The wait for ‘All of Us Are Dead’ season 2 will be long, but another K-drama is a great alternative. The Netflix series will not return until 2025, its last broadcast dating from January 2022. In season 1, the casting of “All of Us Are Dead” was one of the major assets of the K-drama, highlighting many promising young talents.
Park Ji-hu proved to be an exceptional actress, playing Nam On-jo, an ordinary student trying to survive a zombie invasion at her high school. Although the actress is still relatively new, with only a few roles under her belt, she is already a rising star. In particular, Park Ji-hu shows off her versatility in her lead role in Netflix’s 2022 mystery series “Little Women,” which is worth checking out while waiting for “All of Us Are Dead” season 2. .
‘Little Women’ stars include ‘All Of Us Are Dead’ actress Park Ji-hu as On-jo
“Little Women” is a 12-episode thriller series set in contemporary South Korea. This K-drama focuses on the lives of three sisters: Oh In-joo (Kim Go-eun), Oh In-kyung (Nam Ji-hyun), and Oh In-hye (Park Ji-hu). The Oh sisters grew up poor, but their lives change dramatically when one of them appears to inherit 70 billion won (approximately US$51 million). Quickly, they find themselves involved in a powerful family linked to this fortune. Like Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite,” Netflix’s “Little Women” explores wealth inequality in Korea and the consequences of the blind pursuit of money on individuals and families.
The youngest sister in “Little Women,” In-hye, played by Park, plays a crucial role as an astute but sometimes naive high school student with an enviable talent for art. This gift attracts the attention of the powerful Won family, whose daughter, Park Hyo-rin (Jeon Chae-eun), becomes friends with In-hye and draws her deeper into the intrigues of this chaebol family.
Comparison of “Little Women” to the different adaptations of Louisa May Alcott’s coming-of-age novel
Louisa May Alcott’s coming-of-age novel, published in 1868, Little Women, has inspired numerous adaptations in various forms: films, television series, anime, plays and musicals. Each adaptation brings a unique take on the themes and characters of the classic novel; some are much more faithful to the original material than others. In 2019, “Barbie” writer-director Greta Gerwig received praise for her relatively faithful adaptation of “Little Women,” which, like many film and television versions of the novel, is set in the 1860s, in Alcott’s time.
Another beloved adaptation of “Little Women” was released in 1994. Gillian Armstrong’s film featured a star-studded cast, including Winona Ryder, Susan Sarandon and Christian Bale. Like Gerwig’s version, the 1994 film was set in the 1860s, stayed true to the original material, and received critical acclaim, also receiving Academy Award nominations. Some argue that Gerwig’s adaptation is the better of the two. However, both films are widely loved and faithful to Alcott’s original novel.
The 2022 South Korean adaptation of “Little Women” is a significant departure from these period-accurate films and TV series. In fact, at first glance, there are very few similarities between this K-drama and Alcott’s novel. The setting, characters, and plot will all be unrecognizable to fans of the original book. What makes this adaptation smart and insightful is the way screenwriter Jeong Seo-kyeong builds the narrative around key themes from Alcott’s classic. Jeong uses the original material to explore income inequality and class struggles in modern, ultra-competitive South Korea.
“Little Women” represents one of Park Ji-hu’s best performances, alongside “All of Us Are Dead”
Although Park Ji-hu has a limited number of credits to her name, she has been able to forge a career playing interesting and complex characters. In the Netflix thriller series, “All of Us Are Dead,” Park brings a vulnerability that gives depth to the events. Similarly, in “Little Women”, she plays Oh In-hye, a resourceful teenager seeking emancipation from her overprotective sisters, while remaining naive in the world of the rich and powerful.
Through her roles in K-dramas like “Little Women” and “All of Us Are Dead,” it’s evident that Park Ji-hu has a bright future ahead of her. Apart from these roles, Park delivered an outstanding performance in the 2018 film, “House of Hummingbird”, where she won the Best Actress in a Narrative Feature Film award at the Tribeca Film Festival. All of the actress’ projects are worth discovering while waiting for season 2 of “All of Us Are Dead.”