Becoming The Muse

Strong Girl Namsoon Review

Strong Girl Nam-soon (Korean; 힘쎈여자 강남순) is a K-Drama series starring Lee Yoo-mi in the title role. It is a spin off show from the 2017 highly ranked K-Drama Strong Girl Bong-soon. The show aired on  JTBC ( A South Korean pay television network) from October 7 to November 26 2023 every Saturday and Sunday. The series is also available on Netflix.

The premise of the show follows Gang Nam-soon who grew up in Mongolia after being separated from her parents as a child. Fifteen years later, she travels to South Korea in search of her birth parents, where she becomes entangled in a drug investigation case that tests her strength to the fullest. As the title suggests Nam-soon is strong, like strong strong… super power strong.

The Good

Strong Girl Nam-soon is a quirky show about family and identity which doesn’t take itself seriously as it takes you on a whimsical ride which will have you laughing, crying and shaking your head at its absurdity.

Lee Yoo-mi plays the titular character Nam-soon and is absolutely lovable as the blunt, Mongolian-raised strong girl, who will worm her way into your heart.

As someone who is currently learning Korean, I found the character’s story arc on learning Korean and about Korea relatable. Just like Nam-soon, I actively became aware of the marvels of South Korea thanks to the global phenomenon that was PSY’s Gangnam Style.

Have taken a couple of Korean classes, I am appreciative of how complicated the language system. You have to be very careful with how you address people using the correct honorifics when addressing those older than you or during formal speech, otherwise people will think you are being rude or disrespectful even when your intentions are quite the opposite…. which of course happened a lot to Nam-soon.

It wont be a K-Drama without twisted love stories interwoven into the plot that will tug at your heart strings, some obvious, others less so.

Nam-soon’s mother Hwang Geum-joo (Kim Jung-eun),  is also quite the femme fatale character, business mogul by day and cat suit weraing bike riding, villain huntress by night.

The Bad

The multi-cast show feels bloated and seems to lose focus pursuing side plots which don’t add much to the plot and instead make the pacing a bit erratic and slow at times. The show is at its best in the first third of the plot with middle act being rather all over the place…

For a show with a titular character, Nam-soon’s mother Hwang Geum-joo seems to steal the show and plot…. The show does make an inhouse joke about this when someone complains about how she is always making herself the center of things…

Then there is the villain who seems wrongly cast as the bad guy… dresses far too sharply to be so broody. You almost want something different for him or at least for him to have a story arc with redemption…

Sometimes its difficult to know how to react to certain things, a dark or emotive scene can suddenly become a slapstick comedy moment which undoes the setting and atmosphere. Some of the funny moments can turn into an over-the-top cringefest especially when coupled with funny sound effects, like in case you had missed this is supposed to be a funny moment and you should be laughing…

The Ugly

The show has some body shaming aspects with one of Nam-soon’s twin brother being made into the butt of jokes for his eating habits and weight which leads him to take drugs for weightloss.

There is a drugs storyline isn’t very sympathetic to the the victims of Doogo’s drugs and instead drug shame than actually address a drug problem with therapy and rehabilitation.

Final Thoughts

While all the story lines get resolved the show ends with a teaser that is setting up for another spin-off show but with a male lead having the super strength…

Strong Girl Nam-soon has its moments and you can see how its managed to top the Netflix and JTBC charts, its endearing and quirky, though it can go a bit overboard stepping into the realm of downright silly… which can either be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your temperament.