ザラ Notes: 꽃보다 누나 Noonas Over Flowers

18 January 2014

꽃보다 누나 Noonas Over Flowers

Title: 꽃보다 누나 Kgotboda Noona
English Title:

Noona Over Flowers (Noonas Over Flowers)
Older Sisters Over Flowers
Sisters Over Flowers

Country: South Korea
Language: Korean
Year: 2013-2014
Episode:

season 01 - 08 episodes

Cast:

윤여정 Yoon Yeo Jung
김자옥 Kim Ja Ok
김희애 Kim Hee Ae
이미연 Lee Mi Yeon
이승기 Lee Seung Gi

SYNOPSIS
Noona Yeon Yeo Jung, Kim Ja Ok, Kim Hee Ae, and Lee Mi Yeon travel abroad together.

To help the four noona in their travels, actor Lee Seung Gi tags along to be their porter, translator, tour guide, and overall person-in-charge.

They go to Turkey and Croatia for the first season.

REVIEW
Noona Over Flowers or Sisters Over Flowers is the follow-up to 꽃보다 할배 Grandpas Over Flowers; it has a similar concept but with different cast members. Noona is a term used by Korean men for their older sisters or any woman who is older but the term is loosely used here as some of the cast members are much older than actor Lee Seung Gi so it is not appropriate for him to actually call them noona.

I'm quite impressed that actresses Yeon Yeo Jung, Kim Ja Ok, Kim Hee Ae, and Lee Mi Yeon agreed to do the show, especially since they all have no experience with doing variety shows. I don't know if I would be willing to travel while having to deal with a camera on me for what seems to be 24/7.

There's a curious mix of personalities as well this time around; the two older noona are like polar opposites with the older one dominant and the younger one laid back, and the two younger noona are the same with the older one ladylike and the younger one tomboyish. It's also fascinating how much the age hierarchy factors in on each person's role in the group and influences how each person relates to the other people in the group.

Much of the entertainment is brought about by the youngest Seung Gi. I initially wondered how the show would be entertaining considering that he knew what he signed up for but watching him as he struggled to do his job, I thought it's a good thing that he sort of knew what he was getting into and I imagine he would be so much worse without any mental preparation whatsoever.

I think Seung Gi is smart and capable so perhaps he is just inexperienced with traveling and maybe he is not used to being responsible for other people. He also has this weird personality trait on focusing on some things so closely that he loses track of looking at the bigger picture and addressing the more important matters.

I liked how the actresses talked about working in their field at different ages, particularly the difficulties of getting lead roles and good characters when they are getting on in age. I think it's difficult for women to keep working especially when they are also taking care of family obligations, but there is much more strain on women who works in fields where beauty, physical attributes, and age are deciding factors for good job opportunities.