slow shots, then the editor will keep it long and smooth (and boring, LOL!).
So anyway, even for a purposely popular show, she does something good on the page. Just, I can't endure so many things in the story.
Then, it wouldn't surprise me than Baek Mi Kyung made the same kind of choice. On MDL, people are used to kdramas and watch tons, they forgive less. But see the rating on Netflix. (and whatever I say, they still love the slow and boring Goblin, ahah)
In Strong Girl Namsoon, we can find a lot of inconsistencies. It screams: just do that to move the plot in the direction I want, even it's stupid and unbelievable. But it happens often in any drama, even plot-holes if needed, as the goal is to be enteirtaining and have emotions in scenes, or hitting power. So, the writer choose something loosy for a better good.
Just, there is a limit I think. Do that too much, and it becomes painful if nothing make sens.
Note also this: audience can detect easely inconsistencies once they watch the drama, but they are very difficult to detect when creating and writing the screenplay. Plus, the production can create additional flaws. Directing/Editing. Because it's difficult to track all, and many people are involved. The character change clothes when it shouldn't. The prop guy choose the wrong one, anything. Or the set is not exactly what needed, or someone always ends to forget something. And they are all in a hurry, have to work fast. Pale-Pale-Pale korean way of working.
Information can be lost in the process. And the screenplay has to be precise on the main points, but can't describe everything. It's supposed to be read at the same speed you watch the drama. One page = One minute on average. Lot of cuts to do in the text. I said it's a technical document. A strange one. Not a novel, but need to keep flavor a bit like a novel, but also give the specifications. Just like in an engineering or architecture firm. The designer gives this, and the other workers don't question what's there, they build what's on the plan, step by step.
In the kdrama "All of us are dead", there is a giant explosion in a building on a construction site. And the scene after, you see a plastic curtain beyond, on the stage. Impossible! It should have burn. Why is that? Maybe the shooting happened before the explosion? Someone forgot?Just they couldn't remove that? (no autorisation, or the curtain was stick to the wall and they couldn't remove it)
Then, about what you mention, the shocking attitude of characters. It doesn't mean what the writer says. The writer is neutral (well, it should be). If you want to make a character looks bad: make them say bad things and do bad things. Grandma attitude is unacceptable, but see, it creates a conflictual scene when she argue with the mother later. The mother fatshame the son. Obviously, there should be a pay-off later, so she regrets, or have consequences: the son take a pill to loose weight even from a random girl. So, I dislike the drama, but the writer doesn't do everything wrong, she keep a narrative logic on many points.
Sure, Baek Mi Kyung is a screenwriter (I said writer for short).
She creates the story AND produces a screenplay. A formatted technical document containing visuals, dialogue and the precise order of scenes. And even within a scene, the cinematic order (suggested and not necessarily using technical terms such as camera angle). Even short cuts (flashbacks, quick changes of location) are part of the screenplay, and don't come from Editing (what many people wrongly believe).
The director only has... a director's role! He studies the screenplay, understands the story as much as possible (possibly in discussion with the screenwriter). Then, he uses his composition skills and technique to convey the story as best he can. Feeling, theme. Example: a blocking shot to create opposition between two characters. His work is already huge. He and his team produce shooting sheets, indicating camera positions, the type of shot to be used, etc.
The director never asks the screenwriter what he wants in a scene; it's exactly the opposite. Especially for kdrama screenwriters, where each role is highly defined, and failure to respect the screenwriter's vision is a source of conflict. The only time a director asks for a change is if it's technically impossible or if there's a budget problem.
Example, screenplay W two worlds, Ep09, scene #89:
"Sung Moo turning the chair towards Soo Bong... Soo Bong, ...?!!!!
A man in a black silhouette without a face is sitting. "
The screenwriter wanted an obscure silhouette, like the black silhouette of the unknown character on the manhwa page. However, the director didn't have the means/budget to do it. This was replaced by a kind of faceless zombie, fulfilling the same narrative role.
Note: in Hollywood, on the other hand, when a screenwriter gives a screenplay, there are often tons of notes from executive producers and the screenplay undergoes huge transformations, which explains why an originally good screenplay loses its essence, becoming formulaic, targeting a wider audience, as revisions are made. Screenplays can be found on the Internet in their final draft, and sometimes as a comparison with previous drafts.
In Korea, as in the West, a director always has the last word and is allowed to change anything. But Korean directors almost never do. Still in W, the director made a few changes in the last episode. And that's about all the director changed in the entire drama.
With time and patience, you can find some original kdrama screenplays on Korean websites. With even more patience, if you don't speak Korean, you'll be able to translate them. You'll see just how accurate the screenplays are, unaltered by the filmmakers.
So, most of the flaws in a drama come from the screenwriter. Even the tone is apparent in the screenplay. Here, a "cartoonish" tone.
Too much slow down, not enough shit.
Granma love interest is the infamous Jo Pil Oh from Giant.
It's her trying to get him.
Maybe he doesn't want her and just want to be friend, no more.
... and of course, going to the toilet in a hostel, no more. ^^
Not only for that, but also other points.
But maybe the writer does that on purpose?
Later there is a scene when the mother question herself.
Also, it creates slow scene, when the pace of the drama is down episodes 5 and 6.
I don't remember he met her before, so he doesn't even know her?!
It's not a thematic of the story, as the fat girl accept herself very well and doesn't care about what think others. I didn't used a sideplot about the girl on the way to accept herself. Not enough time and not the central point. It's accidental I put that fat girl in the story, because she was from the previous drama. Then I used that in the best way I could.
A reader asked me if I was trying to do some kind of body posititivy. I could just answer no. I focus more on the story and the logic of events. I show the good and the bad, remaining neutral, and telling it with details from real life (As I've known fat girls and they told me their problems or happy moments).
This kind of thing is very harsh when it comes from close family. It creates a spiral of self-depreciation for fat kids, and finally amplify their problems. We don't have details about that in the story. But we can guess this character didn't suffered from that. Just I can't use more screentime to relate that because the story is fast paced, and as you know, a drama can be boring if we use too much time on backstory, side-plot, when the audience want to follow the main plot and main relationships.
The plot was more simple than that: it's the same drug. I don't understand why the villain diffuse that. But we'll see later? So, drug effect is triggered when people drink water (what exactly? Euphoria?). Also give super-strength (when they stop drinking?). The villain drink a kind of blue liquid. Like water, but certainly a bit different than water. A kind of water that doesn't produce after effects.
I can't see another valid explanation. 😞
No. Just ignore that. The goal is to make Samsoon intervene. Reallyyyyyyyyyyyy. 😓
As additional purpose, it could be secret contracts with military? Something else? I didn't see a clue about that in the drama yet. So, I can't make hypothesis.
It's like it's designed for mental idiots. Each minute I feel my own braincells dying.
Let's start ep6 now, to continue my brain suicide. 😅