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2 years of My Liberation Notes: 5 reasons why Kim Ji Won, Son Suk Ku, Lee Min Ki starrer aces slice-of-life narration
My Liberation Notes turns 2 since its release on April 9, 2022. Let’s celebrate the special day with a thorough look at the drama’s slice-of-life narrative.
My Liberation Notes is undoubtedly one of the best K-dramas to ever come from the Korean TV industry, which excels at exploring the slice-of-life genre. Through its slow-paced frames, the drama captures the beauty of life combined with understated acting by Kim Ji Won, Son Suk Ku, Lee Min Ki, and Lee El.
Though viewers can find minor dramatization, the nuanced storytelling rather focuses on portraying life’s reality. Thus, My Liberation Notes sail through many loose ends with no beginning, no middle, and no end, truly depicting the slice-of-life trope.
As the drama turns 2 years today since its release on April 9, 2022, let’s revisit 5 reasons why the drama is best at exploring the genre.
My Liberation Notes portrays life through a simple plot
The slice-of-life drama doesn’t try to overdramatize plots. The story follows the daily life of three siblings who all work in the cities and travel to their parents' village home at the weekend, where they help them out in their furniture shop and small farm.
The eldest sister (Played by Lee El) is in her 40s, while the youngest (played by Kim Ji Won) is somewhere in her 30s. Their brother (Lee Min Ki) belongs in between.
At their parents' farm, there is also a mysterious worker (Son Suk Ku), whose story is unknown. He sleeps, works, and drinks while the drama very slowly, very carefully unwraps his life.
Thus, My Liberation Notes carries on with its portrayal of daily life’s humdrum snippets.
Characters’ lives become as real as possible in My Liberation Notes
As revealed earlier, the beauty of this drama lies in its nature of portraying life in a realistic way. The drama doesn’t shy away from hiding characters’ awkward moments. The drama beautifully captures real families - disagreements between parents and children, siblings’ fights, father and son’s arguments, mother’s complaints for never-ending chrome, and more.
But, it also portrays how families come to each other’s save, despite all fights and arguments.
At the same time, My Liberation Notes also exhibit office workers’ mundane and exhausting life that feels like a punishment. The siblings grapple with unhealthy work culture, under-appreciation that hinders their growth, and more, which is often witnessed in real life.
When the romance blooms between Kim Ji Won and Son Suk Ku's character, the drama focuses on their shared pain and love, rather than romanticizing everything.
The drama also eschews the usual K-dramas’ way of showing a certain ending as the creators don’t even try to implicate a happy or sad ending, but rather leave it abruptly, as life itself is.
Kim Ji Won, Son Suk Ku, Lee Min Ki, and Lee El's portrayal of unfiltered human emotions bring sense to the slice-of-life plot
Without the talented stars’ incredible performance, My Liberation Notes would have been utterly incomplete. When you watch them ranting about their office life, expressing exhaustion, and engaging in intense conversation, you would be so immersed into the screen, with a familiar feeling.
My Liberation Notes delivers important lessons on inner healing
In our lives, we often bury our intense emotions to carry on with life, but it doesn’t help us in the long run, and that’s where My Liberation Notes comes to the rescue. With all the realistic narration, it truly gives you a sense that all emotions are valid. When the characters cry, your eyes turn teary, and when they laugh, you also feel the sunbeam touching you - overall it just delivers such a soothing and relaxing feeling, that you would want to rip open your heart and take a peek at your own feelings.
Takeaways from My Liberation Notes
In the end, My Liberation Notes delivers too many lessons, but the most important is, that one should never pretend to be happy or unhappy, but honest. Life is full of trials and errors, but while detouring, we should embrace our weak moments and grow a principle that we can firmly believe in.
The characters of this drama brilliantly teach us the liberating feeling of being true to ourselves without hiding our emotions, thus the name My Liberation Notes also becomes true to its name.
So, it’s definitely worth a rewatch after 2 years of its release if you want to lose yourself for some time, while also finding the meaning of life, bonus the Kim Ji Won-Son Suk Ku's on-screen chemistry and a really good OST.
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