K-Drama Flashback: ‘Strong Woman Do Bong Soon’

Strong Woman Do Bong Soon (2017) has a few things to keep in mind. It features crime, fantasy, thrills, action, comedy, and fervent romance, but it is also about an existential crisis, mental health, and busting archetypal gender representations that make it wholesome. Winning over fans and the “highest viewership rating among JTBC dramas” at the time, the series went on to flourish as a classic K-drama.

Superhuman power was innate in Do Bong-soon (Park Bo-young)—a strength exclusive to women in her family. She dreams of creating a video game where she is the lead character and longs to be the kind of poised, delicate woman that her crush, cop In Guk-doo (Ji Soo), prefers.

She does, however, land a job with the gaming company Ainsoft as the CEO, Ahn Min-hyuk’s (Park Hyung-sik) bodyguard. Following several local abduction cases, Bong-soon sets out for the one responsible, knowing that the perpetrator is going after her best friend. She starts harnessing her strength for it and the greater good with Min-hyuk’s help. In this phase, their growing fondness for each other intensifies.

Across a few online forums, I ran into reviews slamming the narrative for being overly tropey. Sure, but that’s also, in my opinion, what makes it such a hit. “We like the tropes, even if we don’t know we like them,” second-generation Korean-American mental health specialist Jeanie Y. Chang noted in my interview. She explained, “Do you know that those tropes help you in the sense of anticipating what to expect? […] And I’m going to share this with your mental health, your brain, and your emotions. You do need predictability. When people have a predictable schedule, for instance, that’s very good for their mental health. So, the K-drama tropes—believe it or not, you may think you don’t need them, but you do. And the minute the predictable does not occur, you will exclaim, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m so upset,’ right? And that is actually why K-dramas are so popular,” and perhaps why Strong Woman Do Bong Soon is so popular.

Secondly, dramas and films have frequently downplayed any thawing of gender norms while glorifying masculinity. Unlike men, women were traditionally expected to be saved by a male hero as evidence of their power. But over time, action heroines and female heroes have proliferated. I think that K-dramas have followed suit with stories like Strong Girl Do Bong-soon, where the rise of the power girl—a character capable of defying authority and taking on challenges—has prompted a growing acceptance of non-traditional roles for women alongside a rationalization of feminine traits.

A third thought-provoking feature of the drama is Bong-soon’s character’s growth from a place of existential crises to a more secure sense of self. She is constrained by her mother’s constant preference for her twin brother, but she changes as a person when Min-hyuk comes into her life. His acceptance of her, respect and regard for who she is, and love fill the voids in her life that she has been facing thus far.

The love endures in a variety of circumstances, including the explosion sequence. Bong-soon is just as anxious to see Min-hyuk as he is to see her. She is distraught after the blast and comes running for him. One of the most exquisite moments, mixing sophistication and genuineness to perfection is when Min-hyuk, equally driven by his need to be with Bong-soon, draws her up to the piano for a kiss that expresses the intensity of the feelings the two have for each other.

Min-hyuk wears his heart on his sleeve for Bong-soon, and their love is the center of attention in the drama. Strong Woman Do Bong Soon remains an endearing superhero story, one that appears blatant in its cliches, but not if you see past that.