[Ishani's Picks] Here's Why "Little Women" Excels At Creating The Perfectly Tense Mood

One of the most highly anticipated K-Dramas of 2022, "Little Women", has premiered to excellent ratings and responses from viewers worldwide. Within just 2 weeks, the drama has managed to conjure an eerie, dark and unstable environment that keeps brilliantly subverting our expectations at every turn. Here's how the drama creates this perfect mood.

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Spoiler Alert!

Trigger Warning: Suic*de

Starring Kim Go-eun, Nam Ji-hyun, Park Ji-hu, Wi Ha-jun, Kang Hoon & more, "Little Women" tells the story of 3 sisters from a poor family who somehow get involved in a slush fund conspiracy and must face off against almighty forces to hopefully make it out alive.

The drama starts on a hopeful note and goes downhill almost immediately as Oh In-joo (Kim Go-eun), the oldest sister, discovers the dead body of her best (and only) friend, suspects that it is a murder rather than suicide and finds herself in possession of her embezzled funds while Oh In-kyeong (Nam Ji-hyun), the middle sister, gets suspended for drinking on the job and Oh In-hye (Park Ji-hu), the youngest, decides to sell her painting to a rich family's daughter so that she can go to art school abroad. The chaos only intensifies when all of these separate events become related to the most influential family in South Korea, putting the Oh sisters in direct conflict with them.

Now, what makes "Little Women" so riveting and unnerving is the fact that it does not skimp on intensity and extremity. It pushes the envelope constantly, testing our limits with each scene. The violence is perturbing, but the camera doesn't pan away. The audience is made to face the vehement brutality until you feel compelled to look away. It is just then that the drama peppers the scene with heavy metaphors and symbolism, which you now have to make sense of.

You barely have time to process the sadism before you're thrust into a mystery. The moral ambiguity of the characters, especially Choi Do-il (Wi Ha-jun), is especially intimidating in this regard. The fast pace is exceptionally well-crafted, leaving one breathless until the very last scene.

Another aspect of the drama that makes it so delectably tense is the incredible cast and their extraordinary performance. Kim Go-eun is spectacular as the clueless yet determined Oh In-joo whereas Nam Ji-hyun radiantly champions the spirit of a journalist with a nose for the truth. She is strong, without a doubt, but we also see her lower her guard with Ha Jong-ho (Kang Hoon), which adds depth to her character. Similarly, Park Ji-hu superbly plays In-hye, whose naive but rebellious nature puts her in some complicated situations. A collective sense of trauma plagues the family, stemming from the death of their younger sister when she was a child, and even though In-hye wasn't born then, the haunting pain of the experience was passed down to her too. The characters are too human, which adds to the realism of the narrative and amplifies its effect on the audience.

With each episode ending on a point that leaves you curious and confused, I cannot wait to see where "Little Women" takes us next.

By Ishani Sarkar.

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"Little Women" is directed by Kim Hee-won-II, written by Jeong Seo-kyeong, and features Kim Go-eun, Nam Ji-hyun, Park Ji-hu, Kang Hoon, Jo Seung-yeon, Gong Min-jung. Broadcasting information in Korea: 2022/09/03~Now airing, Sat, Sun 21:10 on TVING, tvN.