The Girl on a Bulldozer and Over-Powered Protagonists

I watched a Korean movie the other day called The Girl on a Bulldozer, and it amazes me to see the cultural differences in Asian movies as opposed to movies here. For one thing, The Girl on a Bulldozer has a very strong female lead, but she is not a “Mary Sue” character who can just do anything and is perfect. She goes into situations with anger and violence, and she is wildly ineffective in trying to solve problems in that manner. Add to that, she will face physical violence at times herself in retaliation. In movies over here, that type of assertiveness will usually win the day in movies, but not in this one or in other Asian movies that I have seen.

I personally like that more flawed character than what we have been seeing lately, even in anime. In anime, there is what is called the over-powered protagonist, but we have seen that character in Star Wars, Marvel movies and the like. Sometimes it can work when taken in interesting or comical directions, but I think the problem with the protagonist already being immensely powerful is that it pretty much defeats “the hero’s journey.”

It is more satisfying to me to see the main character work to that point instead of already being there. I think that lately, we have been seeing the opposite. In the case of comic books, the hero starts with their powers, so the adversity must be world-ending or just so overpowering. I personally like things more grounded and relatable.