Strong Girl Nam-soon
I love this girl. She is pretty, cute, and un-nauseating.
I hope it’ll be a great show.
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The first two gifs are pretty unspoilerish, to be nice to those who don’t want spoilers. I will use tags when it’s Monday in Denmark, so as to give people a chance to watch the first episode.
Who’s this guy? [add “New Girl” jingle] So, does any of you know this guy? Is he on the role list? Or is he just randomly representing “Korean men”?
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In my Bingo Card, there’s this slot: “Without any dangerous context, he wants to protect her. Just because.”
Mostly, of course, there is actually some danger, it’s not called a K-drama for no reason, after all. But even when there is no danger at all, you will hear a young hero, feeling the first pangs of love, not yet knowing what is happening inside him, say “I feel like I want to protect her.”
I enjoy seeing that cliché reversed; even if this girl is very capable, it is still fun that she watches television and decides that Korean men (on the screen obviously not in any danger) needs her protection.
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(I also enjoy how sweet her adopted parents are. They seem to be gold, honestly).
I am not so impressed, though, with the complete reversal of all the clichés in her parent’s relation. If all the clichés are turned around, there’s not so much story in it … or what do you think?

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I do know of films that turned over clichés to great effect, most famously “Take it like a man, Ma’m” from 1975, https://www.dfi.dk/en/viden-om-film/filmdatabasen/film/ta-det-som-en-mand-frue , but I don’t think this drama is headed towards “real eye-opener” country.
And getting a glimpse of two men who might vie for the ML spot, I hope for the “bad guy” to be it. I’m not usually mich into bad guys, but the good policeman looks so boring.
I’d like to hear your thoughts. 🙂

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    The second ML is definitely more charismatic but I also like Ong. Based on their family history they need soft boys 😅. I ROFL at the bell from Mongolia to SK. Great introductory shot for ML and what’s to come for him.
    To be honest, I expected not to like it so first episode turned out to be a surprise. Yeah it’s silly at times but not bad. I especially loved that she grew up well with loving parents.
    I don’t know how the leads chemistry will turn out but I am here for mom and grandma for now.

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      But the “bad guy” looks like someone who could appreciate a … surprising … girl. And he definitely is “pretty as a flower” Please, please!
      I know the “being hit in the head with a bell” seems more destiny-prone. Especially since he for inexplicable reasons did not die.

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      (Besides: in Bong-soon it was suggested that what’shisname police guy would have acted different if she hadn’t leaned so much in to the fragile girl she thought he wanted. Maybe, if he had known how strong she was, he would not have been such a “do what I say” and “don’t wreck your little girl brain with these things” kind of guy, and would not have become a policeman, OR they would have been a crime-solving couple with him as her competent, but non-super side-kick. You never know!)
      What I’m saying is, sometimes girl maketh the man.

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      I also loved that her adopted parents are such wonderful people!

      I’m liking both MLs so far, 2ML is definitely bringing the charisma – as the gifs from post 2 have reminded me – but I’m Ong has has his moments too. In terms of screen time to impression ratio, 2ML is definitely winning – I think part of that (for me) is how much I’ve liked him in previous projects bc I’m not usually one to like a villain character. This has the potential to change that…

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        I feel that it is a lost cause already, but in my head he is under cover, or he will be reformed, and they will save each other, because she is strong, and he is … how would you say that … combination of smart and knowing the world, that kind of clever. I just want it to be him. Of course, he will probably soon do terrible things and be out of the question.

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          I can get on board with that unless/until he proves otherwise 🙂 That’s one of the things I like about live watches, I can live in my (your) alternative narrative while we wait for new episodes

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    I just watched this jdrama where the ML’s gf apparently dumped him after he couldn’t answer why he feels he needs to protect her. Dont know what happened after cos i decided not to continue..

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    i loved the ep 1..
    and until i saw your spoiler/unspoilerish pics.. i had no idea it was choi min ho on the tv screen

    i am actually loving the vibe of this show WAY more than of the original

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    Strong Girl Nam-soon 2
    What’s not to like about this girl?
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    Personally, I would like if the one we would see her with would be suave, the admiring cool opposite to her unabashed, armswinging adorability. Someone who would grow from intrigued to head over heels … maybe someone who reacted to a plane coming towards him at high speed a bit like this:
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    And who reacted to seeing this sunbeam of a girl, who just stopped a plane, like this:
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    But that won’t happen, I guess. Because we all know what is wrong here:
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    If you don’t, just google “cotton swabs damages your ear” and you will know more than you ever wished to know. Cotton swabs are for cleaning the troublesome corners of machines and furniture, not your ears. Someone who does that cannot get the girl.

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      @sp2022 Good Morning! It’s Monday in Denmark and this page is ready to talk Strong Girl Nam-soon. 🙂
      I have posted gifs in 4 parts, come by and have a chat!

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        Good evening! Tuesday night here in the UK and I missed the notification on this at the time! I scrolled from a different tagged post and found this. So glad I did.

        LOVING these gifs. I enjoyed the first 2 episodes more than I expected, I was looking forward to the show but part of me was also expecting to be disappointed, but I wasn’t at all!

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        Also (I pressed send too soon earlier), thank you for the gifs and the tag! I love that I get to continue the enjoyment of the drama throughout the week with these gifs and the conversation. It makes waiting for the next episode easier and more fun!

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      I have to admire how he could play that scene while keeping a straight face! 😂 The cotton swab is really the thing pulling the drama of the whole drug deal down a notch (by outright silliness) – but I approve. I was a bit worried after seeing this drama tagged as “audiences 16+ years old” in my region, and feel there will be violence awaiting…

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        As I giffed, we already saw a police officer break the bones of a prisoner. (And also, the girls and women throw around people, but somehow it seems less serious).

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        TBH I looked for some time for a glimpse of that movie where Meryl Streep is a Psychologist whose client is having a love affair with, as it turns out, that psychologist’s own son. Well, his mum said you shouldn’t clean your ear with cotton swabs, and the client laughs at his ridiculous mum, and the psychologist gets upset, and, while trying to hide it, conveys some scientific facts about the dangers of cotton swabs in your ears.
        I wanted Meryl Streep to warn of Woo Seok-byeon. But I couldn’t find that clip.

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        BTW it may seem silly with that ear thing, but remember that it is terribly normal for a lot of people to take drugs through the nose.
        In a dark hilariousness, coke makes people feel cool, as I understand, and at the same time, nothing is more pathetic than imagining yourself to be supercool and the deserved centre of attention, while you have blood out of your nose and down on your shirt.
        The good thing about the ear swabs is you can maintain eye contact while taking it. Imagine that “looking someone straight in the eyes while smoking in an alluring way”-cliché, but with ear swabs 😂😂😂

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          Smoking alluringly … is this what they call paradoxically terms.

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            ** paradoxical terms.

            I am sure there is a specific word to describe this … just not able to remember at the moment.

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            Is’nt it “Oxymoron” … That sound’s too funny and maybe it’s the opposite? Just a minute …

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            @ceciliedk

            Bingo! Exactly that.

            😄

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            <No, it is oxymoron.
            Well, in the olden days, when people smoked all the time on film, they very often did so alluringly. It’s the thing about having something in your mouth, and thus throwing so to say the spotlight on your lips. Also, unless it’s a pipe, smoking has some small degree of “devil-may-care” about it, so that, while cancer just isn’t all that sexy, the doing-something-mum-and-dad-would-not-want has some appeal. And then you can even bring your own “shrouded in mystery” clouds with you, with the smoke and all. You can be fun and casual, throwing up the cigarette and catching it in your mouth (better practice that alone first), and you can lean forward with half-closed eyes to let someone light your cigarette for you. You can even light someone else’s cigarette with the glow from your own, like a proxy kiss, or, because the cigarette needs someone to suck it to get the right kind of glow-but-not-flame, I have seen someone light someone’s else’s cigarette by putting it in their own mouth, lighting it, and then giving it back. Very risqué.
            And there’s smoke rings, where you kind of kiss the air and make rings in the air, a real circus piece. Or some people can have the cigarette hanging at the lip so it’s a wonder it doesn’t fall out – so casual. There was one Benson & Hedges smoker in my class when I was 16 who did that, standing in the doorway, fashionably messy hair, I still remember being envious of the enormous amount of coolness that she effortlessly brought with her, like the train of a dress when you have people to worry about it for you, Met-galla-like.
            I have never been a smoker myself … actually, I have never had a lit cigarette in my mouth, ever. (Or pipe, or cigar etc), but I grew up with all of this and have even played at it with unlit cigarette. And have kissed smokers, and yes, they actually do taste like an ashtray or something like it (I have never actually licked an ashtray), and I would have preferred kissing without that taste, but he was … never mind.

            When smoking indoor became outlawed in many places, I found out that the hangovers I thought I’d had actually was just consequences of passive smoking. So nice that my throat didn’t hurt after parties anymore. I do recommend all the other ways of being cool; I just say that at a certain point in history, “smoking” and “alluring” were not considered oxymorons.

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            @ceciliedk

            … and that is why I love you. 🥰

            You bring so much rich context and flavour to the discussion.

            I am “young” enough to remember all the “cool” smoking in movies and media.

            I do not know such intricate technicalities of smoking or lighting a cigarette… but good to know.

            Kissing a smoker – I totally second you on the ashtray though I too have no interestin licking one. I will just restrain myself and say even chewing gum is not if much help and I’m glad the suffering didn’t last long.

            You’re bang on about the aura and mystique that magically seems to surround smokers.

            I am very very glad I survived to live a day where smoking and alluring are oxymoron now – I hope.

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      I like the points you made in favour of the “cool guy”… and fully approve and applaud your unwavering reaction to that face with cotton buds.
      Hear, hear! 👏 👏
      People may lose a kingdom for lack of a nail … here cool guy most definitely loses the FL because of what he uses the cotton bud for.

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        I remember the Danish children’s show Vitek told about the dangers of using cotton swabs in the wrong way, but them continued to show a mockumentary from a school where they did the all the cigarette things, but with cotton swabs: They were not allowed to use them, so the cool bad kids gathered in the toilets to cotton swab their ears, and the teacher came to inspect and everyone was sent up to the principal, while the teachers hurried up after class to do cotton swabs in the teacher’s room, because they were grownups and could do what they wanted. That was in the early eighties.

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      ‘What’s not to like’ captures my feelings perfectly, I startes watching almost completely because of how much I liked her in the trailer and the show is delivering and then some. I didn’t expect to like the mother/grandmother stories as much as I do, so a nice surprise there!

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    Strong Girl Nam-soon 3
    There’s also a reason the policeman cannot get the girl: He is someone who would break the bones of a prisoner under interrogation. We clearly hear that crunching sound.
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    Disgusting. But I am afraid it will be considered something that just shows he is a passionate renegade who is not afraid to take unconventional action to get his man. (Get his man in the “convicted” way).
    Of course, he is shown to have some charming sides to him, too.
    Like, if he could learn to walk, he would look quite pretty under cover of a wig:
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    And he appreciates Nam-soon’s description of him. (Who wouldn’t, but still…)
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    Very importantly, he does this cute thing, when he gets home from his bone-breaker job:
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      Think of it as a comic – now which self-respecting comic book does not have its fair share of –

      **POW**

      **BANG**

      **CRUNCH**

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        Well, if it’s under a fight, or by accident, it is fun, but the crunchy sound of a prisoner’s arm while under arrest (and not being in the least bit violent in this situation) just isn’t funny to me. I especially don’t like the way it endorses the attitude that whatever bad things happen to criminals is always funny and deserved, and restricting the police from doing so makes no sense.
        I will try not to get angry every time that happens on this show, because I expect it will be the kind of show where it happens all the time. But I don’t like it, and it’s very off-putting.

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          I do support your logic – it is just that this drama is not on the same page.

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            I can see both sides, the tone of drama hooked me, so I didn’t register this detail closely at the time but actually thinking about it is a little concerning.

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    Strong Girl Nam-soon 4
    So we will probably have to assume that the Korean flower she has come to protect for better, for worse, in sickness and in health, and he is already getting ready to “cherish and obey”:

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    So that’s pretty sweet.
    I don’t know. But then again;
    Maybe this vagrant dude’s girlfriend is actually just his sister. He seems way too pretty to just be a random supporting role. And also, his hair looks so much like a wig, I would not be surprised if we were expected to suspect it already, later to be revealed.
    I have googled the actor, and on some pictures, he actually has a bob (pretty!). But this just looks like it’s a wig on top of some other hair, held there with a cap. Am I hallucinating?

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    But you know, a rival could come from anywhere. Maybe, idk, just a random jogger taking his morning run around the park:
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    Looking forward to hear from you.

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    Strong Girl Nam-soon 5
    This is nothing, really just two small greetings gifs from the maternal line of that family.Here’s mum:
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    As for the Grandmother, she is demonstrating parallel parking with a vengeance:
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    And this. I MyHeritaged her and found what must be some second cousin of that family. I used to imagine she was Pippi’s neglected and bitter sister, but she obviously must be of Korean descent on her great great grandmothers side.
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    Also, I wanted to make sure I tagged @sp2022 @seeker (Cera)

    If you want to be on this tag list, you can add your tag here:
    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VefOBwrdRhT6Z_rOK-UZUPDeT_xQuL6t291ZLbz20tU/edit?usp=sharing

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      The drama is leaning into casual demonstration of strong girl vibe. 💪
      I don’t mind it at all. Im fact I imagine how much more comfortable we would feel in this world with this strength.

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        I’m really enjoying that element of it! I love how they’re using their strength 💪

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