The Little Nyonya (2020)

Dramatic Story & Characters

I was not interested in this drama at all when I first saw the poster, but then I stumbled across the OSTs for this drama and they sounded too good. So, I gave the drama a try and the first episode grabbed my attention. It was somewhat like your typical romance drama with the cliches and evil supporting characters, but it somehow kept me watching until the last episode. However, I did watch it with 1.5 speed the entire time with the occasional skip when the evil characters kept talking. Despite this, it was a good watch because of the love lines.

Be warned of spoilers below!


So, the good points were:
1. Cute chemistry between Ju Xiang and Yosuke, and Yue Niang and Chen Xi
2. Great OST to bring out the emotions
3. A decent plot that didn't get boring (sometimes..)
4. Good acting of main characters
5. The female characters who called out the traditions of women and marriage (charity, arranged marriage,etc)
6. Nicely shown Baba and Nyonya culture

Some bad points were how:
1. So many evil characters who were so hateful to the point that it was super annoying whenever they showed up on the screen- like why so many bad people ganging up on the main girl?? (Huang family men & women, Xiu Feng and Xiu Juan, Charlie Zhang & son, etc)
2. The bad characters for a long time kept winning by bullying the female lead which got so tiring to watch; even though those characters eventually got their retribution
3. How the men were so weak in controlling the women while sometimes they just don't listen to the women
4. Some characters were so easy to manipulate (Zhen Zhu) or were too easily swayed by others' lies (Chen Xi's grandmother and his grandmother's servant- they keep trusting the bad people too easily?)
5. The ending could have been better even though it was mostly wrapped up; there were loose threads that were left unresolved and not mentioned again (Yue Niang's grandmother who was pushed down the stairs, Ju Xiang and Yue Niang being pushed off the ship by Huangs)
6. (my opinion) The evil characters did not get punished enough and were not apologetic nor remorseful; Yue Niang was too generous to them considering how poorly they treated her mom, grandmother, and herself. They never properly apologized to Yue Niang for their cruel treatment either, yet were so eager to accept her help when she was successful with her business, such as when she bought back their old Huang house.
7. Unrealistic, though it is a nice concept, how Yue Niang is forgiving and has a big heart but it just bothers me how they never apologized but she treats them like normal-- a family that treats you like that is not real family even if you have a kind heart (there are times when the line needs to be drawn).

Despite this, I would recommend this drama if you're interested in a dramatic kind of Cinderella story but you would need the 1.5 speed to help make this faster because it is 45 episodes.

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Highly recommend it and am glad I can find it on YouTube. I watched the original drama years ago when it was aired in Singapore. However, I still remembered parts of it. It is an interesting story based on the Straits Chinese living in Singapore and Malacca, and gives you insights into the customs and traditions practiced by this group of people during the days when Malaysia and Singapore were British colonies. The Straits Chinese were early Chinese migrants who had settled in South East Asia and had adopted a lot of local practices, developed their own distinctive Nonya cuisines, and spoke Malay/Indonesian and their own Chinese dialect. The ladies were known as Nonyas and the men Babas.

The story is a little more complex and less predictable. It is a departure from the typical Chinese and Korean dramas and will give you a refreshing new perspective away from these dramas. The original version is available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzSSMPsDiI4&list=PLgvSxx961Tt4KD4xApfD6E1u6NWI5bl0I

The original version was produced by Singapore Mediacorp and this review is based on that.

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Needed a bit more sunshine poking through all the storm clouds that was The Little Nyonya.

I enjoyed this, especially the first 12 episodes, but after that it was a series of "can it get any worse?" episodes where our FL is just battered and bruised along with ANYONE who was a decent person in the drama.
This is a show filled with (TONS of) bad guys triumphing for wayyyyy too long and worse, some of them never received their karma to match their crimes. Some do, true, but not enough in my humble opinion. Some received karma but only along with a heaping dose of "forgiveness" and a kind of happy end all because of the FL whom they not only tortured but had also previously tortured her mother AND grandmother. Ewww. They tortured THREE generations of our Fl's family. One villain in particular got some karma, but it wasn't even close to the evil she had done through all 44 episodes.
I felt the "pay off" of the final episode did not match the heartache of 44 straight episodes of torture.
There has to be some kind of balance in a drama like this one and there wasn't any in The Little Nyonya.
At least not enough for me to appreciate everything I had to just sit through.
I guess I expected a story here where the FL had a ton of trials and torture but she not only persevered through it, but triumphed over it, carving out her own destiny in the end. And while you can see that "kind of" was tacked on at the end, in my opinion it was too little too late and not done satisfactorily. Not at all.
All that being said... I didn't hate this show. I rather liked it. Kind of. The acting was great. Chemistry between some of t he characters was well done. I enjoyed the cooking and cultural bits, though I even wish it more heavily influenced the drama, but still it was okay.
But if you're here for romance... while the romance was OK in some instances... the majority of the "love plots" were more painful and destructive than anything else in my eyes. The bad (bad characters, bad romance, bad karma) well outweighed the good.
I just wanted a wee bit more sunshine poking through all the storm clouds that The Little Nyonya was as a drama. I wanted to see some triumph at the end of the torture and in the end, I didn't feel like I got that. At least not enough to make me (personally) happy.

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A bit biased, but my opinion

Story: Story was great and an improvement to the Singaporean version as it gives more depth than what the original provided. Character development was actually shown rather than skipped over.

Acting/Cast: My rating is more based on the cast as I personally feel the original would have been better in some roles. Though the chosen actors have done well in the portrayal of the character. A few example of casting downgrades(?) could be Chen Sheng, as the original actor was an actual Paranakan fluent in Malay and gives an added touch of realism. Liu Yi Dao's actor also don't really give off the butcher vibe, Tao Jie's original actress was also better in my opinion. Lastly, I feel weirded out by Xiang Yun taking on the role of Old Mdm Chen, when she took the role of Tian Lan in the original. Acting was great, but affected by the language barrier and lack of dialect. Though the Singaporean version also dilutes the variety of languages, this version takes it to the next level with less Malay, less English, less Dialect and more Mandarin. When English or Malay is needed, dubbing was used and was obvious to see.

Music: For me, the OST and the BGM were uncomparable to the original. Though nice and all, I don't see it truly connecting to Nyonya culture, as the original uses more Malay influence on the song to create the OST and BGM.

Rewatch Value: I liked the drama and all, but I don't see myself rewatching it. I prefer the Singaporean version and would likely choose the Singaporean over Chinese version. However, there might still be a possibility that I rewatch just for the added story and development..

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Moving

Excellent story telling. Well acted, well filmed. Sad and moving. Real life stories . Humans at their best and worse. Highly entertaining . Tge child acting is superb.
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I can’t recall episode bcos i watch in TV just the original one i watch all.

I really hope the ending in this remake will be the ending i hope not like the first one... I really hope.. not bcos the first one not best..it just make me feel..... hmm.. i think if you have seen the first one you will know... It really my hope.... i hope it will be different in the end of this remake since the first episode look different too....but the cast for this really perfect...Me as Malaysian watch it make proud..even this drama from Singapura but since it mention malacca already make me feel great..?? all the story line look like i in that story..The first make me angry, happy, sad.. this remake make me sad and angry...so I hope the ending will make me happy...

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