What a view | Netflix K-drama Little Women adapts 19th-century US novel with Kim Go-eun, Nam Ji-hyun and others putting in strong performances
- This Korean adaptation of the US novel, streaming on Netflix, is a modern-day thriller starring Kim Go-eun, Nam Ji-hyun and Park Ji-hu as sisters
- Meanwhile, on BBC Earth, Martin Clunes leaves his grumpy Doc Martin surgeon character to go island hopping in the Pacific
Classics of 19th century semi-autobiographical American literature reimagined as 21st century, domestically fraught, mystery-thriller Korean television shows are at a premium.
But having been widely adapted elsewhere for stage and screen, Little Women (Netflix, all episodes now available) has joined those slender ranks. And managed it with no little mastery of the form.
Strong performances throughout help. These begin in the opening scenes, in which sisters Oh In-joo (Kim Go-eun) and Oh In-kyung (Nam Ji-hyun) lament the poverty of their upbringing, before gallantly presenting younger sibling Oh In-hye (Park Ji-hu) with a birthday present they can’t afford.
It’s a wad of cash, intended to send the young painting prodigy on a school trip to culture-sodden Europe; but their envious, self-serving mother, Ahn Hee-yeon (Park Ji-young), has other ideas, vanishing into the night after stealing the 2.5 million won (US$1,750).
Although the elder sisters hardly look like they are short of cash (one is a television journalist, the other an accountant), they have long been saddled with the gambling and supplementary debts of their absent father. As ever, the women have been left to pick up the many pieces.