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Pierce Conran

Lead cast: Lee Yoo-mi, Kim Jung-eun, Kim Ha-sook, Ong Seung-wu, Byeon Woo-seok
Latest Nielsen rating: 9.8 per cent
Super-powered Korean women are back on screens in the bubbly K-drama Strong Girl Nam-soon, a spin-off of the popular 2017 series Strong Girl Bong-soon.
Lee Yoo-mi of Squid Game and All of Us Are Dead fame takes the reins from Park Bo-young, who played the previous title character, while Baek Mi-kyung returns as series writer.


Lee is Gang Nam-soon, the daughter of corporate tycoon Hwang Geum-joo (Kim Jung-eun, My Dangerous Wife) who disappeared as a child during a trip with her photographer father Gang Bong-go (Lee Seung-joon) to Mongolia.
Nam-soon is no ordinary girl. She has super strength, a trait that has been passed down in the women of her family for the past 500 years. Park’s Do Bong-soon, who pops up in a cameo here, is Nam-soon’s second cousin.
10 of the best new Korean drama series to look out for in October 2023
For the past 10 years, Geum-joo has been trying to locate her daughter through a global annual contest for strong young women, while Nam-soon has been growing up with her adoptive sheepherding parents in the Mongolian steppe.
After Nam-soon remembers her name and that she comes from Gangnam, the Seoul neighbourhood that is home to many of Korea’s elite, she starts watching Korean TV to learn the language and sets to work herding sheep to save up money to return to South Korea and track down her mother.
Ten years later, she has finally saved up enough to make the trip, but just before her arrival, the young Chinese-Korean woman Ri Hwa-ja (Choi Hee-jin) wins the strong girl contest and is welcomed by Geum-joo with open arms, though others are not convinced that this is Nam-soon.

The real Nam-soon arrives and is checked for drugs by the young narcotics officer Kang Hee-sik (Ong Seong-wu) at the airport. Hee-sik temporarily confiscates some of Nam-soon’s prized belongings, including a mysterious golden wand given to her as a child, but promises to help her find her mother.
Bright-eyed and awestruck, Nam-soon explores the land she has come to know through her beloved K-dramas, even though she grew up there as a child.
Meanwhile, the scourge of drugs begins to infect Gangnam. Hee-sik is on the front lines trying to track down where they’re coming from, while Geum-joo does her own sleuthing at night, like a K-drama Batman but without the mask, as she seeks to clean up the neighbourhood.

At the end of their search is the devilishly handsome drug lord Ryu Si-o (Byeon Woo-seok, Record of Youth). Also in the mix is Geum-joo’s stentorian mother Gil Joong-gan (Kim Hae-sook, Revenant), who possesses the same powers.
Straight out of the gate, Strong Girl Nam-soon is brasher and more eager to please than its predecessor, resulting in a high-energy but low-impact product that doesn’t connect on the same emotional level.
The budget is higher and the colours more saturated, but whereas Park’s happy-go-lucky protagonist was charming, Lee’s kooky lead at times verges on grating.
Meet Park Hyung-sik, K-drama star and K-pop singer
Granted, following in the footsteps of a modern K-drama classic was always going to be a challenge. But six years is an eternity in the K-drama landscape and with its frothy style, and by leaning heavily into familiar stereotypes, Strong Girl Nam-soon feels very much like a post-global-boom Korean drama.
Nam-soon is a Korean character but her return to Korea is presented as though she were a foreigner: specifically, a K-drama fan who has a false image of the country in her head waiting to be dashed. It’s a calculated gambit to appeal to the gigantic global K-drama fan base.
She also has an improbable speaking style which is overly casual – she claims to be too set in her way to use honorifics.

The bigger budget means bigger set pieces but these are overly cartoonish. The super-strength effects still look cheap, which was always part of the gag, but Strong Girl Nam-soon’s more ambitious action sequences feel a touch awkward.
This includes Nam-soon’s bumpy touchdown at Incheon Airport, when she bursts out of a skidding plane and pulls it to a stop. This worked better when Bong-soon was secretly saving a careering bus full of children, an effect created entirely through editing, rather than the sub-par visual effects employed here.
Meanwhile, there’s Geum-joo chasing down drug dealers during her night escapades, emerging from a Batcave-esque lair decked out in figure-hugging leather atop a motorbike. Sadly, these sequences call to mind Halle Berry’s Catwoman before any other screen incarnation of the character.

Nam-soon undoubtedly has a big adventure ahead of her in Gangnam, but will it be a memorable one?
Strong Girl Nam-soon is streaming on Netflix.


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K-drama Cinderella at 2AM: Shin Hyun-been, Moon Sang-min aim for their happily-ever-after

Korean drama reviews

Netflix K-drama Strong Girl Nam-soon: Squid Game star Lee Yoo-mi leads childish follow-up to modern classic Strong Girl Bong-soon

Lee Yoo-mi in a still from “Strong Girl Nam-soon”.

Lee Yoo-mi as Gang Nam-soon in a still from “Strong Girl Nam-soon”. Netflix’s series is high budget and high energy, but it fails to live up to Strong Girl Bong-soon, the classic K-drama on which it is based.

Kim Jung-eun as Gang Nam-soon’s corporate tycoon mother Hwang Geum-joo in a still from “Strong Girl Nam-soon”.

Byeon Woo-seok as handsome drug lord Ryu Si-o in a still from “Strong Girl Nam-soon”.

Ong Seong-wu as young narcotics officer Kang Hee-sik in a still from “Strong Girl Nam-soon”.

Lee Yoo-mi as protagonist Gang Nam-soon in a still from “Strong Girl Nam-soon”.

Who is Ji Chang-wook, popular Korean actor and star of K-dramas The Worst of Evil on Disney+ and The Sound of Magic on Netflix?

Ji Chang-wook in a still from “If You Wish Upon Me”. Photo: KBS

Korean heart throb Ji Chang-wook, currently appearing with “Squid Game” actor Wi Ha-joon in “The Worst of Evil”, has been wowing audiences since his screen debut in 2008.

Ji Chang-wook in a still from “The Worst of Evil”. Photo: Disney+

Ji Chang-wook in a still from “Backstreet Rookie” (2020).

Ji Chang-wook in a still from “The Sound of Magic”. Photo: Lim Hyo Sun/Netflix

Ji Chang-wook in a still from “Warrior Baek Dong-soo” (2011).

Ji Chang-wook in a still from “Empress Ki” (2013).

Ji Chang-wook in a still from “The K2” (2016).

Ji Chang-wook in a still from “Hard Hit” (2021).

Busan 2023: K-drama LTNS – Esom, Ahn Jae-hong shine as a sexless couple in stand-out black comedy that’s music to the ears

Ahn Jae-hong and Esom as sexless, blackmailing couple Samuel and Woojin, in a still from “LTNS”. The first two episodes of the black comedy, directed by Jeon Go-woon and Lim Dae-hyung, premiered at Busan 2023.

Ahn Jae-hong as Samuel and Esom as Woojin in a still from “LTNS”. The first two episodes of this black comedy drama series, directed by Jeon Go-woon and Lim Dae-hyung, premiered at Busan 2023 in South Korea.

Esom as Woojin, a hotel receptionist who keeps a blacklist of unfaithful partners, in a still from “LTNS”.

Ahn Jae-hong and Esom as Samuel and Woojin, a sexless couple who turn to blackmailing people they find to be cheating on their partners, in a still from “LTNS”.

A still from “LTNS”. The K-drama’s various side stories give the characters space to shine, and are invariably worth the detour.

Ahn Jae-hong as Samuel in a still from “LTNS”.

Busan 2023: K-drama I Am a Running Mate – Oscar-winning Parasite writer makes directing debut with colourful high-school election comedy

Yoon Hyun-soo (second from left) and Lee Jung-sic (second from right) as Se-hoon and Sang-hyeon in a still from “I Am a Running Mate”, a bright, peppy comedy set in a Korean high school.

A still from “I Am a Running Mate”.

Yoon Hyun-soo as student Se-hoon in a still from “I Am a Running Mate”.

Busan 2023: K-drama The Deal – spontaneous kidnap thriller is high on atmosphere, but low on logic

Yoo Seung-ho in a still from “The Deal”.

(From left) Yoo Su-bin, Yoo Seung-ho and Kim Dong-hwi  in a still from the new Korean drama “The Deal”, which also co-stars Lee Joo-young. The first three episodes premiered at Busan 2023.

Kim Dong-hwi in a still from “The Deal”.

Yoo Su-bin in a still from “The Deal”.

Lee Joo-young in a still from “The Deal”.

Busan 2023: K-drama A Bloody Lucky Day – Yoo Yeon-seok, Lee Sung-min buckle up for a taxi ride from hell

Lee Sung-min as taxi driver Oh Taek in a still from new Korean drama “A Bloody Lucky Day”, which premiered at Busan 2023. Yoo Yeon-seok and Lee Jung-eun co-star.

Yoo Yeon-seok as serial killer Geum Hyeok-soo (left) and Lee Sung-min as taxi driver Oh Taek in a still from “A Bloody Lucky Day”.

Lee Jung-eun as despairing mother Hwang Soon-kyu in a still from “A Bloody Lucky Day”.

Yoo Yeon-seok plays a serial killer in “A Bloody Lucky Day”.

Yoo Yeon-seok (left) and Lee Sung-min in a still from “A Bloody Lucky Day”.

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K-drama Strong Girl Bong-soon was always going to be hard to match, but where Park Bo-young’s original protagonist was charming, Lee Yoo-mi’s verges on grating
The Netflix series is flashy and high energy, but subpar visuals and action sequences make for a cartoonish follow-up to a K-drama classic


Netflix’s Strong Girl Nam-soon starring Squid Game’s Lee Yoo-mi is a cartoonish spin-off that looks set to fall short of Strong Girl Bong-soon, the classic K-drama it is based on.
