I finished Strong Woman Do Bong-soon and part of me wants to give it a squeefully joyous thumbs up and parts of me has strong reservations about the drama as a whole. I think that this is a show to watch for the lead couple and enjoy mightily and consider fast-forwarding through some other parts – and at the end of the show you’ll still be left with a smile on your face thinking of how absolutely adorable the lead couple is and (probably) forgive the rest just because you get scenes like this.
Some more information (trying to avoid spoilers) after the jump.
Okay, I may be old enough to be his (precocious) grandmother, but Park Hyung-shik is flat out sparkly gorgeous and adorable in this drama. Yes, I liked him as the younger version of the lead in Nine, and seen enough of other works to know he’s grown well into the leading man role, but I defy any young woman with a pair of ovaries not to squee over his long-lashed eyes, lanky limbs, and flirtatious perfection. And you have to 💕 a man who finds nothing sexier than a petite little doll of a woman strong enough to take on some bullies and show them the error of their ways.
Of course, the sad part of this one-sided crush is that his love rival for Bong-soon is someone we’re already predisposed to squee over – Ji-soo – and even though Bong-soon starts the show with a serious crush on Ji-soo’s police detective character, once she enters the world of Park Hyung-shik’s Ahn Min-hyuk it’s plain to see that the writer never gives Ji-soo a chance. I’m guessing that the writer fell in love with PHS during development and could never find the words to make Ji-soo’s character shine as brightly. That’s not to say that he’s awful or flat, it’s just too hard to compete against everything related to PHS’s character and world.
This is because Bong-soon wants to develop computer games more than she wants to be “freakishly strong.” If being strong and righting wrongs were more of a priority for her it’s feasible that she’d be less easily swayed in her crush and worry less about being outed as the strong woman she is. But Park Bo-young is pretty darn cute as Bong-soon and especially as she begins to find Min-hyuk frustrating and kind of cute too.
There is far too much nonsense regarding gangsters wanting to develop Bong-soon’s neighborhood – far, far too much – and her mother’s behavior towards her father is not corrected sufficiently. In retrospect I think I would fast-forward through almost all of her mother’s scenes – except for one or two (especially one with PHS in the ending episodes that made me laugh hard, mostly because of his response to her). I found the plot with the psycho murderer/kidnapper to be okay, just okay, but I thought the writer was juggling too many plot balls in general for the story and it lacked focus. Plots were opened regarding PHS and his family ties and just dropped.
Actually, they could have built the entire drama around watching Min-hyuk wooing Bong-soon and having them become secret superheroes and I’d have been very good with that. My final recommendation is to watch this and have the finger ready to FF when things get tedious with the gangsters. You’re free to hit the pause button to enjoy Ji-soo’s thighs in tight jeans and replay the Min-Bong scenes when the urge strikes. And enjoy the most amusing final photo shoot ever at the very end!
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