“My Liberation Notes” (나의 해방일지)

By Jae-Ha Kim
Substack
June 17, 2022

☆☆☆☆
Yeom Chang-hee (played by Lee Min-ki)
Yeom Mi-jung (played by Kim Ji-won)
Mr. Goo (played by Son Seok-koo)
Yeom Ki-jung (played by Lee El)

I’m strapped for time, so this review will not be all that it can be. But I did want to jot down a few notes about this series, which is very beautifully executed in presenting a slice of life that doesn’t offer a fairy-tale ending — or offer finite solutions to ease the characters’ lives. Finding love doesn’t absolve your debts or ease your insecurities. But what this K-drama does do is allow for growth. Who the characters are at the start of the series is not who they are by the finale, and that’s a good thing.

The Yeoms are broken siblings who blame their dreary lives on their circumstances. Instead of being based out of Seoul like their office colleagues, they reside in the countryside with their parents. Which means their nights out are dictated by the final subway run or splurging on a cab together. Though they are in their mid- to late-30s, they don’t have a car to share, either. And their father won’t allow them to purchase one.

Not that they would have the money to buy an automobile anyhow. Chang-hee made some poor financial choices, while his youngest sister Mi-jung secretly took out a loan for thousands of dollars to help her then boyfriend, who dumped her without paying her back. I’m not sure where Ki-jung’s money went to, but she has just enough to go out with friends and primp for dates.

Their father runs a carpentry and sink business that caters to the struggling local community. Along with his wife, they also run a farm that the kids help with during the weekend. His best worker, though, is a quiet man who he hired without references. Mr. Goo works long hours, never complains and is as taciturn as Mr. Yeom. When they all share meals at the end of a long day, no one says anything because that’s how the patriarch prefers it.

Mr. Goo is closemouthed in general and prefers to keep to himself. He is a functioning alcoholic who is gossiped about, but doesn’t care what others have to say. When the youngest daughter decides that she wants someone to adore her, she asks him to be that person. It’s less of a romantic overture than a pact by two desperate people who long for comfort. (She actually uses the word 추앙해, which is translated in the subtitles as worship, which sounds almost cult-like. I believe the more correct translation is a combination of adore and respect.)

There is a scene where Mr. Goo asks Mi-jung’s father for her phone number. Though he knows why his employee is asking for it, he gives it to him. There is no judgment on his part, even though it’s obvious that Mr. Goo is suffering from substance abuse. What’s the likelihood that any father would want his precious daughter to date someone who clearly is harboring some serious demons? But with that said, there’s also a sector of parents who believe the worst fate for their unmarried daughter is to remain … unmarried.

As for eldest sister Ki-jung, she falls in love with a man whose daughter hates her for a variety of reasons — the most significant being that the child overheard Ki-jung telling her friends how much she disliked divorced men with children, unaware that she was seated next to such a family.

The show gets its title from a club Mi-jung forms at work, not because she wants to, but because the company pretty much forces all its employees to socialize with each other. The three lone members discuss mundane things about their lives and what they need to do to liberate themselves from their issues. They at first consider the club a chore, until they realize how precious their own thoughts and unresolved wishes are.

Airdates: Sixteen hour-long episodes aired from April 9 to May 29, 2022 on JTBC.

Spoiler Alert: After their mother unexpectedly dies, the children learn how difficult her life was, not only working alongside her husband, but quietly toiling away behind the scenes preparing meals, cleaning the house, doing the laundry — all the things that family members expect to be done, but don’t really think about how much time and effort it takes to do these chores day after day.

Mi-jung and Mr. Goo brought out the best in each other. But his life is a mess and it seems like no matter how they work through things, he will (unintentionally) drag her down — and that’s a scary process to watch, much less go through.

Mr. Goo eventually returns to his gangster life, where he dresses better and has minions to do his bidding. But after growing increasingly unhappy, he contacts Mi-jung and the two pick up where they left off. While the series hints that he will take a stab at giving up drinking, I was left wondering how having him back in her life would affect Mi-jung. This is a very sexy and attractive man who — when he left the countryside for his former life — changed his phone number so that she couldn’t contact him. Yes, he did what he thought was best for her. But in many ways, she had already liberated herself from him and was living a fulfilling life as her own person when he returned.

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