it would be impossible to make it like LW in america. it's a very american novel and had to be changed a lot by…
np! i understand what you mean and i agree with you about the name but i guess it's about sisters being poor and there's the dollhouse. i think also people would be able to see some smilarities between both works in hindsight so that was probably another motivation?
similar themes i guess: what would be an idyllic life; in LW from back then in the US it was emerging capitalism and here it is—capital fully emerged post-occupation—in their current life in SK in modern times! though i think the name i think it's a good, or, at the very least, an intriguing show so if you're thinking about it maybe give it a try! don't be turned off by the name and i think you may not find it a waste of money haha
I watched first the 2019 film, I thought they will only change little things but I really don't know what will…
it would be impossible to make it like LW in america. it's a very american novel and had to be changed a lot by alcott for it to get published (though she wasn't like totally a feminist or whatever the prototype was back then iirc she wanted a diff ending like whatsherface going her own way and i know in greta gerwig's one of them does? idk i never watched) anyway she also wasn't allowed to put in the abolitionist stuff since her whole family were abolitionists. chattel slavery is such a world-maker and world-changer and its worst iteration is manifested in the biggest/richest nation in the world rn.
it would be super hard for them to have something even analogous and i'm glad tbh because it's a very expansive, difficult, and intricate subject to bring into the modern world now while doing it justice. the show is nothing like it really. the writer also wrote the handmaiden which was based off of the british book 'fingersmith' by a welsh writer which is a lot more consistent but a lot easier to adapt to having it in japan occupied korea. sorry if you knew this!
i'm almost done with ep 6 and i don't begrudge them from not knowing everything—this is a show and most characters…
now i love recreational drugs as much as the next girl but IN-JOO......GORL. first of all this is KOREA/ASIA—more than half of these people have never touched a drug that isn't nicotine or alcohol (not a pro or a con and don't smoke!!!!! lmao)—so WHY would she fucking inhale this fuckin hallucinogenic drug? that she knows is one? i assume you are aware of tolerance and have watched a tv-show before??? this one was kind of a killer to me cos like gorl....but again her character is inconsistent.
we can expect someone we watch, even without knowledge of how they move in the world and how they have to fight in this new world they never entered before, should be able to THINK. if even someone who lives in like pakistan (little to no alcohol) would be able to understand why that would be dumb as hell then??!?!?! for the story they should have had her CLEARLY do this on purpose to show her actual cleverness and curiosity. but what she did was listen to won sang a without taking heed to literally anything around her. not choi do il and not in-kyung talking to her (not that choi do il is explicitly careful in himself…) i’m confused how she can say, AFTER SHE INHALES THE THING, that she will never trust won sang a? wouldn’t it be more affective if she just did it to see what happens, got pissed, then that propelled her to open her eyes. otherwise: WHY are you shocked after doing a drug that this happened to you?
maybe this is a nitpick but this is what i notice here. did i miss something when she talked to her sister about the flower and they didn't mention its potential? maybe i missed that! but who the hell is in-joo??? in-kyung is this real character/person and would do something like that and she has a massive excuse: HER /PERSONALITY/ and her ADDICTION that makes everything she does make sense….so…i feel like we are consistently being told who in-joo is and everyone has to direct her. what will she do with this money? how will she get her sistrs on bored? why is it ep 7 and we're on ep 12 that this girl is finally TRYING to give into her convictions that she never really had. i wish we arrived to a better point/place and her connection to hwa-young.
so here's where i bring up in-hye tho. she is consistent and it's understandable.
i haven’t gone through all the comments but people really seem to dislike her decision and discredit her age as being a massive factor. i mentioned above the thing/theme about female friendships and queerness or—most importantly the true bluriness and meaning of the moniker of queer; not being able to place the type of rship people have but knowing that it isn’t ‘straight and narrow’ since life is complex. this is one of those relationships that show the strength and it’s downfalls.
won sang a is alluring, they know park jae sang’s real self, and in-hye is attached.
she (hyo rin) doesn't know who her mom's true self is, her mom is def abusive or at the minimum neglectful (like the in sisters own dumbass mother but worse) and daughters feel the need to protect the person they are closest to and that is usually? the mom! and it’s usually the dad/baby daddy that is abusive to a mother. i am not denying women or other people of a gender and sexual minority are incapable of being abusive creeps; a lot of people have trauma and must choose how they move in the world from it and many absolutely do not care to change. this is what hyo-rin is living in; fake people who were hurt and refuse to change for their gain, entitlement, piece of fuckin’ mind at the cost of everyone but themselves. in fact she exploits the fact that women are supposed to be perfect women, wives, mothers to push herself into victimhood and continue her own narcissism.
so, you’re 18, you’re miserable because your MOTHER stole your fucking money that your sisters slaved over to make. the mom fled to go to their father who is god knows where. in-hye knows her best friend, in this skewed power dynamic through no fault but the parents and this [racial] capitalist [patriarchal, imperialist, et al] hellscape, is/was a cutter, has to take pills (that are forced on her) just to breathe, has this awful life then why wouldn’t in-hye care to invest her time and to protect her? why wouldn’t hyo-rin’s threat of committing suicide if in-joo took the SD card from the blackbox camera be real? cutters are usually not known to take their lives but you can absolutely reach that point; it’s a violent thing to do to yourself. she made it clear that the consequences of exposure is her own life that she will take—why wouldn't that be of import to in-hye?
they let us know the real and sad issue of their attachment: she’s (in-hye) attached to saving and being there for her friend, she loves her in many capacities, and she can’t leave her alone. she isn't convinced of these people (sang a, jae sang, rich losers) being nobles or who they say they are what she's thinking is: what happens if i do this? what happens if i leave? what's in it for me if i go along? her best friend, her confidant, their relationship though sad in the fact that it seems like in-hye (the poor girl) has to cater to hyo-rin (the rich girl) which i hope they address but hyo rin lives in a horrible environment.
thre’s an issue of how hyo-rin went along with the painting but i think i can forgive her from the very fact that 1. she is legitimately talented and 2. what would be the consequences were she not to go along with this scheme? this is reminiscent of the college scandal in the US and, though i hold the kids accountable too—because they went along with this shit despite being young they thought they fucking deserved it, the gall to even think you are good at things despite not doing anything in reality to make that the truth—but it’s more that everyone forces this stuff on her? what does hyo-rin want but peace? this could change bc a lot of people can suck but i’m js i’m not sure hyo-rin is someone in-hye can or should turn her back on if their relationship is deep. they help each other, protect each other, hyo-rin is much weaker but isn’t it true that she wants what in-hye has? the grass is always greener. hyo-rin was so excited to be in in-hye’s place, doesn’t in-hye deserve something? she’s enamored with won sang a but her drive is hyo-rin and though, to us as mostly adults and pretty beyond the age of 17/18 and trying to get into college or advance life as a poor person, it seems like a betrayal…what if this is how she survives?
anyway the great aunt (grandma? idu wouldnt they call her ‘imo’? but maybe bc she is the great aunt? is this netflix subs being weird?) dying WOW tbqhwy that is a flex. her and in-kyung’s rship affects me in a weird way—in a good weird way—though i dislike her ideology, mentality, and giving up.
this is an interesting and good drama and i’m glad it’s short. i’m beyond glad there’s a lack of flashbacks that aren’t stylistically well done (they don’t reall exist at all beyond cutaways or to add to the meat of the story with in/out of camera effects and shots that establish what we are looking at but it’s not a direct flashback to the scene lit 2s before) and the music is well placed. there is a lot of it but i enjoy the spotting a lot actually and even though the music is pretty frequent it is gorgeous and supportive. there’s something good and special (to me) about this drama. it amkes me want to go slow, get angry, cry, and fight. it’s a shame that in-joo herself isn’t more dynamic and i think that’s the biggest detriment but it doesn’t mean i’m not drawn to it because everyone around her makes it up.
i never complain about ratings on here because it's bullshit and who cares but this one is a major shame to me. the writer had an amazing vision and worked with lee kyung mi to make a compelling story and kyung mi delivered and so did the crew. were it not for this show, nam joo hyuk would have never been able to extend himself like he did. i might update my review when i rewatch it but this is from a very talented woman writing about girls, women in the world, teen pain, adult suppression and oppression of others, queerness, feminism, social strata, the cost and fate of living and daring—NEEDING, having to be, being forced to be against your will—to be different, to have to save some sliver of the world through the allegory of some of the most important and impressionable people on earth: teenagers.
the show is hilarious, extremely well-made, well-edited, amazing music, amazing cast, amazing story—with flaws!—but there's so much depth and commentary and hilarity and philosophy and life-affirmation in every ep. it's a shame to me that it doesn't stick like that to some people but i have no idea how to tell people how to approach it at another angle because the show wants us to let go of our pre-conceived notions of what it should be and even what we should want. and this is a cinematic show because she is versed in cinema and needed it to be cinema. you can TELL.
if anything i, or other commenters who liked the show, has said to make you waffle or if you're thinking of it: DO IT. if this sounds appealing you may not like it, or love it, or feel neutral but you may end up loving it like so many of us do.
i'm almost done with ep 6 and i don't begrudge them from not knowing everything—this is a show and most characters aren't aware they're /in/ movies/shows so common sense to us, as viewers, may not be to them as people who have done this for the first time. THAT BEING SAID: in-joo needs to be quiet. it's not that i don't like her—i like all the sisters though i don't think kim go eun is as outstanding as many think—but she is too trusting and the show keeps telling us she's witty, has smarts in her own way, people are drawn to her, she' s instinctual and incredibly somehow enigmatically mysterious. pretty much a walk e/infj (i don't prescribe to these monikers but just to give an idea on how i believe they want her to come off...) but they only say it. i must agree that her character is inconsistent hwich is a bit of a detriment. but naturally i am drawn to bitches like in-kyung; messy as fuck and fighting and adamant for a better world. “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” (nelson mandela)
also we should talk about how uhm ji won is demolishing it. this character is fuckin crazy i love it. they all are. her and uhm ki joong are hot af together but to be expected frm the writer who can just ramp that sexual tension UP in some violent times
i appreciate that this is an ACTUAL drug on korean tv though ; they've gotten better and better at it bu weed is not some class a narcotic and i'm assuming meth, heroin, painkillers, potentially xanax/benzos—really addictive things—wouldn't be as stylistic in the show (nor would i want it to be something like this for this reason; the orchid thing is a great addition particularly since vegetation/plants are such an integral part of that pastoral(? right word?) american landscape in little women—in the backdrop of fighting for abolition in the real world of the story) i just appreciate the shifting landscape and talk of drugs in k-dramas because i think the world has come too far to give false ideas that alcohol is good (which this show doesn't, obviously) and shit like fucking weed, comparatively, is bad. HOWEVERRRR hallucinogens aren't these terrible things either. i'm wondering if they (the orchids) are more akin to opiates in this world instead of it being like acid/lsd/shrooms. these things do not kill you.
i hope this makes sense but i hate drug demonization which really means drug/alcohol addiction/dependence shaming for those who partake. and just incredibly punitive and disgusting laws to punish the lowest rings of society for partaking or selling in such unlike those up here in high society.
the biggest thing i love that i won't cover is how blurry this show about lines of romance/love/sexual attraction because GORLS............real hot girl [queer] shit. i'm not kidding look at this writer's track record—btw if you liked handmaiden you should watch the truth beneath bc she co-wrote it and the director (lee kyung-mi) is 100% an icon; the director is a protege of park chan wook and into feminist/socialist and women and queerness and our close confusing rships with men, gender roles, the very concept of gender, CLASS, morality. they are all evident here! i didn't like vincenzo at all and found it empty but i think this director is also doing a good job!
(will continue longer cmmnt in spoiler comment b-low u have been warned)....
Oh how I hope some people have the same mindset as yours. It saddens me as to how not a lot of individuals managed…
i meant to reply to this months ago! i'm so sorry but when i saw your comment it made me smile! i agree with you here and it's done in such a way where the weirdness is so genuine if that makes sense? and it's sad because i feel like if people leaned into it and invested their emotional/intellectual time for it they would really enjoy it. i really wish we could get another season but what they did here and wanted to say was fantastic. i'm so glad other people liked it like you!
this show is realistic bc normal people don't just wake up and have the brains to overthrow a big organization…
someone made a rly insightful comment on twitter like "characters in movies don't know that they're in a movie" literally they didn't wake up and know what to do like you said. it's hard to remember that cos we watch it and think they do lmaooo but ur right of course theyre acting stupid bc why wouldnt they? also the police are clearly actual fools so
it's kinda sad that there are so many comments about not being able to relate to characters, guess not everyone…
what's confusing to me sometimes about rating/review websites is that there's a generalization in comment sections. about the rating (not low) and about the comments (mostly positive). the reviews are also, for the most part, positive. in fact i was looking for a more critical gaze but there isn't much at least dating 4 months back. this is a messy genre that has no desire to be perfect/get better like any other and it attracts all sorts of different people.
How is the rating so low? This drama was great!! The cringe and second hand embarrassment were on purpose because…
7.6 is absolutely a fair rating (and way too high) for this show and there's tons of glowing reviews and glowing comments. if someone stumbles on this page they will be motivated to watch it mostly; itll be fine.
2 
similar themes i guess: what would be an idyllic life; in LW from back then in the US it was emerging capitalism and here it is—capital fully emerged post-occupation—in their current life in SK in modern times! though i think the name i think it's a good, or, at the very least, an intriguing show so if you're thinking about it maybe give it a try! don't be turned off by the name and i think you may not find it a waste of money haha
it would be super hard for them to have something even analogous and i'm glad tbh because it's a very expansive, difficult, and intricate subject to bring into the modern world now while doing it justice. the show is nothing like it really. the writer also wrote the handmaiden which was based off of the british book 'fingersmith' by a welsh writer which is a lot more consistent but a lot easier to adapt to having it in japan occupied korea. sorry if you knew this!
we can expect someone we watch, even without knowledge of how they move in the world and how they have to fight in this new world they never entered before, should be able to THINK. if even someone who lives in like pakistan (little to no alcohol) would be able to understand why that would be dumb as hell then??!?!?! for the story they should have had her CLEARLY do this on purpose to show her actual cleverness and curiosity. but what she did was listen to won sang a without taking heed to literally anything around her. not choi do il and not in-kyung talking to her (not that choi do il is explicitly careful in himself…) i’m confused how she can say, AFTER SHE INHALES THE THING, that she will never trust won sang a? wouldn’t it be more affective if she just did it to see what happens, got pissed, then that propelled her to open her eyes. otherwise: WHY are you shocked after doing a drug that this happened to you?
maybe this is a nitpick but this is what i notice here. did i miss something when she talked to her sister about the flower and they didn't mention its potential? maybe i missed that! but who the hell is in-joo??? in-kyung is this real character/person and would do something like that and she has a massive excuse: HER /PERSONALITY/ and her ADDICTION that makes everything she does make sense….so…i feel like we are consistently being told who in-joo is and everyone has to direct her. what will she do with this money? how will she get her sistrs on bored? why is it ep 7 and we're on ep 12 that this girl is finally TRYING to give into her convictions that she never really had. i wish we arrived to a better point/place and her connection to hwa-young.
so here's where i bring up in-hye tho. she is consistent and it's understandable.
i haven’t gone through all the comments but people really seem to dislike her decision and discredit her age as being a massive factor. i mentioned above the thing/theme about female friendships and queerness or—most importantly the true bluriness and meaning of the moniker of queer; not being able to place the type of rship people have but knowing that it isn’t ‘straight and narrow’ since life is complex. this is one of those relationships that show the strength and it’s downfalls.
won sang a is alluring, they know park jae sang’s real self, and in-hye is attached.
she (hyo rin) doesn't know who her mom's true self is, her mom is def abusive or at the minimum neglectful (like the in sisters own dumbass mother but worse) and daughters feel the need to protect the person they are closest to and that is usually? the mom! and it’s usually the dad/baby daddy that is abusive to a mother. i am not denying women or other people of a gender and sexual minority are incapable of being abusive creeps; a lot of people have trauma and must choose how they move in the world from it and many absolutely do not care to change. this is what hyo-rin is living in; fake people who were hurt and refuse to change for their gain, entitlement, piece of fuckin’ mind at the cost of everyone but themselves. in fact she exploits the fact that women are supposed to be perfect women, wives, mothers to push herself into victimhood and continue her own narcissism.
so, you’re 18, you’re miserable because your MOTHER stole your fucking money that your sisters slaved over to make. the mom fled to go to their father who is god knows where. in-hye knows her best friend, in this skewed power dynamic through no fault but the parents and this [racial] capitalist [patriarchal, imperialist, et al] hellscape, is/was a cutter, has to take pills (that are forced on her) just to breathe, has this awful life then why wouldn’t in-hye care to invest her time and to protect her? why wouldn’t hyo-rin’s threat of committing suicide if in-joo took the SD card from the blackbox camera be real? cutters are usually not known to take their lives but you can absolutely reach that point; it’s a violent thing to do to yourself. she made it clear that the consequences of exposure is her own life that she will take—why wouldn't that be of import to in-hye?
they let us know the real and sad issue of their attachment: she’s (in-hye) attached to saving and being there for her friend, she loves her in many capacities, and she can’t leave her alone. she isn't convinced of these people (sang a, jae sang, rich losers) being nobles or who they say they are what she's thinking is: what happens if i do this? what happens if i leave? what's in it for me if i go along? her best friend, her confidant, their relationship though sad in the fact that it seems like in-hye (the poor girl) has to cater to hyo-rin (the rich girl) which i hope they address but hyo rin lives in a horrible environment.
thre’s an issue of how hyo-rin went along with the painting but i think i can forgive her from the very fact that 1. she is legitimately talented and 2. what would be the consequences were she not to go along with this scheme? this is reminiscent of the college scandal in the US and, though i hold the kids accountable too—because they went along with this shit despite being young they thought they fucking deserved it, the gall to even think you are good at things despite not doing anything in reality to make that the truth—but it’s more that everyone forces this stuff on her? what does hyo-rin want but peace? this could change bc a lot of people can suck but i’m js i’m not sure hyo-rin is someone in-hye can or should turn her back on if their relationship is deep. they help each other, protect each other, hyo-rin is much weaker but isn’t it true that she wants what in-hye has? the grass is always greener. hyo-rin was so excited to be in in-hye’s place, doesn’t in-hye deserve something? she’s enamored with won sang a but her drive is hyo-rin and though, to us as mostly adults and pretty beyond the age of 17/18 and trying to get into college or advance life as a poor person, it seems like a betrayal…what if this is how she survives?
anyway the great aunt (grandma? idu wouldnt they call her ‘imo’? but maybe bc she is the great aunt? is this netflix subs being weird?) dying WOW tbqhwy that is a flex. her and in-kyung’s rship affects me in a weird way—in a good weird way—though i dislike her ideology, mentality, and giving up.
this is an interesting and good drama and i’m glad it’s short. i’m beyond glad there’s a lack of flashbacks that aren’t stylistically well done (they don’t reall exist at all beyond cutaways or to add to the meat of the story with in/out of camera effects and shots that establish what we are looking at but it’s not a direct flashback to the scene lit 2s before) and the music is well placed. there is a lot of it but i enjoy the spotting a lot actually and even though the music is pretty frequent it is gorgeous and supportive. there’s something good and special (to me) about this drama. it amkes me want to go slow, get angry, cry, and fight. it’s a shame that in-joo herself isn’t more dynamic and i think that’s the biggest detriment but it doesn’t mean i’m not drawn to it because everyone around her makes it up.
the show is hilarious, extremely well-made, well-edited, amazing music, amazing cast, amazing story—with flaws!—but there's so much depth and commentary and hilarity and philosophy and life-affirmation in every ep. it's a shame to me that it doesn't stick like that to some people but i have no idea how to tell people how to approach it at another angle because the show wants us to let go of our pre-conceived notions of what it should be and even what we should want. and this is a cinematic show because she is versed in cinema and needed it to be cinema. you can TELL.
if anything i, or other commenters who liked the show, has said to make you waffle or if you're thinking of it: DO IT. if this sounds appealing you may not like it, or love it, or feel neutral but you may end up loving it like so many of us do.
also we should talk about how uhm ji won is demolishing it. this character is fuckin crazy i love it. they all are. her and uhm ki joong are hot af together but to be expected frm the writer who can just ramp that sexual tension UP in some violent times
i appreciate that this is an ACTUAL drug on korean tv though ; they've gotten better and better at it bu weed is not some class a narcotic and i'm assuming meth, heroin, painkillers, potentially xanax/benzos—really addictive things—wouldn't be as stylistic in the show (nor would i want it to be something like this for this reason; the orchid thing is a great addition particularly since vegetation/plants are such an integral part of that pastoral(? right word?) american landscape in little women—in the backdrop of fighting for abolition in the real world of the story) i just appreciate the shifting landscape and talk of drugs in k-dramas because i think the world has come too far to give false ideas that alcohol is good (which this show doesn't, obviously) and shit like fucking weed, comparatively, is bad. HOWEVERRRR hallucinogens aren't these terrible things either. i'm wondering if they (the orchids) are more akin to opiates in this world instead of it being like acid/lsd/shrooms. these things do not kill you.
i hope this makes sense but i hate drug demonization which really means drug/alcohol addiction/dependence shaming for those who partake. and just incredibly punitive and disgusting laws to punish the lowest rings of society for partaking or selling in such unlike those up here in high society.
the biggest thing i love that i won't cover is how blurry this show about lines of romance/love/sexual attraction because GORLS............real hot girl [queer] shit. i'm not kidding look at this writer's track record—btw if you liked handmaiden you should watch the truth beneath bc she co-wrote it and the director (lee kyung-mi) is 100% an icon; the director is a protege of park chan wook and into feminist/socialist and women and queerness and our close confusing rships with men, gender roles, the very concept of gender, CLASS, morality. they are all evident here! i didn't like vincenzo at all and found it empty but i think this director is also doing a good job!
(will continue longer cmmnt in spoiler comment b-low u have been warned)....