Vietnam Orders Netflix to Remove ‘Little Women’ K-Drama for “War Distortion”

Vietnam state media stated last October 5 that they are requesting video streaming platform giant Netflix to remove Little Women and Korean Drama series due to the distortion of events of the Vietnam War.

Discussion and controversy related to the series and issue began on the eight episode in which a South Korean war veteran was seen bragging the "kill-to-death" ratio of 20:1 between the Korean troops and the Viet Cong. Meaning 20 Vietnamese killed for one dead Korean soldier.

Between 1964 to 1973, more than 320,000 South Koreans were sent to Vietnam to fight along United States soldiers, facing allegation that they have committed massive murders of innocent Vietnamese citizens. It's not been mentioned accurately of how many North Vietnamese soldiers were killed by South Korean soldiers during the said war.

The Vietnam's Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic information have sent a letter to Netflix, informing them that they have violated the Vietnam law of "distorting history, denying revolutionary, achievements, offending the nation and the nation's heroes." They also added that Little Women "conveyed dialogues between characters that praised the crime of Korean mercenaries" that happened during the war. They requested that Netflix should remove the by Wednesday, October 5. A report confirmed that the series was still available for streaming on the platform as of the afternoon of that day.

As of press time, the streaming service has not yet released a statement in relation to the issue. This is not the first time that Netflix had faced such as issue as in 2020, the platform had to remove three series from its library in Vietnam after receiving complains from the local authorities over "violating the country's sovereignty."

The Little Women K-Drama series was loosely based on the novel of the same name created Louisa May Alcott.