My Liberation Notes Drama Review

Drama: My Liberation Notes (나의 해방일지)

Director: Kim Seok-yoon

Writer: Park Hae-young

Genre: Slice of Life

Cast: Kim Ji-won, Lee Min-ki, Son Suk-ku, Lee El, Chun Ho-jin, Lee Kyung-seong, Jeon Hye-jin, Han Sang-jo, Jo Min-kook, Jeon, Soo-jin, Oh Min-ae, Lee Ki-woo, Park Soo-young, Lee Ji-hye, Jung Soo-young, Kim Ro-sa, Kang Joo-ha, Choi Min-chul and others.

About the Show:-

The story is about three siblings, Gi-jeong, Chang-hee and Mi-jeong, in their 30’s living with their parents and a mysterious stranger in Sanpo village (fictional) in Gyeonggi-do, Seoul, who want to get away from their monotonous day-to-day lives and live a life full of freedom and contentment.

A stranger, calling himself Mr Gu, moves to Sanpo Village in Gyeonggi-do, to the neighbourhood where the Yeom siblings live. He starts helping their father in his woodwork and sink business and also lends the family a hand at farming during the weekends. He keeps to himself all the time, spending his nights drinking away. No one knows his past. Nobody would dare to ask him about it and he wouldn’t tell them beyond his surname. While Gi-jeong and Chang-hee are busy frustrated with their respective lives, Mi-jeong decides to befriend Mr Gu and get closer to him. A surprising outburst of frustration leads to the two finding solace in each other.

Gi-jeong, the oldest of the three siblings, in her late thirties and still living with her parents in the outskirts of Seoul is frustrated and displeased with her monotonous work life and lack of progress in her love life. How will she find a solution to her disappointments and maintain a balance between her personal and professional life?

Chang-hee, the middle child of the Yeom Family, in his thirties and still living with his parents and siblings in the outskirts of Seoul is frustrated with his dating life and work life always clashing and remains dissatisfied with all people around him. How will he find meaning to his life?

Mi-jeong, the youngest child, in her thirties as well and still living with her parents is the quietest one at home. She is going about with her life (being a pushover) almost always melancholic and frustrated by people toying with her emotions, honesty, loyalty and silence. Is there anyone out there who can make her forget the world and teach her to focus on just herself?

Mr Gu, the stranger who arrives at Sanpo village in Gyeonggi-do, hides his identity with the new world he now calls home. He spends all his weekdays helping out at the Siblings' father's woodwork and sink business and his weekends helping out with their farming. He spends all his nights staring at the mountains and drinking till he passes out. What is Mr Gu hiding about his past? What has he left behind and why is he starting a new life without revealing the truth?

As the four embark on their journey to finding freedom, letting go and being contended, they also experience loss, revelations and life beyond their comprehension.

(*This review may contain spoilers. If you have already watched the show, please continue reading. If you haven’t watched the show yet, you can still continue reading or you can come back to the review later.)

What I loved about the show and what I learnt from it:-

1) 해방' : liberation or freedom (pronounced haebang)
Isn't that a wonderful word, Haebang? The word itself sounds freeing and liberating. Haven't we all been through days like that? Aren't most of the people living life like that? Dreaming of being liberated. Dreaming of 해방 (haebang). Setting our lives free, breaking free from the shackles. Not that we were ever really tied to anything. All of us come into this world free, liberated and that's how we are supposed to live the rest of our lives. But the tangles come unannounced. It's easy to free ourselves from the knots, the traps, the mess, the attachments and the tangles yet why is it so difficult? You pull yourself out of one entanglement and you get yourself tangled into another.

2) Healing - Part of the process of being liberated is not very pretty too. It's unpleasant. The journey is full of pain and struggles. The recollections, the memories and the trauma that conjure up are all very heartbreaking but the end of the tunnel of the healing is full of light. But why is it so difficult?
Why are we humans making life so painfully laborious? Life is meant to be joyful and to enjoy the fruits of our hard work and efforts but why are we always drenched in agony. All of us dream of freedom and liberation but they are never supposed to be goals. They are supposed to be the armour that we come equipped with into this world . Instead we are on the lookout for haebang. Life is supposed to be liberating for all of us inside out, every second, every minute and every day. Instead why are we looking for collecting just five minutes of peace to survive, to make life bearable? How did we bring ourselves to this? When we humans are supposed to live United and in harmony with each other, how did we bring ourselves to the point where surviving with other humans is now unbearable? Why are we bringing out the worst in each other? How did we bring ourselves to this? Why are we more confined than liberated?

3) We are all stuck in this place, in this slump from where it seems impossible to come out. No matter how hard you try and no matter how long you wait, your time just doesn't seem to come. The world seems to just keep running, people are growing, the world is changing and everything is bigger and better and you are just glued to one place. We have all been there. The big world seems much bigger when you look at your small presence in it. Do we get to move from here? Do we get to be different? Do we get to change ourselves and the world around us? What do we need?
Faith, belief, hope, patience and prayer. The wait seems to go on forever. But if you know your purpose in this world and if you are willing to surrender to the universe/God/creator and wait with faith and patience, then you will be rewarded with your redemption.

4) When you are hurt and broken from the inside, no matter what the world does or says, you think it is against you. The world could say anything and you would be hurt. It's not the matter of the right words. The world is such. It is unfair and toxic and filled with a lot of hate. If we do not heal our broken selves then every day, every word and every person will feel like they are against us. We need to heal not for the world but for ourselves. We heal and the world seems brighter. The darkness of many years will come to disappear. We heal for the world to heal. One self-healed person is one less person to heal in this unhealed world. Now the world doesn't seem so dark anymore. The light that has been waiting to penetrate us is visible and ready.

5) 너만 힘들어? - Are you the only one having a hard time?
The most difficult and heartbreaking question.
When you ask someone if they are the only ones having a hard time, if they are the only ones suffering, you are taking away their pain. You are taking away their right to feel the pain. Everyone knows they are not the only ones suffering. But the pain and suffering is big and unbearable for them. We do not need to understand their pain. We need to just have compassion. "Compassion over comprehension" (Quoting Alok Vaid Menon from the Man Enough Podcast)
나만 아니라는 게 알아요. 그래도 힘들잖아요. 나한테 힘들다고요. 그것만 알아줬으면 좋겠어요. (I know that I’m not the only one suffering. I know it’s not just me. But it is still hard for me. It’s hard for me and I just want you to know and acknowledge that).

6) 짗었어요 - I am exhausted. The word is Korean is pronounced jitcheosseoyeo. It's sounds exactly as it feels. Exhausting.

7) Words hold great power. They have the ability to build someone and also break them.

8) My favourite scenes from the entire show- Mr Gu and Mi-jeong’s walks along the narrow path leading to Mi-jeong’s house. Every day they walk on the same street/the same path and yet the emotions and atmosphere of each walk are entirely different .

9) A relationship is a two way street.
My Queen Mi-jeong -
She asks Mr Gu to worship her. But she steals the show by asking Mr Gu if he wants to be worshiped as well. She says that he looks like someone who hasn't felt whole before too. So if she wants to be worshipped, so can he.
You know immediately that no person has ever made Mr Gu feel the way Mi-jeong has. She sees him and she understands him. She may not understand the reasons for his aloofness, for his withdrawals, and for his detached and unapproachable personality. But by asking him if he wants to be worshipped as well, she tells him that she sees him. He feels like he exists again. He knows now that his life has meaning, his existence has meaning. He is seen. He is visible. He is someone. That one question changed Mr Gu- do you want to be worshipped as well?
He thinks the world has turned it's back against him and the world thinks that it's the other way around. But Mi-jeong has given him clarity indirectly by saying that he is seen and his existence is real. His world turned around with just one question.

10) Mi-jeong's liberation starts when Mr Gu says 'go run'. 뛰라고 - I said run. It's like an assurance. It's like permission to run, to be free, to be liberated.

11) A) When you are around people, you want to live alone because of how much people exhaust you. And when you are finally alone, you feel the loneliness slowly creeping up on you and want people around you to drown the loneliness.

B) People sitting and working in the office want to get out and work in the open, close to nature. People running around outdoors for work want to sit in the calm atmosphere of an office/desk job. Each wants to live the life of the others. What we have for ourselves is always under appreciated.

12) “How do you worship someone?- Mr Gu
You cheer them on. You tell them they can do anything and that everything is possible. You cheer them on. - Mi-jeong "

13) 추앙해요/추앙하다 (chuang hada)- to worship/to respect/to look up to in high regard. Worship your work, worship your creator, worship your purpose, worship your life and worship your reason for existence.

The Actors, The Director and The Writer:-

'나의 해빙일지' or My Liberation Notes is a masterpiece. It is a drama above and beyond rating and ranking for me. It is a gift to me that I will cherish for the rest of my life.

It talks about life, difficulties, obstacles, entanglements, people, emotions, confinement, liberation, love, family, pain, loss, suffering and much more. It talks about life as we have made it and as we assume it as opposed to how it is supposed to be and how we should perceive it. It's like our personal diaries are being read out aloud on the television screen.

Compliments to Director Kim Seok-yoon and gratitude to writer Park Hae-young (작가님) for bringing to us this extraordinary gem of a drama.

To the cast, Kim Ji-won, Lee Min-ki, Lee El, Son Seok-koo (and the supporting cast), for the amazing performances and portrayal of all your roles, thank you.

Last but not the least, Son Suk-koo 배우님, where were you all my life? Could there be a more perfect 구씨 (Mr Gu) than you, I don't think so.

"Something good will happen to you today. Immediately he spoke to them and said, 'Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid. (Mark6:50)"

오늘 당신에게 좋은 일이 있을 겁니다 - Something good will happen to you today.

Wishing, hoping and praying for everyone to wait to experience the good that life has to offer you. Don't give up. Good days are ahead.