Strong Woman Do Bong-soon: Review
About The Drama
Strong Woman Do Bong-soon (Hangul: 힘쎈여자 도봉순) is a Korean drama series that was aired on Saturdays from February 24th to April 15th, 2017, on JTBC. The drama was a huge hit and became one of the highest-rated Korean dramas in cable television history with an average rating of 7,9% that peaked on episode #14 (9,9%). The drama is focused on a literally strong woman and her love life completed with comedy genre. It contains a total of 16 episodes added with a special episode.
Synopsis
Do Bong-soon (Park Bo-young) is a woman born with superhuman strength. Her strength is hereditary and has been passed to generations in her family but only in women. She has a dream to create a video game with herself as the main character. She wants to become a delicate and elegant woman which is the ideal type of her crush, In Gook-doo (Ji Soo), a police officer and her childhood friend. With her unusual strength, she can beat up anybody including a bunch of men who threaten an elementary-school-driver old man. Ahn Min-hyuk (Park Hyung-sik), a CEO of a gaming company, Ainsoft, watches the beating up scene and asks her to become his bodyguard. He has been receiving anonymous threats and has been stalked as he is in line to take over his father’s other company. Moreover, he is a wealthy heir who is a little bit spoiled, cocky, playful, has no regard for rules, and dislikes policemen. Bong-soon ends up taking the job as his bodyguard. In Dobong district, where Bong-soon lives, a series of kidnapping cases occur. Bong-soon is determined to catch the culprit, who is targeting her best friend. Thanks to Min-hyuk and his training and help, now Bong-soon can control her power and use it for good cause. Both of them slowly keep developing their relationship into something more.
Iconic Scenes
Strong Woman Do Bong-soon contains a lot of funny, memorable, and romantic moments. These are a few of the best, most iconic scenes in our opinion! [SPOILER ALERT!] Episode #2 & #3: Bong-soon gives a bunch of bullies a lesson One night, Bong-soon and her best friend, Gyung-shim, are walking down the street when they meet some high schoolers bullying a student. Bong-soon confidently steps in and interrupts, telling them to go home and let the other student leave. Of course, the bullies reject until she asks the leader to step forward only to get herself dirty because one of the kids kicks some dirt at her. She calmly sighs as she kneels down, “You’re so busy doing bad things that your shoelaces came all undone,” and pulls the shoelaces tight causing the kid to cry out loud. Not only that, she rips apart one of his shoes, then the other shoe as well, saying she doesn’t want his shoes to be uneven. As the boys are terrified by her action, she gives her number to the bullied student and tells him to call her if they bother him again. She also threats the bullying kids it will be their legs to be ripped next time. The other day, on her way back to the hospital (where Min-hyuk is hospitalized because of her), Bong-soon meets the boy who gets his shoes ripped before. He asks her to meet his neighborhood thug boss because the boss doesn’t believe that she can be so strong. She calmly agrees to follow and meet the boss but only to get harassed as he takes her purse and hits her head with her own wallet. She confidently steps forward, causing the other boys to back away instinctively. Shortly and easily, Bong-soon picks the boss up by his pants with her right hand and dangles him in the air before tossing him back to the ground. The other high schoolers are not safe either as Bong-soon tells them to ride the merry-go-round near them and gives them a punishment.
Episode #5: Bong-soon confronts a pervert in the subway Bong-soon encounters the subway pervert who was previously seen in episode #1. He is now seemingly harassing a woman in the subway, again. He, who meets the gaze of Bong-soon, is certain that Bong-soon will not do anything just like before. This is where he is wrong. When Bong-soon gets out of the subway, people surround the pervert who is on the ground with unnaturally bent finger and screams loudly in agony. It is quite satisfying for the viewers because finally, the girl is brave to use her power for the right thing, especially to punish a pervert. Episode #6: Wild imagination After insisting to stay in Min-hyuk’s place (out of worries about Bong-soon who stays in his place too), Gook-doo and the two plan on sleeping separately. Yet each of them can’t help but imagine about what the other two will be doing. We are absolutely certain about what Min-hyuk and Gook-doo imagine, but what about Bong-soon’s thoughts? Brace yourselves before watching the clip below!
Episode #6: Drunk bromance As they all can’t stand their wild imagination, the three of them decide to stay up all night together and end up in a bar. The guys competitively play games including a drinking game to see who gets drunk first. Everything turned out so chaotic that Bong-soon was the one who had to take home by herself. In the morning, Min-hyuk and Gook-doo wonder who won the alcohol game. Little do they know what they have done the night before.
Episode #7: Gym training Bong-soon agrees to meet Min-hyuk at the gym to learn how to control her strength. They do some activities like punching bags (a complete failure because Bong-soon pierced all the bags) and boxing (and accidentally punches Min-hyuk). Then Min-hyuk instructs her to free herself from his grab without hurting him.
Episode #10: Min-hyuk’s confession In the middle of the night, when Bong-soon is having a girl talk with Gyung-shim, she is called by her mom, saying that her son-in-law (referring to Min-hyuk) is outside the house. Bong-soon immediately goes out and finds him nervously waiting. While looking at Bong-soon who is confused, Min-hyuk says that there is something he needs to tell her. He hesitantly says, “I…” then bursts, “…am sick!” Bong-soon plays down as she mistakenly thinks that he just needs medicine to treat him. But then Min-hyuk stops her, grabs her hand and places it to his chest, “I’m hurt right here!” Yes, obviously, it is not his body that is sick.
Episode #12: First kiss Min-hyuk finally takes Bong-soon out after being frustrated for hardly asking her to go out from the working place with him. They explore many places, taking selfies, then end up at the beach, playing in the waves. Min-hyuk suddenly becomes serious and takes a stick. He then draws a half-heart line on the sand and says, “Bong-soon-ah, I’m going to stand right here. Will you come to me?” The girl smiles a little and takes another stick near her before approaching his side. She draws and continues the line, making a complete shape of heart. They stare at each other for a long time before taking a step closer. As Min-hyuk holds both of her cheeks, Bong-soon closes her eyes and they finally kiss for the first time.
Episode #14: On The Couch During the night, Bong-soon opens her eyes and finds Min-hyuk sleeping, facing her on the same couch. It is like a few episodes ago but this time, instead of being shocked, she is teary and tries to touch his face before deciding not to. She then sits up and gets pulled back, realizing Min-hyuk isn’t sleeping at all. He then says, “Please look at me,” and Bong-soon replies, “I’m looking now.” It is actually a sweet moment that they finally express their feelings for each other in the end.
Episode #14: Chocolate kiss While the couple is walking down the street in the night, Bong-soon spots a bar of chocolate and demands Min-hyuk to buy her one. She looks happy she gets chocolate and teases him to taste it too. But as he opens his mouth, she pulls it back and stuffs it in her mouth in one bite causing him to be irritated. On the second try, instead of straightly taking a bite, Min-hyuk gives a quick kiss then gobbles up the morsel before leaving and saying, “Ah… it’s really this sweet?”
Episode #14: Bong-soon’s power returns Bong-soon encounters another hard situation. Jang-hyun, a criminal, kidnaps Bong-soon and brings her to a rooftop. He ties her to the pipes and fastens a bomb on her body before chaining the door to lock her up inside and leaves. Sadly, Bong-soon has lost her power so she can’t free herself like she used to. Min-hyuk who tracks down the location immediately rushes to the rooftop only to find the door locked. He frantically calls out Bong-soon and convinces her that he will not leave without her. Of course, Bong-soon doesn’t want him to get hurt and keeps asking him to leave the place before it’s too late. He replies, “I won’t ever leave you alone. I’m not leaving. I’ll stay next to you. Don’t be scared. Do you understand?” Bong-soon, who once wanted to hide her superpower, desperately shouts, “Please help me save that person!” Not long after that, the book given to her by her grandma (about the hereditary superpower) opens up far in her room. She then regains her power and successfully saves everyone.
Episode #15: Piano Kiss The night comes and yet the couple can’t sleep in their own room. Min-hyuk decides to work out a little bit but still feels restless so he gets out of his bed and gets some water in the kitchen. Suddenly, he hears the doorbell and he immediately opens to find Bong-soon. After stuttering for a bit, she admits that she misses him. Min-hyuk stares at her silently and springs forward, kissing her.
Episode #16: Cherry blossoms proposal Min-hyuk asks Bong-soon out on a date through a post-it note. They both walk down the street under the cherry blossom trees. Min-hyuk wonders if they will come back to that street years later. That reminds Bong-soon of the night when he chose to stay with her even though a bomb was attached to her, Min-hyuk also said that he had something to ask her. Bong-soon then asks him what he wanted to say back then. He softly smiles and answers, “It seems like I can’t live without you for a single moment. Let’s be together forever,” as he slowly takes out a tiny box from his jacket. He pulls out the ring and gently slides it to Bong-soon’s finger. He holds her hand and smiles hopefully at her. She brightly smiles back and we can see her answer right through her eyes. Min-hyuk leans down and kisses her in the middle of the falling cherry blossoms. Episode #16: The Wedding What comes after the proposal? The wedding! Although it is not an ordinary wedding as almost all of the previous characters are there as well (and cause some chaos). But we can’t deny the couple looks really happy with each other!
Episode #16: Ending As Bong-soon’s mom prays in the Buddhist temple for Bong-soon not to give birth to a daughter, the family expects her to give birth to a son. But it is later revealed that Min-hyuk and his wife have twin daughters. Just like the hereditary power that is passed down to female offspring, the twins also have a superpower like their mother. They hit the babysitter right in their eyes, then their father as well in the same spot. Min-hyuk can’t help but whine about it and calls his wife telling the babysitter has quit. Meanwhile, Bong-soon has accepted her superpower and starts using it for a good cause as she’s now helping people. “I will go. I am Strong Woman Do Bong-soon! Fighting!” she ends.
Overall, this drama has a different type of storyline. If you are looking for a Korean drama with unusual conflicts, you probably want to watch this drama. It combines a romantic-comedy and an intense-action with all the kidnapping and stalking cases. Although sometimes the conflicts are too complex and minor problems seem to be randomly put, it is all forgiven with all the romantic scenes that are not too much but sure make an impression. Not to mention the powerful female lead that makes us wonder, laugh, and cry. If you expect a love triangle drama, this is probably not the one you’re looking for because the second male lead character doesn’t seem to invest much in his relationship with the female lead. So, along the way, the rivalry is too one-sided and we all know who will win for sure. However, the drama leaves an insightful thought that women do have power in their own way and even the strongest ones have struggles in real life too. Personally, I believe that this is worth watching to fill out your days!
