If you want to see a girl fight off her enemies using walnuts and police officers track down criminals, you should watch “Strong Woman Do Bong-Soon.” I love Korean dramas because they’re romantic, cute, dramatic and creative. Yet, it’s sometimes hard to find one that perfectly embodies all these great features. The K-drama, “Strong Woman Do Bong-soon,” definitely went above and beyond my expectations as it was the perfect mixture between romance and crime. 

This series stood out to me right away when I found out there would be some crime involved since that’s rare for K-dramas. It follows the life of a young woman, Bong-soon (Park Bo-young). Bong-soon has superhero strength which she inherited from her family line. After being caught using her powers, she is hired to be a bodyguard for AINSoft’s President, Ahn Min-hyuk (Park Hyung-sik), because he has been receiving death threats. Additionally, Bong-soon uses her strength to help her childhood crush and current police officer, Gook-doo (Ji Soo), find a dangerous kidnapper in her neighborhood. The plot mainly follows the different kidnapping cases in the neighborhood and what the police do to prevent them while Bong-soon and Min-hyuk keep up with the cases as well and come to their own conclusions. 

While I usually watch dramas for the romance, this one kept me interested because of the action. The constant anticipation on who the culprits were and whether they were going to be tracked down in time always kept me interested. The actors were engaging and kept the show lively, natural and genuine. The directing made me feel like I was actually there with them and we were going through the same problems and accomplishments. Whenever there was an investigation in the police office, the camera showed an overview and focused on each member so it felt like I was actually there in the conversation and making eye contact with each of them. Whenever someone slammed on the table or fell down, I could also feel the intensity with how the sound effects were created. The soundtrack always came in during the right moments and always made the scene feel extra special. During romantic scenes, soft songs played such as “You’re My Garden” by Jeong Eun Ji, while upbeat songs like “Super Power Girl” by Every Single Day played during fight scenes to hold the excitement and intensity. 

The way the action and romance related made me keep up with the different relationships as well. Bong-soon and Min-hyuk were truly partners in crime because they would track down the culprits together. I loved Bong-soon’s personality and how she is sweet, yet strong and powerful. Bong-soon complements Min-hyuk’s character, as he is funny and sensitive. While it is Bong-soon who has the strength, it was cute to see how the two interact in a friendly manner. With Min-hyuk’s joking personality and Bong-soon’s superwoman characteristics, it was obvious this drama would involve some comedy. 

The fights Bong-soon was involved in were funny and enjoyable to watch. However, there were some comedic aspects I didn’t find funny. At the beginning of the show, Bong-soon continues to call Min-hyuk gay which then becomes a joke in a few episodes. Later on, there is a gay character that appears but he is shown as weak and is ridiculed. Bong-soon’s mother also acts abusively to her husband which I didn’t find funny either. Homophobia and abusive relationships haven’t been something joked about before in the previous K-dramas I’ve watched, and I felt that the drama could’ve been a lot better without these sorts of jokes. 

This K-drama was also very unique with how the roles and characters were cast. Usually, if there is a male character in business, like President Min-hyuk, the woman character would usually be a worker in the office or a secretary. This was not the case for this drama. Bong-soon is a bodyguard which is really different from what I’ve seen before. With Bong-soon in power, I believe this gave the message of women having the strength and being looked up to. I saw Bong-soon as a superhero. The casting for Bong-soon as the main character with great strength coming from a long line of women in her family is empowering. 

The show also brought up the real-world issue of human trafficking when they showcased the kidnapping crime that went on throughout the series. The kidnapping case gave insight into the culprit’s actions and we were able to see his motives. There are multiple cases of women kidnapped in the neighborhood, and they’re all taken to a secret location. These cases allowed the audience to be aware of the issue of human trafficking and to gain a better understanding of how to stay safe and contact the police if they ever found themselves in that situation. 

While this drama was always captivating, some scenes were scary and it would’ve been appreciated if there were occasional trigger warnings. This wouldn’t be a good drama for people who are scared of kidnapping and fights, so I would say to watch with caution. 

Overall, I’d recommend this drama because it’s thrilling and romantic, which makes it fun to watch. With previous dramas I’ve watched, none of them had action and romance as high quality as “Strong Woman Do Bong-soon.” It followed a unique structure that wasn’t predictable. Many K-dramas follow a cliché storyline that mainly focuses on romance. “Strong Woman Do Bong-soon” is going to be a K-drama I’ll rewatch for years to come. 

All episodes of “Strong Woman Do Bong-soon” are rated PG-13 and are available on Viki.

Grand Theft Auto V is an action video game that originally debuted in 2013 for Playstation 3 and XBOX 360. It has a really good realistic quality. The streets in the game look like you're on google maps and the buildings range between tall and medium making it look like downtown New York.  

The game takes place in Los Angeles, known as “Los Santos” in the game. The story follows three criminals and their efforts to commit heists while under pressure from a government agency.

The central plot of this game is that a character named Michael owes the government favors. In the past, he did bank heists, and the government contacted him to convince him to work for them. These corrupt government agents got in touch with Michael to plan a heist on the FBI office. Michael got a team together and got the job done.  

There are three main characters forced to carry out illegal heists for the government agency and they all play different roles. Michael is the strategic leader who helps the group stay on task. Trevor is a retired pilot who follows Michael’s directions, and Franklin is the contraband expert who is the youngest and balances the team.

What makes this game fun to play is the graphics, the story mode and the overall quality. If you play online you can connect with your friends and have fun together. You can race each other, do heists or attack characters who are trying to mess with you or have a car that you like. 

Even though the game is really good, what I don’t like about it is it crashes. But that is the only downfall of the game.

Though it came out six years ago, players around the world still play GTA V. There are many ways to interact with this game, you can play it, watch how to play it or watch a re-cap that talks about the game setting, its creation and the voice actors who played the characters. 

A lot of people are playing other games now, like Fortnite, but I still think GTA is epic. It had a worldwide impact on the gaming industry when it came out. The graphics are still excellent, especially on the PlayStation Pro. GTA V has a great multiplayer mode and feels realistic to the point where it feels like you are truly driving the car, planning the heist or walking into the bank.

I once had a conversation with my teacher where she complimented my hair and explained how she missed my braids that I previously had. During this conversation she jokingly brought up a conversation she had with another student and how that student said that my teacher should get box braids and do her “edges.” My teacher’s response to that was, “I’m white, cultural appropriation!” My teacher didn’t hesitate in giving this response because she knew that by getting braids it was essentially another way of taking a part of a culture that wasn’t her own — a culture whose history she knows little to nothing about. My teacher’s mindset isn’t one that everyone has and the question we have to ask is, why? Why is something so vividly wrong like cultural appropriation still happening? 

Cultural appropriation is a very complex term. The definition of cultural appropriation is the adoption of elements of one culture by members of another culture, and it doesn’t always fit every instance due to double standards that lie within the idea. A double standard is essentially when a set of rules don’t apply to specific people or often times groups of people. 

Last year during Couture Fashion Week in Paris, fashion designer Zuhair Murad, was accused of cultural appropriation. Murad sent his models down the runway wearing head garments imitating Native American culture. According to the Huffington Post, his set included “large painted poles arranged to look like teepees without coverings.” The teepee more commonly known to Native Americans as “tipi” means “they dwell.” It was a place where family dwellings would take place and sometimes even used for ceremonial purposes and the headgarmets, or headdresses, also hold a lot of importance to Native American culture. 

For Murad, a Lebonsese fashion designer, to take two aspects of a culture that hold a lot of meaning and use them for popularity is incredibly rude. How ignorant do you have to be to send models in lingerie down the runway wearing something that is very valuable and has meaning to another culture? That simply shows his lack of respect for the group’s culture he is appropriating. Murad did credit Native Americans, as he got his inspiration from that culture, but it was all a little too late because he gave credit after he had received backlash for culture appropriating to begin with. When asked about cultural appropriation, LeRhonda Manigault-Bryant for the Huffington Post said, “It [giving credit] shouldn’t be an afterthought.”

I completely agree with this statement because you shouldn’t first have to receive hate or negative attention for appropriating someone else’s culture to then give credit to the culture. You give credit where credit is due and it’s crystal clear that Murad gave credit to combat all the negative attention, and it’s completely absurd to me that he was let off the hook so easily. Now, I’m not saying throw the man in jail and ruin his life, I’m saying that what he did was such a big slap in the face to Native Americans. 

This isn’t the first time a person with fame has used another group’s culture as a way to get attraction or publicity. Similarly, last year Kim Kardashian made headlines after she posted on her instagram story that she had gotten Bo Derek braids. In the video, Kardashian wore what is commonly known as cornrows. She credited the style to a white woman, Derek, who she had seen wearing the braids in the movie “10.” Derek is not the creator of the hairstyle as these braids go back centuries. According to Byrdie, braids were worn by African American women and men to indicate their tribe. Each hairstyle was very intricate and important. Kardashian is giving credit to a white woman who, quite honestly, was appropriating culture to begin with. Of course, when Derek did this for a movie in 1979 cultural appropriation didn’t really have much meaning, and maybe didn’t even exist, but Kim did this last year and it wasn’t her first time doing it. She also wore braids back in 2013, similarly crediting Derek. The first time Kardashian did this she messed up, but everyone messes up sometimes. However, to do it again after she received backlash the first time is almost as if she’s telling the world, “Yes, I’m cultural appropriating, yes I know it’s wrong, but who cares?” Changing the color of your braids from black to blonde does not mean you aren’t cultural appropriating, Kim. 

Although Kardashian received a lot of backlash, mainly from the African American community she received many compliments for her hairstyle. People recognized the appropriation as a trend, and people said she raised the standard for the beauty community and what it means. But why is it okay for Kardashian to appropriate another culture while people within that culture who do the same thing are stereotyped and criticized? Time and time again we’ve seen African Americans targeted for the hairstyles that they wear. According to People, two years ago a high school in Kentucky received a lot of negative attention because they banned hairstyles such as cornrows, afros longer than two-inches, dreadlocks, and more. As you read the list the hairstyles seem to be more and more oriented towards the African American students. Why is something so minor as a hairstyle being called into question at a school? They don’t affect anything at all. However, Kardashian can wear hairstyles like this, post it on her instagram, get some hate, but overall have a very positive response? The high school lifted the ban, said People, after parents complained and it made headlines. It shouldn’t have to be that way at all. It shouldn’t have to take people telling you that something is clearly discriminatory for you to change it. As a school you should strive for an environment where everyone feels included, students and staff. That’s as if someone commits murder, is given the death penalty, and only after being punished realizes that what they did was wrong. Murdering the person was wrong to begin with and getting called out for it wasn’t what made it wrong. You should be able to differentiate wrong from right regardless of potential consequences. 

Likewise in 2015, actress Zendaya Coleman attended the Oscars wearing dreadlocks. Some people weren’t fans of the hairstyle, but others were more adamant about publicly sharing their unwanted and ignorant comments on it. Giuliana Rancic, an American-Italian reporter, made a snarky remark on E! Fashion Police about the stars hairstyle stating that she [Coleman]  probably, “smells like patchouli oil or weed” this was obviously a racially-motivated comment and Coleman had a lot to say on her twitter to Rancic. It’s incredibly disheartening that a 40-year-old felt the need to comment on an 18-year-old’s hair in a negative light. If someone like Derek or Kardashian wore their hair like Coleman’s on the red carpet, would Rancic have a snarky comment? Or would she think the hairstyle was “cute” ? Would these two actresses probably smell of patchouli oil or weed, as well? Probably not. We’ve invested time into creating ideas and beliefs, but they’re always twisted. What’s meant to aid in stopping an existing issue simply creates another unwanted and unnecessary issue. I personally believe that the idea of cultural appropriation was created to prevent others from using aspects of a culture in a negative light and to bring positivity and acceptance to different cultures that are either underrepresented or disrespected. Thus far, cultural appropriation has not been like that at all. People are bringing in their own prejudices into the definition, therefore completely destroying it. Cultural appropriation has become such a complex and, some may argue, problematic ideology, but we have to think of why it’s seen in this light. It wasn’t created to be a complicated concept that doesn’t have a clear and concise definition. Why does the definition have to be ambiguous when cultural appropriation is so clearly wrong?