Little Women (2022)

It was good but it could have been great!

A solid 8/10 for me.

General Remarks:
Excellent writing, brilliant acting and a suspenseful story that keeps you on your toes.

1. Story about 3 sisters with absentee parents.
2. A mystery surrounding a girl who stole 70 billion won and left it in the account of one of the sisters before she was killed.
3. Main focus is one of the sisters trying to find out what happened to her friend and why she was killed.
4. Characters mysteriously being killed and willing to go to their graves to find this stolen money.
5. The interconnected storylines and drama in each of the sister's and their enemies lives.
6. Mystery behind the blue ghost orchid and the people wrapped up in a society that pledges their lives to it.

Let's start with the positives:

I really enjoyed the storylines of all the sisters. I felt like In Joo and In Kyung always had to be so strong for In Hye and tried their best to take care of and provide for In Hye because of again. absent parents.

I thought the plot was amazing and unlike any other drama I had ever seen or watched. I didn't know so much about orchids and I thought it was refreshing to see a show centered around a rare species of orchid (the orchid of death) and the whole group of people wrapped up in the organization.

I found In Joo battling what to do with all that money to be a realistic portrayal because really and truly most persons wouldn't know where to begin if that amount of money somehow fell into their hands.

I like how everyone's storyline became interconnected and it was like each character was serving a greater purpose in Song-A's "play" of sorts. They were all like her little dolls and she basically called all the shots. At first I was led to believe that she was being forced and coerced by Park Jae Sang but soon it became apparent that everything she was doing was a ruse. She believed herself to be an actress and presented herself differently to each person. Each person was treated like a new canvas or stage of sorts.

Personally I think Sang A was the most interesting character because she was a truly evil serial killer / psychopath. She had no qualms or regard for other people or their feelings (typical sociopath behavior). Finally, a villain being a true villain without any regretful backstory as to why they became that way. Song A was just born that way and though they tried to justify her actions by saying she killed her mom on accident and was living with the guilt and the trauma in her "closed room" (ie. the door that she never opened) Imo her recreating that tragedy was sooooo sick and I loved every minute of it. She was downright horrible and at a point I believed she was going to try and take everything away from both In Joo and In Kyung. I thought In Hye would have never escaped her and she was gonna get rid of Hyo Rin and mold In Hye in her image – creating the perfect daughter. Thank god that didn't happen though!

In Joo and Do Il left much to be wanted at the end – I am disappointed that we did't even get a kiss or a hug lol! The chemistry was there and despite everything they went through you could feel the sheer care they developed for one another. They may not have ended up together but I believe important lessons we learned. No amount of money in the world could make In Joo happy / satisfied and that she would give it all up in a heart beat to protect her sisters and the people she truly loves and cares about. Through In Joo, Do Il too realized that there are some people worth fighting for and more important than money.

I never thought In Kyung would give Jong Ho a chance but I lwas literally so happy at the end when they finally got together and admitted their feelings for one another.

Though In Hye was a really complicated character I thought her message at the end was sweet and behind her depressive and cold hearted exterior was a troubled teenager with a heart. She did care for In Joo and In Kyung but just had a sh*tty way of showing it. Her message to her sisters was sweet and I could kind of understand her reasoning for being distant and wanting to find herself first before appearing in front of them again. Even though she appreciated all the sacrifices they made for her in her life she needed to go her own way and find independence.

Negatives:

I could not stand their mother. She was awful and didn't give a singular f*ck about her kids and it was so infuriating to watch. She took her daughters field trip money and just ran away with the sh*tty excuse that In Hye is young and has so many opportunities to travel and that she needs to go now because she's "old" essentially. That was just soooo absurd to me considering the fact that the mother knew damn well that was In Hye's dream and the thing that would make her the happiest????? Imo she stifled those poor girls and was not fit to be a parent, not to mention their good for nothing father who the mother ran away to help and barely heard from ever since. In Joo and In Kyung practically raised themselves with the help of the great aunt who raised in Kyung for a while and then them turning around and raising In Hye.

I found In Hye to be ungrateful and selfish and the fact that she chose to find herself and travel the world with her friend rather than stay with her sisters even when the danger was eminent left me shocked.

I wish In Kyung's alcoholism was tackled more and we could see her path to recovery not like she just woke up and magically got over it. It's a touchy subject yes but I feel like many people struggle with alcoholism and it would've been nice to see a kdrama tackle such an important issue in the midst of all the mystery and chaos going on.

I wish we saw more character development but I understand it was hard to do so in 12 episodes.

I thought the last episode was rushed but again it was hard to fit everything into 12 episodes. I felt like Sang A died a quick and mildly painful death but she deserved to suffer wayyy more for her crimes... so it was upsetting seeing her die without having to atone for any of it while Hwa Young was badly burnt, survived and still had to go to prison. Imo Hwa Young has mental issues that also need to be taken care of because I don't know how someone can endure all that + their fake death and still be mentally sound. Also I am not sure how I feel about her getting involved in another gardening program (like especially if it has anything to do with orchids) like that was strange and it gave me the creeps. Hwa Young has the perfect demeanor and makings to be a villain / antagonist so it would be interesting to see her character arc in S2 (if there is one) Honestly I feel like she wasn't able to fully get her revenge and have peace of mind so I kinda do hope if there is S2 that opportunity presents itself.

Final Remarks:

Kim Go Eun really puts so much into her acting and you can feel that translate across the screen no matter what role she undertakes. Wi Ha Joon's character was mysterious and throughout watching I couldn't quite place him. Was he evil or was he good? It became clear that he was a morally grey character (which I ate up btw) essentially a wildcard that could swing either way depending on the situation.

I hope there is season 2 with a whole other mystery that the sisters are swept up in. Maybe this time it can start with In Hye and her friend Hyo Rin and then the others have to help save her. I would also love Hwa Young to make a reappearance and help them from prison if she can or this mystery finally frees her as we meet an even bigger contender / mastermind than Sang A was.

I liked it so much as I am still thinking about it and wishing there was more even though it's finished. I would definitely recommend it to others :)

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a good show with a weak ending

I really enjoyed watching 'little women'.
I was hooked from the first episode and watched until the end as the story was interesting, several of my favourite actresses were in it and I liked the general vibe.
It was mysterious with all the orchid business, you could easily empathise with the three sisters, with some more and some less though - and tension built up nicely for the final episodes. There where some storyline weaknesses before but I was able to ignore them, sadly not so in the final episode.
So whatever happened then? Was this another drama that was short cut from 16 to 12 episodes? Was there not enough time left to write a good final episode?
This final episode had severe logic weaknesses and they were just left unsolved to give the show some kind of happy end.
So what bothered me was:

1. So what was all that satisfactory scene when reporter Oh In-Kyung could finally prove that Won Sang-A is a devilsih murderder? She has CCTV matierial showing Won Sang-A brutally mudering a person. And after that? No police goes immediately to arrest Won Sang-A, instead she can joyfully go to the hospital and kill that old man who gave her away, in front of a nurse witnessing this? Still no police. Time passes and she then has time to stage all that final scene under the orchid tree in her cellar. Still no one arresting her while the incriminating material of her being a murderer was on live TV probably two days earlier?
So she can manage to abduct Jin Hwa-Young, and lure Oh In-joo into that cellar too, still no police at her house arresting her?
That was so nonsensical and made that reporting and proof of Oh In Kyung totally useless.

2. So Won Sang-A then had enough time to prepare the sprinklers with acid. Ok. So she turns on the sprinklers and the acid dircetly hits Jin Hwa-Young being bound to that chair, and the pure acid drops hit her for quite some time, she is screaming on and on, but nothing really happens to her, she is not really hurt by the pure acid drops.
Then in a twist of actions Won Sang-A falls into the pond under the orchid tree and - suddenly burns completely in huge blisters from the acid? How?
If the pure drops of acid did not harm Jin Hwa-Young for quite some time, why would the water, only containing a few drops of acid totally burn Won Sang-A if she falls in there?
That was even more nonsensical as nothing would have happened to Won Sang-A falling into that pond, it would just have been water with acid so thinned out that nothing would have happened to her.

3. I'm always in for a happy end but also that was questionable. So the youngest sister gives a lot of money to her older sisters out of gratitude. That is a nice gesture and I would have loved to just see it as that.
But, Oh In-Joo was just convicted with serious money matters and is on probation for the next years. Does anyone really think the authorities would not check on her if she suddenly had 23 million Dollars in her account? No way would they have left her untouched and the whole trouble would have begun again, her youngest sister then being a suspect and internationally sought for.
Also the two young girls were travelling with their real passports and real names, it would be very easy to track them down as long as they wouldn't have fake identities. (and they didn't as Park Hyo-rin needed to use her real name to achive all that money at her becoming aif age)

4. And what happened to Go Su-Im? Is she also still roaming free? If so, wouldn't she try to harm the three sisters still?

I found this to be such a good show until this final episode which seemed hushed and not thought through. The focus was on creating this final scene under the orchid tree without considering the rest of the before given circumstances and the fact that Won Sang-A would never have had the chance to do all that because shortly after the live TV airing of her mudering someone the police would have taken her.

So, this annoyed me so much that my rating weng down from 8,5 to 7.0.
I wish the producers of the dramas could manage to not hush the last episode and storyline like that (and it's not the first time this is happening) for the sake of logic and common sense that totally goes overboard in this final episode here.

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