Review of Little Women / 작은 아씨들

I don’t know where I first saw the trailer or stills of Little Women, or how I found out about it, but I remember this: when I saw who was in the cast, I knew I had to watch it immediately.

I knew Kim Go-eun from several of her dramas and film work, I thought that Nam Ji-hyun was the best part of shows like Suspicious Partner, and Park Ji-hu was in one of my favorite movies of all time: House of Hummingbird.

I was also very interested in how all the leads are female, because coming from a context of Korean television and gender politics, having a female-focused show like this is so critical if done right.

So I ended up watching all of Little Women across the course of a week, which wasn’t hard because the series is only twelve episodes long. When I say I was hooked on this drama, I was hooked.

I thought that it works well as a thriller slash mystery, and that it ends up being sustained throughout the episodes. If it were longer, I probably wouldn’t have been captivated as much as I was. And the acting? Brilliant.

Let’s dive into this review, shall we?

Three sisters become tangled up in the dark underbelly of poverty and what it takes to get money.

Little Women centers on the experiences of three sisters who are living in poverty.

One is a high schooler and is seriously talented at art, another is a journalist trying to crack the scoop when it comes to local corruption, and the final sister has just lost her job and is scrambling for money to help provide for the others.

But when her coworker commits suicide and she discovers a bag full of cash, it ends up sucking all of them into a world they cannot escape from.

The eldest sister is constantly around a man (Wi Ha-jun from Squid Game) that seems to have ulterior motives, and it turns out her coworker’s death might not have been a suicide as it was presumed originally.

The middle sister finds her journalism career in the dumps when it turns out the corruption she’s investigating is connected to the money, while the youngest sister becomes good friends with the wealthy family involved in all of this.

What ends up happening throughout the show is a bit of a sick game that ends up being played throughout the series. The show gets darker and it progresses through the plot points, and when it comes to the final explosion, it ends up happening with a great big bang.

While this post isn’t my typical synopsis one, as I think this is a show that you really have to see to understand, I think the writing in it is gorgeous throughout.

Each of the main characters has a motivation, and the actresses play well into the strengths of the characters. They also really feel like sisters throughout as well, which makes it even more believable when things get worse for them that these are just fights and arguments that will pass with the storm.

The visual components also add an interesting layer to how things unfold, as well as the characters venturing to other locations abroad to thicken the mystery elements of the plot.

This is based on the classic novel Little Women, and if you’re read the original, the references are pretty subtle. The themes are lifted a bit from the original, so I’d say this is a pretty original adaptation. I do remember reading that the Vietnamese government was upset due to the inaccurate references during the Vietnamese War.

A key plot point throughout the show is that quite a few characters are connected due a single squad during the war, but the history mentioned in the show is a bit iffy.

Overall Thoughts

If you can’t tell this show is right up my alley. It’s dark, it’s mysterious and moody, and it’s got the elements of a thriller.

Combined with three strong female leads with excellent acting, that makes it a great Korean drama in my book. I think that if you haven’t watched it already, go ahead and do so while you can.

Lots to think about when it comes to socioeconomic divides in a multinational context, and I thought that I came out of the show with quite a bit to contemplate afterwards. Not a classic for me, but still a good drama.

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