Strong Woman Do Bong Soon

I bumped into a comment in a social media post mentioning a list of Korean dramas using their acronyms – WFKBJ (Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo), LITM (Love in the Moonlight), TLOTBS (The Legend of the Blue Sea) and SWDBS (???). It hurts my pride that I didn’t know what drama this SWDBS refers to. ?

Googling (woah, Chrome spellchecker considered this a valid English word), the acronym stands for Strong Woman Do Bong Soon. I was pretty sure I heard this series from a friend in my Kdrama circle earlier this year. Just a little before it made a buzz in the Philippines, she endorsed this drama to me as a light and funny series with the dashing Ji Soo playing the second male lead. Finally, last month, I got the time to check it out.

The story circles on Do Bong Soon, an unemployed girl in her mid-20s who came from a family where daughters are born extremely strong and powerful. She could easily lift a tractor without exerting any effort or beat up a group of gangsters without scratching herself.

Do Bong Soon tries her earnest to hide her powers to not garner public attention. As she struggles to find a job that will fit for her, she became fixated with video games in where she can fight however she likes. She dreams to develop a game where she plays the main character.

One day, she’ll stumble with Ahn Min Hyuk, the president of AinSoft, a top gaming company in Korea. He’ll hire her as his personal bodyguard after witnessing her knocking out bad guys in one blow. With the agreement that he’ll give her a chance to work with AinSoft’s planning and development department, Do Bong Soon accepted the offer.

Do Bong Soon and Ahn Min Hyuk

Completing the trio, we have In Guk Doo, a police officer Bong Soon has a crush on since elementary. He is an upright rookie detective who is passionate about justice.

Do Bong Soon and In Gook Doo

It’s romantic comedy with a touch of mystery (with the series of kidnapping cases that will break out in Do Bong Soon’s neighborhood). This kind of genre is hard to pull off without dragging the series into a heavier and darker tone but this drama did a pretty good job. You could say I like it a lot. It has its thrilling/violent side but overall, it’s a feel-good, heartwarming series that tackles friendship, love and justice, all at once.

Something worth mentioning though, there were a few scenes that felt like fillers, especially the part where Baek Tak party deals with the hilarious swindler monk. Seems like those clips were filmed just for the sake of comedy. Shouldn’t every scene contribute to the plot development even the tiniest bit? I don’t know. It just felt off that I could skip a few minutes or so of these pure comedic stunts without missing anything.

Also, I couldn’t end this post without ranting about Guk Doo-yah. I knew it from the very beginning. HE. WOULD. NOT. GET. THE. GIRL. But damn, it still hurts all the same. ?

We are forever, unchanging…friends, right? Bong Soon, be happy.

^ That line with that song playing in the background, my heart hurts so. Could Ji Soo please play the lead guy next time? I know he already did star in Page Turner but that three-episode mini series wasn’t enough!

Strong Woman Do Bong Soon is the kind of series you would enjoy during its course. It’s not something I would be willing to watch over and over again but all in all, I could definitely see why it became a hit in the country.