Little Women (K-drama) banned in Vietnam

I recently recommended a Korean drama-series called Little Women and it wasn't long before I ended up finding out from someone who lives in Vietnam that the series wasn't appearing on his list at all. I found this odd seeing as how as popular as Korean cinema and series are to me here in the USA, it would almost certainly be even more popular in Asia and especially in countries that don't really have their own cinema scene.

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I thought maybe this user was an idiot so I decided to do some research about it and as it turns out, the series actually IS banned in the entire country of Vietnam. Why you ask? Is it drug use? Graphic sex scenes? too much swearing? Nope, it isn't any of these things but rather a couple of minutes out of the 12 hours that refer to the Vietnam / American war.

Little Women which is obviously pure fiction, mentions briefly a Korean soldier that worked as an operative of sorts in Vietnam during the war and he killed 100 Vietcong soldiers. It also has a fictional orchid that is placed at the scene of crimes that is called the "Ghost of Vietnam."

Vietnam first asked the producers of the show to eliminate the scenes but I would imagine that this wouldn't really be possible seeing as how all of the episodes were filmed quite a long time ago. Changing this to appease one nation especially when it comes to the orchids, which appear frequently and are a rather major part of the story, would be impossible. So Vietnam just decided to ban the show outright.

It turns out that Vietnam is actually quite sensitive as to how the country is portrayed in foreign films and this isn't the first time this banning has happened to a Korean show. A show that I have not seen called The Roundup was banned in Vietnam as well for presenting Ho Chi Minh city as being a lawless place. Well now I just want to see it more.

I still think that Little Women is definitely worth watching and if you live in Vietnam you will likely have to work a bit harder in order to be able to see this one. I've experienced some difficulty in finding it on torrent sites because there are so many other shows and movies that are already names "Little Women." You guys and girls over there might just have to sit this one out. Don't worry though, there are plenty of other quality Korean series and movies that are available on Netflix to choose from.