Little Women

women women women

kim goeun and nam jihyun in a women-centric drama honestly one of the best things to ever happen. we love a women centric but why did they also make women the real villains too 😭

it actually took me a few days to finish because i was worried i might end up disappointed but thankfully i wasn’t. i did feel a bit frustrated though, not all the evil characters got the karma they deserved. the real villain definitely deserved more than what she got. and oh siblings' parents “happy ending” just didn’t sit right with me.

one thing i have to say, this drama is an absolute acting feast. i could easily give it a 100/10 for performances alone likeeee everyone delivered and even the young actors did such an amazing job.

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Everything was perfect until E08 after that......

For me Little Women was just a decent Watchable drama. Everything look so interesting and gripping in the start, too many Mysteries with a very good story telling, plot twists, and more. But all are for nothing actually from E09. Slowness is ok. Because i already knew this probably a slow poison in the start but i was completely wrong to be honest. Because after E08 everything is predictable or i predicted almost everything.

So for me, i lost all the excitement. E08 ending was lit. But it all spoiled in the starting of E09. Politics is also unbearable. Too many unwanted story complications for nothing actually. If you think there will be a grand twist coming after all this, then don't fool yourself. Nothing was there. Actually if you can easily predict everything...

I thought this would be a good mystery serial murders kind of a story telling and unfold a large mystery with an unbelievable twist or something like this. But if you just look back after all 12 episodes you will probably get what i mean infact there was nothing but too many complication 🚶

Stunning cast and performance. And some characterisation, oh sister's are brilliant, even a simple detailing of their behaviour is superbly narrated. But it doesn't support the story.

Overall it's not a bad drama or must watch drama, it was a simple and decent drama to watch. Too many dragging after E08. Some point i thought even for just a 12 episodes they took so many time to conclude that story and what happen if they took 16.. 🥶

It's only my personal view.

#N45Views

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Good Enough

Korean Drama " Little Women " is the story of three sisters, completely different from each other, being drawn into the world of the rich and priviliged.

The drama is more aesthetics and deep dialogues at times, sucrificing its plot for it, but the overall result is intense. The story is complicated, slowly being built up, revealing each characters' real self and motives. The mystery with the rooms and the suicide case were dark and unpredictable and kept things interesting. The romance, on the other hand, was moody and more of an outline in the end.

The performances, in addition, were all great by everyone in the cast.

So, overall, seven out of ten.

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Well it was alright! This show definitiely had a strong start and it seemed like it was going somewhere but I remember being a bit disappointed by the ending. Especially by the couple (inju and doil) like what was the point of them having this divine tension and chemistry between each other if you arent even gonna do anything about it!?
But I was really intrigued by that whole flower plot and the flower being like a serial killers autograph on every death.
I loved the sisters as well and their dynamic even though inju and inhye pissed me off sometimes..inkyeong remains the best sister in my opinion!!

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Intriguing drama until almost the end.

It started as a very enjoyable take on what money and greed does to people, the first episodes were full of mystery.
The sister family were little fishes swimming in a tank full of sharks, and you just knew something was off with the Parks, in that feeling of weariness every time they appeared.

Once the drama starts having multiple twists and turns, you just wait for the unavoidable "they are not going to close this perfectly." It's impossible, because there was a lot of stuff that stopped making sense a long time ago.

But I have to say, the drama did try to accommodate almost all the plot points, to write and continue and finish off a somehow believable plot. But I won't lie, a bit of suspension of disbelief is heavily needed, specially towards the end.

I didn't like they used the old "SHE WAS NOT DEAD" soap opera main plot, I think they lost me a little there. I was expecting a final showdown between Hwa Young and Sang A, but it never happened. Furthermore, I was expecting a final showdown between In Kyung and Park JaeSang, but it also never happened. But oh well. It's not as bad as I expected.

That to say, this drama was perfect up until the Singapore episodes, delivering what it is one of the most engaging episodes I've seen lately in any K-drama. To the point at times I was sad it ended, and I am not made for the 1 hour, or 1 hour 20 minutes dramas last.

The downfall of Park Jaesang was perhaps my last favorite moment. The moment Jaesang is out of the pictures, for pretty unclear motives, but still (probably shock value), the drama initiates a total downfall, but still manages to survive.

The acting is impeccable, specially Kim Go Eun and Uhm Ji won deliver an engaging mouse and cat chase. I also enjoyed, to a lesser degree, Ji hyun and Ji hoo performances. And I think they didn't give much chance for other characters to shine more, except maybe Ki Joon.

So, apart from that ending, which I understood at some point, was impossible to be perfect, I will say this has been one of my most enjoyed K-dramas of 2022.

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Dramatic at times but meh

I went into watching Little Women blind with only the idea that it's based on a book that I hadn't read but had heard was quite good. I don't find this Korean adaptation to be special. It left me questioning many things that didn't quite make sense.

Yes, Little Women has wonderful cinematography and the director knows how to build suspense and anxiety but at times I felt like the motivation behind everything lacked any kind of logic and the end folded so neatly, it was actually both a relief and disappointing.

I wish I could make sense of why the society functioned the way it did. Felt meaningless and unbelievable that no one questioned a thing.

Although the Oh sisters irked me in many instances, I was genuinely rooting for In Joo and In Kyung. Oh In Hye will go down as 2022's most annoying main character. So selfish and ungrateful! I prefer any of the villains over her because at least you understand them to a degree.

Loved the mysterious Choi Do Il and it was fun reading viewers speculate. It's unfortunate that the other male character is nothing to write home about.

If you enjoy suspense, then you might enjoy the rollercoaster ride this show takes you on. However, the ending is not very dramatic. If romance draws you in then you might want to give this one a skip.

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Phenomenal Acting, Great Story, and a Finale That Fell Just Short

Little Women, although contrary to the 1868 novel, is an incredible story. Here are my pros & cons. There are some spoilers so please don't read if you haven't watched already.

Pros:
- The acting is phenomenal. In the scene where the oldest sister slept with the flower, she truly felt like a different person. All the actors and their emotions felt so realistic. The acting was probably my favorite part of the entire show. The oldest sister's actress has amazing acting talent

- They even acted correctly with their respective personalities. Although very poor, the second oldest sister wanted the oldest sister to turn in the money because it wasn't hers. She even kept that "fight for justice" trait throughout the series and did everything in her power to have justice served. Also, I liked how in the beginning we knew the mother was lwk crazy, and they continued to keep her that level of crazy. Like yes, I crazy person who is dedicated to their society would let their husband die because they failed even though they love him. And yes, a crazy person would kidnap people and do all this stuff. In other words, I liked how she didn't "become crazy" like how most villains do in shows once it is known that they are the villain. She was crazy from the start.

- The story was very intriguing. Personally, I love shows & movies with murder mysteries. If you like those too, this is peak. Lots of deaths and lots of mysteries. I also liked how they didn't make the show demonic or anything. They could have with people seeing visions when smelling the flowers, but they chose not to which I really appreciate. Also, the completed story of the flower was very good. From the start to finish, I was very interested in how the show would thaw out the flower society's storyline.

- The side stories were very interesting. I loved the side story with the In-hye and her best friend. To me, that was a phenomenal story that fit their characters perfectly.

- The twist were pretty good. My favorite has to be the one where Hwa-young in Singapore was actually In-hye's best friend's mother (I don't really remember names well). It was well planned out where we, as the audience, could really expect it to be Hwa-young. But again, we saw her body, we knew she was dead, and we never saw "her" face when she was running away. Also, the twist where the mother was the real villain was very well planned out due to her line where she used the word "man servant (or at least something similar)" to her husband in the first few episodes. It showed that writers already had planned out she was the real villain as she had power over her husband, but they chose to just give a few snippets of hints to who the real villain was.

- The character development was good but not great. The oldest sister seemed to be the only one with REAL character development. Even with hoping Hwa-young was still alive, she never brought the money with her nor did she give away her gun. In the earlier episodes, the oldest sister- who is very naive -would absolutely bring the money with her for Hwa-young. But throughout the story she learned her lesson. I also liked for her that she still had some "naive-ness" with her at the end showing people just don't change a large portion of their personality over night but they improve on their lower qualities over time. Also, I liked the small character development of In-hye. She throughout the story started to become a real friend to her "best friend" and starting being more caring with her older sisters who did EVERYTHING they could for her. I also liked how they explained her reasoning on why she acting the way she did.

- I LOVED that the brought back stuff discussed in the earlier episodes instead of just forgetting about them like how most shows or movies do. For me, I loved that they brought back the apartment that the main girl wanted to get for her and her family. When she was first in the apartment, she could finally imagine a life where her and her sisters wouldn't be punished for being poor, but could live in a clean, beautiful place peacefully. When she came back to the apartment, it showed that she now could have that life even if it wasn't with her living with her sisters.

- The ending was satisfying. It wasn't the best ending I could think of though. The best ending of any show doesn't have to be just a "good ending" but it has to fit the story the best. I liked how everyone got a happy ending, so I wasn't crying in my bed over how sad it could be. The heroes got what the needed and the villains were dead.

Cons:
- I disliked a few of their remaining connections. Like what happened with Ma-ri? Why would they STILL be in contact with their mother after everything that she did? Why did In-hye's best friend have no reaction to BOTH of her parent's dying when earlier she was fine with her father being a killer because at least he wasn't poor? Why was the father shown at Hwa-young's place both in the dashcam AND in the oldest sister's flower infected dream when he wasn't the killer? How did Choi not get in any trouble after lwk lying to the court saying it is all his fault when Hwa-young later says it is all her fault? How can the main girl forgive Hwa-young so easily even though she was using her in the mother's game? Why was the mother's game about the main girl mentioned like once then dropped?

- I didn't care for Hwa-young's reasoning for why she was still alive. "It was this girl who wanted to khs. So, we decided to switch lives" ?? I'm sure websites like that do, in fact, exist. That isn't the problem. It is the problem that it took TWO YEARS for the switch to start happening. "She had to grow out her hair" was one of the reasons it took so long. JUST CUT YOUR HAIR OMG. I thought it was stupid and could've been explained better.

- The climax was boring and VERY anticlimactic. It had a lot of potential with the mother being very crazy and the hydrochloric acid replacing the water, but the main girl got Hwa-young out of their so fast and her fight with the mother didn't even last a minute. Worst of all, she came out unscathed.

- The ending was a little too happy. Although I really like the ending because it was happy, I just feel like it went too smoothly. A bit unrealistic. Also, only the last two episodes was I a TAD bit bored with the whole court case and everything.

- Although not a technically con, I really hoped for a romance between the main girl and Choi. They had fantastic chemistry and proved on many different occasions that they liked or at least cared for each other. For the main girl (although she kept questioning his trust because he is morally grey), she showed she liked him a bit at least when she was with her sister and the one guy when they first found out about the deeper connection of the flower. For Choi, he LITERALLY risked his life on multiple occasions for her. The main reasoning behind that one is in the climax. He already knew where all the money was while she didn't. But, he still chose to save her life. Also, do I need to mention the little "I'll see you soon" smirk in his last scene? I had hoped that the main girl's final scene would be leaving for Greece with all her money since the reason she didn't originally was because she didn't have that money. Also, he literally was setting himself up to go to jail for her in the court scene, just saying. No way he cared for money more than her at the end.

Overall:
- Solid show. 8.5/10 imp. Great mystery with great actors just needs a bit of a touch up on some loose threads and a better climax.

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not gonna hold my breath

Without comparing this to the novel Little Women, here is my apparently unpopular opinion:

T꙯H꙯E꙯ G꙯O꙯O꙯D꙯:
• Wi Ha Joon character was written to perfection! Now if this drama gets rewritten from his point of view as the main lead, this whole circus would’ve taken a turn towards something I would be invested in. Uncovering his story and the way he kept making me question his intentions is the sole reason that kept me watching.

T꙯H꙯E꙯ B꙯A꙯D꙯:
• The writer adapted the 3 main characters from a book and focused on ONE FREAKING personality trait for each sister and ran the whole show with it.

> InJoo: naive and money driven.
> InKyung: righteous and stubborn.
> InHye: ungrateful little brat.

Me: “Ever heard of character development?”
Writer: “Yes! I’ll just add some changes in the end and you interpret it as growth ;)”
Me: “Clever..”

• The mystery about the secret flower society was interesting but the investigation process lacked excitement & the progression was slowww. 2 sisters were too busy with their lives and our reporter was not good at being discreet or discovering shit, which made me pull my hair out and use it as a rope to hang myself. Did anyone else sleep during the majority of ep11, or was it only me? & for anyone who watched this, did the blue flower have hallucination effect or that wasn’t explained?

T꙯H꙯E꙯ M꙯E꙯H꙯:
• Unoriginal to the core. The writer binged Series of Unfortunate Events, Penthouse and then read Little Women & Cinderella.

Writer: *lightbulb* *writes script*
Producer: “You came up with all that! Let me contact typecasted actors (Uhm Ki Joon) with popular kids and we are all set! Just add some spicy scenes & substance with suicide, cause we are aiming for Netflix.”

• ACTING! Or the lack of it. Easily forgettable performances by ALL (except HaJoon).

> I love Nam Ji Hyun but I have never seen her deliver lines so flat and emotionless like her portrayal of this role. It was painful to watch her suck the life out of everything around here in this drama.
> Kim Go Eun plays the same character in everything I’ve watched so far. I dunno if I’m biased against her but she never impressed me since GoBlin days.

R꙯A꙯T꙯I꙯N꙯G꙯:
1/10. Woot! The only joy from this experience is rating this low :p

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Dragging suspense

Personally, one thing about kdrama they do right is they want us to keep guessing, but there is also a downside to that because how long do you drag on the suspense to make the audiences want more? I am so glad I watched this with friends because I would have never finished it. I stayed because of the amazing cast, I love their acting and their characters but the way how the story unfolded, the dragging suspense, and adding unnecessary problems one after another was a typical kdrama move that I absolutely find dull and boring. Nothing made sense and some of the issues just didn't seem real enough to convince me.

I recommend it for the cast and if this is your type of suspense but forget about it if you're there for the storyline.

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Outrageous but interesting plot led by three unlikable sisters.

My final review after the series completion. I’ll just list some questions and comments and end it.

1. Deep down, I knew they were going to bring back Hwa Yong. I was so hoping not but they did it. And the explanation about another woman who was suicidal she met happened to be at her place to be killed? Maybe I missed some details but major sigh.

2. So everyone saw Sang A murdering someone. I get that it was a video they couldn’t verify but at least, she’d get detained for investigation? She just walked out of the courthouse and business as usual. This enabled her to go on (almost) a murder spree.

3. Speaking of Sang A, how is she so powerful and rich? I get that her dad set up some stuff and his people infiltrated the society at different levels for a long time but I’m not sure if that explains the influence and wealth. Does she own Samsung? Hyundai or both?

4. If she’s so powerful, why did they try so hard to be the mayor and then the president? Apparently, it wasn’t that important at the end because she casually “killed” her husband.

5. Is the Orchid Society a cult? How do they control the members so that they would just give their lives? What were they promised? Eternal life? Maybe some members may feel like they owe a lot to the general but really?

6. If Sang A owns the police and the media and whatever else, why didn’t she own the judicial system?

7. When Haw Young entered the courtroom, she was given the most underwhelming response to her being alive by other characters, especially by Sang A. I would’ve fallen off the chair and screamed at the least.

8. I think, ultimately, the writer and director just fell in love with their crazy ideas and kept adding more and more shocking/convoluted stuff and things got away from there. I wish they actually thought about how all these ideas would work together or were even remotely feasible in that fictional world before they kept adding.

9. Maybe Kim Go Eun’s movie career is winding down? I think she’s great and she’s acted well here but this show feels like it’s beneath her?

10. So Sang A was so nuts that her father’s people didn’t choose her as the successor. But they left her to do her crazy stuff and risked ruining everything? Which she did. Hmm.

Review after Ep. 10

So I came to realize that this is a soap opera rather than a drama. Soap operas often sacrifice logic and realism for the sake of sensationalism. Storyline has gotten more and more convoluted and extreme with constant bait and switch. Rating lowered to 5.

Review after Ep. 8

This show just became one of the dumbest show ever.

The main character is literally the dumbest person ever. She thought her friend was alive after seeing her dead. She walks in to her dead friend’s apartment and drinks an iced drink without asking why or who made it. OMG.

And, of course, it’s the wife of the bad guy…. I knew it. This is nuts. I see the rating dropping but we’ll see.

Initial review after Ep. 5

For whatever reason, I thought this was a comedy. So I was a bit dumbfounded after the first two episodes. I’m looking forward to how the storyline unfolds. I do think it’s a bit coincidence heavy with every sister being involved with the villain’s (?) family but it is K-drama’s favorite way to advance the plot so…

I hope the villains don’t turn out to be the usual bad people. I hope they try a bit harder to be creative this time. But so far, the shadowy villain seems all powerful so most likely not.

Kim Go-Eun is such a great actress. She’s so natural but I feel like she’s overacting here, especially, when she’s in trouble. The way her face contorts basically shows she’s guilty. Also, the character she plays isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer. She can’t put two and two together and can’t act cool if her life depended on it and it literally depends on her trying to hide the fact that she’s got the money. And the way she just brought a pile of cash to a strange woman right after being told to be careful with money! Wow. It’s like she wants everyone to know she has a pile of cash.

And by all means, let’s talk about the secret ledger in the middle of a freaking cafeteria loudly! But the plot must advance, I guess.

I can’t figure out the middle sister. She seems like the smart one but we’ll see what role she plays here. The youngest one seems to be there just to play the impressionable kid acting like a pawn. Not interesting at all.

The biggest flaw of this show, so far, is that none of three sister is likable. The oldest is dumb and clueless, the second is a drunk, pseudo-activist hothead and the youngest one lives in an alternate reality. It’s like she’s not affected by the way her friend’s parents act. She’d rather live with violent rich people rather than her poor sisters. They want us to sympathize with them but failed miserably.

Where are they going with the orchid? Is it super natural? Drug induced hallucinations? They keep digging deeper and deeper to make everyone suspicious but I hope they know what they’re doing and tie all this up in a satisfying way.

Hope it goes well. It’s promising that it’s a 12 episode show so hoping for a tight storyline without much fluff.

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This is not an 'adaption' more like loosely base on Little Women

Currently Little Women Ep 1-3
I thought Little Women was gonna be a light and airy drama 😅 I mean on MDL it's says 'adapted from the novel Little Women by Louisa May Alcott'
There is nothing adapted in this here drama but embezzlement,money. It's a murder mystery.
Should have written loosely base since the Oh sisters are poor.
😐🥴
What I'm not loving:
The lack of communication in these dramas is getting real old, real fast.
I'm on Ep 3 and I'm really disappointed in In Joo (Kim Go Eun ❤️ Yumi Cells series) the oldest and In Kyung (Nam Ji hyun ❤️365) the middle and their behavior with the rich family Park who is clearly taking advantage of their little sister In Hye (Park Ji Hoo ❤️ All of Us Are Dead)

What I'm loving:
As someone who loves plants and flowers that princess Orchid is gorgeous and I want one 😅😍

The men I REALLY enjoy seeing:
Actor Uhm Kijoon and it looking like he is up to no good (like his counterpart Dan Tae in Penhouse series) with his running for mayor shady self. Give me more screentime with him, he does villian so well 🥴🤣🤣🤣

Actor Wi Hajoon he is slowly making his way to ML status and that smile (he also has some nice wrist veins too) 😏😉

I'll add my final thought after completion

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A Veritable Dollhouse of Absurdity

The experience of watching this so-called homage to Louisa M. Alcott’s beloved tale is like playing a game of blind man’s bluff. The audience is positioned as the player in the middle, blind-folded, groping around trying to make sense of the surroundings only to be led by a cacophony of sounds which may either prove to be helpful leads or egregious misdirections that lead to nowhere. Rather than being any kind of thoughtful of adaptation of Alcott’s timeless series, the roots of this Korean drama lie in the overlong weekend family dramas infamous for their ridiculous plot lines punctuated by unbelievable twists and turns, protracted conflicts that are designed to leave audiences begging for more week after week. It’s a combination of pure farce, high melodrama and an unabashed (even gleeful) exploitation of tropes. Polished as it may be, it is still a makjang. From the first, this story positions itself as a morality tale cautioning against the consequences of greed and ambition from its use of the red shoes motif only to end up with a bewildering incoherent resolution that undermines the story’s early messaging.

The show throws the spotlight on two adult sisters from a working class background. They are Oh In-joo (Kim Go-eun), Oh In-kyung (Nam Ji-hyun) as well as their teenage sister Oh In-hye (Park Ji-hoo), a talented artist who has caught the eye of a certain Ms Won Sang-a (Uhm Ji-won), an ambitious wealthy woman who is married to an aspiring politician Park Jae-sang (Uhm Ki-hoon). The unsuspecting Oh sisters who lament their meagre lot in life are drawn into a web of deception on a scale that they are laughably ill-equipped to handle. It suits the writer’s agenda to place these babes in the woods in such an unlikely situation as they flounder around in search of answers.

The real trouble begins when In-joo a bookkeeper finds herself tempted by the offer of 2 billion won of cash left to her at the pleasure of her colleague Jin Hwa-young in a gym locker. It’s more money than In-joo has ever seen in her young life but it comes with a high price tag and puts her in an ethical predicament. Apparently Hwa-young has been playing around with Other People’s money and suffered the consequences. In-joo is in over her head and it’s Choi Do-il (Wi Ha-joon), her company’s accounting manager and money laundering expert, to rescue. Apparently the company has a habit of accumulating ill-gotten money and key people in the organization are involved in helping the Park-Won family creating slush funds to further their political ambitions.

While the performances range from great (Kim Go-eun, Wi Ha-joon and Uhm Ji-won) to good, in the overall scheme of things the characters don’t matter much because they are quite literally putty in someone’s hands. They exist to tell a story like miniatures in a diorama or figures in a dollhouse. The dollhouse metaphor is deliberate on the part of the writer who wants to weave a fairytale about the ordinary confronting the extraordinary similar to any Brothers Grimm tale. While there are no talking animals or supernatural beings in the mix, the show nevertheless relies heavily on miracles. The Oh sisters are fated to embark on a journey through a dark forest of evil and they cannot be certain who is friend or foe. They are almost always somebody’s plaything and dependant on the goodwill of others for their survival. There is an appearance of agency but the Oh sisters can only react to the situations they inevitably find themselves in due to the machinations of others.

There’s little that is relatable about the Oh sisters. They act impetuously in service of the plot. There’s nothing realistic about them or the situation they find themselves. At times it’s hard to believe that they might have been a close-knit family once when they spend far more time with others than each other. Using In-joo and In-kyung in particular as the primary windows into this world is a double-edged sword. More often than not their supposed bravery comes across as recklessness and lack of circumspection.

Won Sang-a the show’s primary antagonist fancies herself an unfulfilled thespian and plays out her fantasies with lesser mortals. She’s General Won’s daughter and her wealth enables her to indulge in her narcissism and megalomania. She likes secrets and she takes perverse pleasure in gamefying scenarios involving desperate malleable individuals where she commands their inevitable outcome. On the other hand her relationship with husband Park Jae-sang involves a series of sex games in which she manipulates him while he enables and cleans up after her. At first it seems like he’s a controlling abusive husband but it doesn’t take long before it’s clear who’s really calling the shots in that dynamic. She represents the figure of the witch that’s the staple of many beloved fairytale as she’s an inveterate schemer and master manipulator that casts her spell on those she deems dispensable.

In that vein Little Women is a witch’s brew as it mixes high stakes criminal activities with family dysfunction, romances and a conspiracy that goes back decades. The set-up brimming with potential, hitting the climax in Episode 10 only to end with a whimper in Episode 12. For a show that traded relentlessly on plot twists and shock factor, the finale felt strangely flat and mind numbingly… tedious. In effect the writer overplayed her hand ad absurdism; to the point where the final showdown between the protagonist and antagonist feels comedic rather than revelatory thus diminishing the impact of the moment.

Despite the title, the highlight of the viewing experience is Choi Do-il, who grounds the show for me. Almost everything else about the show is a farce in every sense but Do-il feels like a bright spot in a bleakly surreal landscape and more’s the pity that this show isn’t about him. Although he makes claims to being entirely mercenary, he is the sanest creature in this cat and mouse insanity — a reassuring constant in a sea of madness for the artless In-joo. He is her lifeline from start to finish. Without him she would be six foot under or ashes in an urn. The romantic tension between them evidenced from the start regrettably doesn’t have closure which begs the question — is the show leaving the door open for a second series?

A show like this can be an engaging watch depending on mood and the extent one is willing to suspend all manner of disbelief because at the end of the day such dramas don’t exactly prioritise logic or consistency.

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