The mystery thriller Little Women has been removed from Netflix for viewers in Vietnam, in response to a request by Vietnamese authorities.
Little Women is a South Korean drama series that follows the story of three sisters who grew up in the lower-class of society and whose lives got entangled with one of the richest and most influential families of South Korea's elite class.
According to the report of Vietnam media outlet VnExpress, Vietnam’s Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information (ABEI) has requested the streaming platform to stop the airing of Little Women, which ranks sixth on Netflix's global chart, in Vietnam, alleging the K-drama presents misleading information about the Vietnam War.
VIOLATION
ABEI claimed the series has violated the country’s law against “distorting history, denying revolutionary achievements, and offending the nation and nation’s heroes” in its inaccurate statements about the Vietnam War.
The alleged violations are depicted in episodes three and eight, respectively, that mentioned the American war in Vietnam, which had more than 320, 000 Korean soldiers deployed to the country.
In the said episodes, a Korean military veteran brags about the kill-to-death ratio of Korean troops during the Vietnam War in 1967, killing Viet Cong on his mission.
Also cited by ABEI for being incorrect were the scenes involving a Korean general performing “distinguished military services” in the Vietnam War and bringing back the blue ghost orchid as well as another veteran stating that each Korean soldier killed 20 Vietnamese soldiers.
According to the Vietnamese newspaper Truoi Tre, as per the news site Bloomberg, it was determined that Little Women has broken Clause 4, Article 9 of the Vietnamese Press Law, also known as sovereignty law.
This law prohibits broadcast of information that may incite war, infringe upon Vietnam’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, distort history, deny revolutionary achievements or insult the nation.
THE PRODUCTION’S RESPONSE
Studio Dragon, which produced Little Women, issued an official statement on October 7, 2022, addressing its alleged misrepresentation of history in the series.
The production said via the Korean media outlet Soompi (published as is), “We are addressing the concerns regarding a portion of the [story] set-up covered in ‘Little Women.’ We will place more caution in societal and cultural sensitivity issues in future content production.”
The K-drama Netflix series Little Women is an adaptation of the classic novel of Louisa May Alcott, which was published in 1868.
The series, directed by Chung Seo-kyung and produced by Kim Hee-won, follows the travails of three impoverished sisters, Oh In Joo (Kim Go-eun), Oh In Kyung (Nam Ji-hyun) and Oh In Hye (Park Ji-hu).