Kang Nam Soon, une force de la nature (2023)

Low stakes and oversaturation of characters

Before going into this, it was already pretty clear that Strong Woman DBS, which had one of the most iconic kdrama couples ever, was a difficult act to follow. I'm going to try and get all the comparisons out of the way first. While I wasn't a HUGE fan of the humor in SWDBS, it knew well enough to take serious moments seriously, and everything else was strong enough to make up for it; I loved the leads and the murder plot was thrilling and high-stakes. This drama has the same issue with its humor, but its other aspects are either weak or worse.

The humor just isn't my style at all. There's a lot of physical humor and over-acting; it might be fine if it was only used in select moments, but I felt like it permeated every second of drama, even big fight scenes and what should've been tense moments with antagonists. Overall it made the entire tone of the drama seem kind of off — as if nothing actually mattered because it was all for laughs.

The drug plot felt low-stakes not just because of the tone, but also just because of the way it was written. I don't think anyone going into this drama should expect any profound commentary on drugs or class issues in South Korea. The drama seems to try every once in a while with an offhanded comment, but it really doesn't go much deeper and it's even self-contradictory sometimes. There's parts where they touch upon it, but they also make its lead a "good billionaire" because she's kind with her money and because she pulled herself up by her bootstraps. It felt contradictory to any commentary, just so viewers could get some #girlboss moments.

In terms of characters — I'm not a fan of ensembles to begin with and this drama is a good example of why. It felt like there were so many characters and so many subplots that none of them got enough screentime to be complete, and less important subplots took over more engaging ones. The drama spent SO MUCH screentime on the grandmother's romance, which felt slapstick and unserious, while Namsoon and Heeshik's screentime began to dwindle. And as the drama went on it felt like more and more antagonists were getting introduced as random side characters, and because they served no purpose other than to trigger plot points and had no backstory or personality, they began to blur into each other.

The only antagonist that really had a good story was the villain Ryu Shi-O, but my bigger issue with him plays into my low-stakes criticism. He was just...a bad villain. He has physical abilities, sure, but his plans, goals, and motivations weren't that clear, and most of all I just can't believe that he couldn't piece together anything our protagonists were planning when they were being so obvious about it. I mean...Namsoon's acting...

With so many things going on, romantic lines didn't have enough screentime for good development. I'd already mentioned not caring about the grandmother's romance, and while Namsoon/Heeshik were the best in the show, it felt like they didn't really go deeper than both of them being cute.

Honestly, I think there's an audience for this somewhere out there — maybe someone who likes quirkiness and shenanigans — but it's not me. I'm giving this a 2 (and not a 1) just because it didn't utterly infuriate me as much as me just not really caring.

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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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Read the comment discussion a must - SUPER HORRIBLE writing and NO CHEMISTRY

1.0 is already generous for this Drama and I always question why a member of mydrammalist would give such low rating to
Other dramas. And still finished it..
Now I know.. its like getting into bad relationship..
And you got trapped in the middle, you wanted to go back but then there's this thing call HOPE and you just kept on moving..
So you've been TRICKED, LURED and USED..

The worst written female lead..
Wait, she's not even felt like the lead, her fam members are..

This drama totally shook my belief for kdrama to the core..
Its like eating Raw avocado... do you know how does it taste?
Bitter than medicine..

Read the comments from the drama page, its all there before you invest 16 hours more or less of your time, your thought, your time..

You will be betrayed! Watch something else!

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Strong beginning, abysmal plot until the end. Or: A whole lot of " WHAT!?"...

Wow, I really liked the premise with three women having super powers and all. But around episode 2 or 3 it all just went down the drain. Nam-Soon is behaving and looking like a child - and without any kind of expertise becoming a cop. WHAT!? The sub-plot with the two homeless people was just for nothing at all, and except for Nam-Soons father all the male family members are whiny, pathetic and straight out anoying every time they're on-screen.

The main plot is as flat as a piece of paper. The super power are almost never used and I basically nothing substantial happens. And the ending made me REALLY salty because the final two episodes are a big fat "giving the finger" right into the audiences faces, saying it doesn't value the audiences time. No cool end boss fight, no climax, no nothing. Not even a cool quotable line...

[SPOILER]
Nam-Soon is confronting the villain, he tells her, her mongolian mother is having a bomb with her. But Nam-Soon can rescue her by taking the drug and not drinking any water within one hour. AND SHE TAKES THE DRUG! WHAT!? Why didn't she just knock out the villain (darn, she has super powers!) and then calls her mom and the police to deal with the bomb situation?

But, well, she is lying there, deeply in pain, gasping for air. And her korean mother and her grand mother are also suffering with her. WHAT!? Why do all of these three women are having super powers to beginn with? I do get that they're somehow connected to each other (and I like that idea!), and one could argue that it makes the ending more intense and that those women do have a weakness bla bla bla... But their powers are never utilised, except for pretty minor things. So why do they have those powers and why is it necessary to take those powers away from them?

And then there is this one moment, where Nam-Soon is out of her being in pain misery, getting up, noticing a door with a bomb on it. She grabs that door and throws it into the outer space (or reeeeeeally faaaaar away, at least) - so she is really strong. A moment later the villain comes, beats her up like it's nothing and explains to her she lost her super powers because of the drug. WHAT!?
[/SPOILER]

OK, I admit, there are a few nice moments during the whole show here and there. But all in all: Most of the characters are flat-out anoying or impossible to be taken seriously and many scenes are just fillers. Many of said scenes do not hold up to their premise of generating action, suspense or even interest! There's dealing with love-affairs, eating too much food and wanting to lose weight, whining about mommy and daddy are getting a divorce. But it all leads to nothing and is dealt with on a superficial level! The plot is full of gigantic (plot) holes and all over the place!

Even the acting is so-so. Some actors are really good, most are okayish to bad. The korean mom is all about looking cool and hot, the grandmother is a mixture of tough-as-nails and wholesome, and the female lead, Nam-Soom, is a mid-twenty something child in every way possible: smiling, talking, behaving, the whole package! Even her way of using her James Bond watch to film the villains office (while the villain is with her!) is screaming "Hey you, you don't mind me filming all of this, don't you!?". But of course the villain doesn't mind, because he doesn't notice it in the first place!

What a waste of time. Bad! Really bad! Really, really bad!

Well, at least the music is okay, and the policeman is actually quite believable.

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What the hell was that show

If you’re thinking of watching this show, don’t. It’s a waste of time.
1) The plot is uninteresting and repetitive.
2) No one in this show had even a slightly interesting background story other than Ruy Si O.
3) The love triangle of the grandmother took way too much screen time.
4) Nam soon and the Kang Hee Sik rarely has any romance scenes, which would've been a way to save this godforsaken show.
5) The acting was over the top and CRINGEY

As someone who loved the classic Strong Girl Do Bong Soon, I had a lot of high expectations for this show, it was pure disappointment.

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Watch it for Byeon Woo Seok/Ryu Shi Oh (He's a 10, helping make the series a 6)

No one can deny the popularity of Strong Woman Do Bong Soon. It might have its flaws, but is one of the most popular K-dramas that can be termed as a Classic of 2015-2020 times. The Bong-Bong & Min-Min couple is legendary both on-screen and off-screen, so this is definitely a series that you can recommend to others and rewatch.

Hence, when this spin-off/sequel was announced with such a strong cast, expectations were sky-high. For me, I was both excited and nervous, cause it is not easy to live up to Prequels, especially when they are such a hit. Still keeping the hope alive, courtesy the strong cast that the drama had got - I expected great things to happen! Alas, it did not and here is my breakdown of what went wrong and why only Byeok Woo Seok's portrayal of the charming antagonist Ryu Shi-Oh is the only redeeming point in this drama!

----------------------------------------------------------| SHORT REVIEW |----------------------------------------------------------

♥ Best Things About this Drama ♥

1. Ryu Shi-Oh: one of the best portrayal of antagonists in a long time. He will charm your pants off & definitely deserved more than what he got in screen-time. He is the reason, I could watch the drama every weekend and not drop it!
2. The cameo of our beloved Bong-Min Couple from prequel: Warning: This is just 5-10 minutes in early episode. But even in that short time, they did more than what transpires in the rest of the drama by the main protagonists.

✘What Went Terribly Wrong for this Drama ✘

1. Biased portrayal of women power: as a woman, I personally felt the 3 women were over the top and borderline abused their powers. The heroics were illogical and meh.
2. Unnecessary side characters: the poor couple, fake Namsoon and lover Barista - complete waste of talent, time! Randomly introduced, not fleshed out and then dropped without much notice.
3. Zero Chemistry of Main Leads: Zilch, Nada, Nothing you feel when you see them onscreen. The butterflies are zombies in the stomach after seeing them, especially when you compare to the toe-curling adorable couple Bong-Min in S1.

✧❅✦ SUMMARY ✦❅✧
• Overall hugely disappointing. I think those like me who watched it while it aired did it only cause of the villain.
• Anyone thinking of watching it now - you have been warned. Maybe you can watch the whole show in 2x to get the gist of it and slow down for parts/characters that you like.
• I know there is a Season 3 in the works - but if it is anything like this show, I am skipping it. The only factor we liked in this series is gone, so not worth it. Unless they take note and make it more like Season 1.
• My rankings for acting is 9/10 only for Ryu Shi-Oh, rest of the actors are great as individuals but they had very unlikable traits as characters. The rewatch score too is only cause I would like to watch the villain charm us again, and again.
• Just cause of Byeok Woo Seok and the Cameo of Park Bo Young and Park Hyung Sik - I am rating this series a 6. They individually were a 10/10 of course. But take them out and this series would be a 0-2 rating or entirely Skipped.


----------------------| DETAILED REVIEW - Expanding more on Best & Worst Parts of this Show |------------------------

✧❅✦ BEST PART OF THIS DRAMA ✦❅✧

❤️ Ryu Shi-Oh:
While we always want the heroes to win, good to triumph over evil, there is always some antagonists that are hearts bleed out for. You know that had they been in a better environment, had there been a helping/loving hand extended to them - they would shine bright, perhaps brighter than the main leads. You would not justify their evil doings, no, but then you would think that had you been there - you would have tried to understand them, maybe see things from their perspective and bought them to light. They are antagonists you would root for - as their characters are so well written and so well portrayed, that you can't help but be enamored and be a fan. Some names that come to my mind - Thanos, Joker, Pain, Itachi, Light Yagami, Yoo Ji-tae
as Woo-jin Lee, Darth Vader and so on. They have a fanbase and following of their own, and it is quite justified cause they are such impactful characters.

May be it is not the same level, but Ryu Shi-Oh would definitely be on this list for me. I had seen the actor in a charming puppy kind of ML role in 20th Century Girl, and I was smitten. But when he arrived in this drama, the aura/charms and overall screen presence were nothing short of earth-shattering. While from the start you know he would be doomed, but still you wanted to root for him - and that little moments were he left behind his dark persona and was just another boy trying hard to be loved and make his place in this world. Yes, his means were not right and we wish he had been dealt better cards in life, but he so far was the only reason - I looked forward to watching this drama every weekend, and the rating I give for acting and rewatch is solely cause of him.

I cannot wait for Byeok Woo Seok's other projects - cause going by the popularity of his video edits on SNS, he is the only good thing from this drama and I can only hope and pray that he gets opportunities that make him grow upwards and onwards - and for us viewers it will be a delight as always to see such a handsome man with such talent!

❤️ The cameo of Do Bong Soon and Ahn Min Hyuk:
Yes, you are reading this right! Even that less than 5-10 minute cameo was highlight of this show, which came early on and gave us hope. Unfortunately the light goes out with them, cause the rest of the show is just a chaotic mess, wasting talent.

✧❅✦ THINGS THAT JUST DID NOT WORK ✦❅✧

✘ Biased portrayal of women power/attempt at feminism:
As a woman, I was quite delighted at the whole notion of these series, where women run the show. In the prequel, maybe Do-Bong Soon's mother abused her power but that was one perspective, the others were doing it right. But here the women are powerful and they show-off, to the point that they debase their partner/children and common people around them. This did not sit well with me. Feminism or Women Empowerment means having an equal seat at the table, not overpowering someone just cause you are strong. This is just my opinion but this did not make me appreciate the dynamics the 3 women had, and most of the times it seemed so over-the-top. I know many would say had it been a man or story from male perspective, we would be okay with it. I feel that was the past, if we are having stories showing Strong Women, I think we can take a better approach and change perspective. What is the difference between the past portrayal and now, if we use the same formula?

✘ Unnecessary Characters and storyline:
The poor couple, the barista lover and the fake Namsoon - if you really think about it, had they been omitted the story would have remained same. Like they introduced these characters, but never expanded on their storylines and then dumped them like trash/incomplete stories in the end. Waste of talent, screentime and viewer time!

✘ Lackluster Main Lead and Love Story:
I can write pages after pages for the prequel Bong-Bong and Min-Min couple, they were the right mix for a K-drama couple. I think we all know how good they were on-screen that we still hope they come together off-screen (Too bad I feel this is another Leonardo/Kate Winslet story). But the main leads here were too sugar sweet to be liked. I mean they had their cute moments, but it was too over-the-top again and the chemistry was so off the charts. Like negatives for me.

The antagonist and FL gave better love/cute/adorable moments than they did. In fact, if you are active on social media, there is a huge amount of edit on this and you can see why!

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Don't waste your time on this.

Wow, I thought I couldnt hate another drama as much as Love Alarm, but here I am writing a review for this sh*tshow I've watched. While I didnt have very high hopes from this drama coz the cast wasnt as impressive as the Bong Soon, I didn't expect the story line to be this bad. The FL - is probably the most annoying character ever. The ML, almost has no personality. FL's mom top-notch overacting. The only character who has a wholesome story is the villain.

I want my time back. This was an absolute disaster and 70% of the people are still bearing with this appalling performance is because of Byeon Woo Seok (bless his heart)

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NOT WORTH THE HYPE ?

people put too much hype into a show like this, first the storyline was just messy and boring at the end only due to most peoples bae ryeo sio but i didnt even bother watching last 2 episodes so ill tell you its not worth it please stick to the original show the spinoff sucks😭😭
i hated the fact that all this season was about just more koreas how drugs are bad for you sort of thing including that so many instances where they talked about having kids ( koreas population problems which they wanna fix) like the whole plot couldv been so much kore interesting if they made the antagonist the male lead wouldv been much more fun and they had more chemistry,the female lead and sio gosh plus the screen time too but with the male lead hes just “the good guy” so ofc he would end up with her with barely any chemistry and screentime together (ill even say that he had more chemistry with FL’s mom 😭 ridiculous but seemed like that) and sio just proclaimed as the “bad guy” throughout and how you cant be forgiven for doing drugs and blah blah. I feel like this season was just Korea, trying to put their whole thing out for the korean public. all in all this season was boring i havent even finished ep 15 and 16 but eveyone just stick to the ACTUAL show.

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BIGGEST FLOP IN 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!!!!

0/10

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How could they mess this up so badly?

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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