I have just finished watching Little Women (1994) and all I could think was, "Where have I been to not notice this movie???" Anyway, I have watched Little Women (2019) twice—first was back in 2020 and rewatched it earlier this year with my mom. However, I think the Little Women (1994) is so much much much better.

 

The dialogue choices, the characters depiction, the clothes, the setting, everything is what I am looking forward in a movie with 19^th century setting.

Here are several things that I want to point out from Little Women (1994). 

The movie depicted how Amy went to school, how Meg and John fell in love (in 1994 version, John was having more dialogues than in 2019 version, so I can understand why Meg fell in love with this man while the 2019 didn’t portray John that well), how Beth was such a soft person and always think about the others, how Jo became a writer and finally she could fall in love, and how Laurie was always tied to the March siblings. 

And also, can we talk about how Marmee was portrayed as such a strong women here? The dialogue where she wanted her daughters to be mindful and be confident with their minds instead of their looks, was really touching my heart.

 

The 1994 version showed Amy asking Jo’s permission to marry Laurie, showed Meg was having baby twins with her husband, showed Meg and Jo when they were invited for the first time to watch Opera together with Laurie and John, and showed Meg being flirty in a balroom dance because for the first time she could taste luxury but Laurie caught her being flirty towards the male guests and Laurie stopped Meg doing that because that didn’t seem like the real Meg. Ohhh Laurie…

 

More things about why I like Little Women is the whole movie tells how people was so connected back then, people could relied on each other as society, and people could be so close with people around them. I think that was such a rare thing in modern society. It's so different to nowadays because right now people seem disassociated. 

 

And everyone back then could remember a poetry, a prose from novels, and a whole dialogues from drama play.

Let’s talk about the characters. As the youngest, Amy was sassy since she was a kid. I like how the actress who play her as a child and an adult is different. Then, we talk about Beth. Beth was really soft, attentive, sweet, and lovable. When Mr. Lawrence gave her the piano, it was sooo heartwarming. I mean it was amazing how people back then was really connected, knowing their neighbours well, and very considerate to each other. Meg’s characters was also so clear. We can see what she really wanted—to be a wife, to have a family—since the beginning. The movie portrayed her character really well, very considerate toward her family, homely, and affectionate.

 

Then, let’s talk about Jo who is so passionate about writing. At first, she wrote stories like "vampires" and "sinner corpses" because she thought everyone liked that kind of stories. Until she met Friedrich and he gave Jo a courage to be more sincere and honest toward her writings and she finally wrote the Little Women.

And I liked Laurie better here. His character was not so pathetic like in the 2019 version. Instead—here—he was depicted as a little bit brat, cheeky, and really adoring all the March siblings (there was a dialogue between him and Amy when Laurie genuinely talked about his love for Jo, Meg, and Beth).

Now, I wanted to talk about the clothes. Yes, the 2019 version was having quite good clothes for the characters, but I think the 1994 has more historically-accurate clothes design. As someone who is keen of watching movie with 19^th century setting, I love seeing the women wearing gowns and bonnette. 

 

AND THE MARCH FAMILY HAD KITTENS. Why the 2019 didn’t show the kittens though?

 

The place setting and the colour gradation were also PERFECT (for me). The wardrobe and the house was verrryyyy well researched and well-suited for 19^th century movie setting. The movie was so esthetically pleasing for my eyes.

Well, I can list my favorite scenes from the Little Women 1994 (not in order):

• When they received a letter from their father and they read the letter together.
• When Laurie met Jo for the first time! Their silly dance was so real and funny! Laurie was so awkward oh I love him!
• When Amy was taken to aunt March’s house to quarantine because Beth got Scarlett’s fever and she was never had Scarlett’s fever before. And in the carriage, she laid her head on Laurie’s shoulders and said, “I don’t wanna die. I haven’t been kissed yet.”
• The deeptalk session between Marmie, Meg, and Jo.
• When Marmie was raged after Amy’s hand got hit by the teacher.
• Laurie’s love confession to Jo. Ohhh, I always love the yearning scene.
• When Laurie was lurking on the March family house when he was supposed to study.
• When Beth healed from the Scarlett’s fever.
• When they played pretend in the attic room and Jo invited Laurie all of sudden.
• When Meg got married to John.
• THAT SCENE when Laurie confessed to Amy, but Amy rejected it first because she thought Laurie was falling in love with Jo. And also that scene when Laurie hugged Amy from behind after they received the bad news from March house.
• When Jo got her first paycheck from writing and she said, “Finally, I could buy a new jacket for Beth!” (Oh Jo… I know that feeling when you want to buy nice things for your family after you get your paycheck!)
• When Jo read book for Beth…
• When Friedrich asked Jo to watch opera from behind the scene. It was so magical and romantic. 
• And the final scene when Jo was finally admitting she fell in love with Friedrich.

I like in the 1994 version, there was no scene when Jo wrote a confession letter to Laurie. Instead, in this movie, Amy was straight-forward asking Jo’s blessing to fall in love with Laurie and Jo was being sincere that she was happy Amy and Laurie became wife-husband. 

 

The sisterhood between Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy is very heartwarming. It felt so real and relatable. Between sisters, sometimes you want to fight them. But in the end of the day, a bond between sisters is stronger than anything else.

 

As someone who also likes writing, I think Jo is really resembling to me. Her passion to write really inspires me. I also want to write stories well, finish my book, and... I want to know how does it feel when your stories got read by someone and getting feedbacks.  :')

 

Wish I could watch this movie with my mom because back in January, we watched Little Women (2019) and we cried together after the movie ended hahaha. Fun fact, this movie also made my eyes bawling so many times. A simple scene between March siblings could make my eyes teary because their sisterhood is very heartwarming and touching my heart. To sum up, I love this movie so bad. It deserves infinity stars.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐