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imaginariaextraordinaire · 2 years

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I love Little Women to the moon and back, but the way writer Jung Seo-kyung has chosen to wrap up the story of Jeongran Society and the Oh sisters in the last episode just did not land for me.

(Me to Writer-nim)

Little Women is still one of my favourite dramas of the year though and Jung's writing is the stuff of dreams because she makes you think. I guess the reason I've found it dissatisfying is not so much because of the storytelling as a difference in worldview.

But before that, I want to quickly jot down some of the things I've loved about Little Women. Because despite my reservations about the explanations given and decisions made by Jung in the final episode, it's still one of the most beautiful shows I've seen, both in terms of writing and direction.

<3 Kim Go-eun and Uhm Ji-won

The acting in this show in general is excellent, but these two ladies are in a league of their own. Kim Go-eun is on song as In-joo, switching with elegant ease from heartrending emotion to adorable comedy. Every time she is on screen, you can't look away from her and she's so incredibly natural as In-joo, you'd be forgiven for thinking Kim is just playing herself. Her face-off is with Sang-a, played with chilling charisma by Uhm Ji-won. Sang-a is one of the most interesting villains I've come across and while she's written with a lot of care and complexity, Uhm really gives her depth with her acting. Much of Sang-a's most compelling moments are without dialogues, with Uhm communicating a range of emotions, from suppressed guilt to manic fury, with her face. Which is not to suggest her voice acting is lacking in any way. The way she uses a saccharine-sweet higher-pitched voice to show Sang-a at her cruellest is deeply unsettling. Sweetness has never been so bitter as it is in Sang-a.

("We'll make a wonderful pair.")

Every time these two ladies come face to face, tension thickens the air. I thought nothing would top the moment when In-joo pulls that gun on Sang-a in Singapore, but I was wrong. The scene in the prison, when In-joo breaks down and Sang-a relishes that sight is one of the most glorious displays of acting, with both actors killing that scene.

<3 The Oh sisters' relationship

There's something really heartwarming about a relationship between siblings who don't crowd one another. Although I do feel In-hye got shortchanged — not only does she conveniently disappear from the story at regular intervals so that her older sisters are free to go on their adventures, it's a bit mad how easily In-kyung and In-hye let her stay with the Park family's lair despite knowing the family is villainous — I loved the way In-hye is shown as someone of few words and big actions. It's natural that there would be a distance between her and the other two sisters, particularly since there is a big age gap.

In-hye and In-kyung's relationship was one of the brightest parts of this drama. The two sisters are so different and so supportive of one another. You can feel the closeness between them through scenes that are full of everyday intimacies, like the one in which they're having ice cream or when they're eating together at the table. It's also articulated through their big actions — In-kyung giving up the ledgers to save In-joo; her doing everything she can to expose Sang-a when In-hye is sent to jail; In-joo agreeing to be beaten to pulp; In-joo's determination to provide for In-kyung (and In-hye).

It's an absolute joy.

<3 Park Jae-sang and Sang-a's messed up marriage

This is one of the weirdest and twisted sub-plots in a drama full of twisted people. Sang-a chooses Jae-sang as her partner because he is tipped to lead Jeongran Society. Jae-sang says he loves her, but he also beats her. Sang-a seems to be trapped with him, but she's also horrible to him — she never lets him forget he's the chauffeur's son and therefore beneath her — and ultimately, it seems she's the dominant one in the relationship. There's a desperate darkness to their relationship, with both of them deliberately provoking one another and each one of them wielding a different kind of power over the other. They're equal in their awfulness, though ultimately she proves to be the dominant one.

I felt an uncomfortable parallel between the way Jae-sang and Sang-a's relationship unfolded and In-joo and Do-il's relationship. Much like Jae-sang is in love with Sang-a but also does his best to control her, Do-il is whipped for In-joo — a detail that's obvious only to the psychopathic henchwoman Ms. Go — and tries to manage In-joo's life. Do-il's intentions aren't villainous, but there are a number of occasions when he acts on In-joo's behalf without consulting her. Like, for instance, when he enacts that elaborate ruse about his father's death. He's ready to trust Jong-ho and In-kyung with his plan, but not In-joo, which is troubling. He also doesn't tell her what he's planning with the money or his travel plans, which, again, you'd expect he would do.

<3 Jong-ho and In-kyung's romance

It's so damn nice to see a relationship in which the man is happy to be the supportive sidekick to a brilliant woman. I liked how Jung developed this relationship slowly, without falling back on any of the usual romantic tropes. The honesty and trust that these two have for one another is such a welcome contrast and heartwarming too. One of the sweetest moments in Little Women was when Jong-ho rushes to hug In-kyung after she's been missing. The loveliest part of this relationship is that Jong-ho doesn't feel threatened or emasculated by In-kyung's excellence. A man who is confident of himself and as the drama unfolds, you see that In-kyung starts to really see him and respect him. A relationship that is rooted in mutual respect — that's the ultimate turn-on.

<3 The way Little Women looks

Having seen the way famous works from classical European art and music were used in Vincenzo, I'm convinced director Kim Hee-won's the reason the art, music and visuals of Little Women are as exquisite as they are. Whether it's those incredible top shots that show the world like an animated chessboard, or the way she films the back of a character's head to show her place in a scene, this drama is visual poetry. Little Women is mesmerisingly beautiful, thanks to its amazing cinematography and production design. For me, as ominous as those blue orchids are, it's the closed room that is the stuff of nightmares. Both the miniature that is Sang-a's graduation project and also the full-size one which is effectively a tomb to the memory of Sang-a's mother.

There's more, but let me just jump to the conclusion and episode 12. I was really hoping that the final episode will give me a better sense of what Jeongran Society's aims were and how it meant to achieve those aims. This didn't happen. It's not that there's no explanation and the sense of being soldiers who discover they are only paws and feel betrayed by the motherland is very interesting, but it's only a passing reference. Most importantly, this doesn't really explain how Jeongran became this many-tentacled monster. In some ways, the organisation reminded me of the mafia organisation in Big Mouth, which also didn't bother to explain how it worked and why it commanded the kind of loyalty it did.

The central premise of Jeongran Society seems to be that you can pretty much buy any poor person if you offer them opportunities. Not only is that a rather cynical view of things, it's also hard to believe that no one before the Oh sisters presented a counter to this worldview. Ultimately, the show suggests the poor have no dignity or sense of spine — that's the foundation of Jeongran Society's strategy — and that's disappointing.

For a show that seemed somewhat critical of capitalism and unethical profits initially, Little Women ended as deeply enamoured of ill-gotten riches. EDITED TO ADD: I can't believe I forgot to write about the most reprehensible example of this — Hwa-young using a suicidal person as her stand-in. What's her justification for turning a disturbed and hurting person's suffering to her own profit? "She wanted to die without anyone finding out and wanted to leave behind a small amount of money for her family," Hwa-young says at the press conference. This is not assisted suicide. This is Hwa-young capitalising on and profiting from another person's trauma. She buys a woman for "a small amount of money" and uses her as a pawn in an elaborate scheme. I'm appalled that a writer as gifted and sensitive as Jung thought this was acceptable. It's evident that it sees no problem with Hwa-young's decision to use a suicidal person as a tool. It's as though she's bought the right to strip a person of their humanity and personhood with that small amount of money.

By the end, money is all that matters all around in Little Women. What the show emphasised is that all three sisters have become wealthy. It's not a choice that they made — as their great aunt (another fabulous character) had — but something that they get by effectively a twist of fate (Hyo-rin coming of age. It's wealth that's stained with the blood of others and comes to her on the back of being orphaned, but the show doesn't allow her any space to grieve her parents' death) and the show seems to suggest being wealthy adds to their worth. For me, I would have preferred to see the Oh sisters living proudly and working to be independent, happy to not be rich and to have enough to do the things they want to in life — like buy that winter coat, and not have to hesitate before walking into a fancy restaurant.

It's also disappointing that In-joo is the only one who doesn't get to be with someone (Choi Do-il's promise of seeing her again notwithstanding). If the point was to suggest that In-joo is now someone who will now live for herself, rather than constantly thinking of herself in relation to someone else, it's one that feels unconvincing. Caring for others is just a part of who In-joo is and rather than suggesting a woman (particularly a divorced woman) can have either her independence or love, it would have been nice to let In-joo have both.

The most dissatisfying part of Little Women though is the way Jung wrapped up the sub-plot of the crimes associated with Jeongran Society. We get no explanation for what Park Jae-sang was doing at Hwa-young's apartment the night of the murder. We don't get a proper explanation for why Jeongran Society — despite being a secretive organisation — goes around advertising itself with blue orchids at the sites where they've killed someone. That seems entirely counter-intuitive. Or why all those other members willingly sacrificed themselves. Perhaps the most perplexing is Jae-sang's murder. Why did Sang-a need him to kill himself when he was very much en route to becoming a political leader (which was, presumably, part of Jeongran Society's agenda)? It's not like she joined the political fray to milk public sympathy after his death. Practically all of Sang-a's power came from being Jae-sang's wife. So why get rid of him? How does it benefit her? We're supposed to believe that a woman who manically, meticulously and morbidly stages people's lives (and deaths) to entertain herself would have impulsively asked her husband to die? Equally importantly, why did Jae-sang agree to her request? To say it's because he loved her is too simplistic. It's been suggested in the past that he's locked her up, that he's beaten her, that he's drugged her — all these things were done for very minor reasons. After all that, when she presents him with a blue orchid, he doesn't object? Despite being the head of Jeongran Society? It makes no sense.

So yeah, this last episode didn't do much for me and I'm sad that a story that is so well-written for most part has such a half-baked conclusion.

Sigh. I still have a Little Women-shaped hole in my heart though, now that the show is over.

#little women 2022 #Kdrama #Kim Hee-won #Jung Seo-kyung #Kim Go-eun #Uhm Ji-won #women directors

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