My Liberation Notes

What kind of drama it is

Three siblings living in Sanpo, a fictional village in Gyeonggi Province far from Seoul, spend hours on the road every day commuting into the city. Work is draining, people are exhausting, and when they get home there is farm work waiting. Also staying at the house is an outsider who helps their father with his work, though nobody knows where he came from. This is not a drama driven by big events; it quietly looks at repetitive days and the emptiness that builds up inside them. The pleasure lies less in the plot than in watching how the characters' hearts slowly shift.

The makers and the cast

The screenplay is by Park Hae-young, who wrote Another Miss Oh and My Mister. She has a gift for portraying the tired everyday lives of ordinary people and the presence of someone who truly sees them. Kim Seok-yoon, who directed The Light in Your Eyes, directed. Lee El, Lee Min-ki and Kim Ji-won play the three siblings, and Son Seok-koo plays the mysterious outsider. Much of the show's strength comes from how all four convey so much through expression and breathing in scenes with few words.

• Aired: JTBC, 2022, 16 episodes
• Screenplay: Park Hae-young
• Director: Kim Seok-yoon
• The siblings: Lee El, Lee Min-ki, Kim Ji-won
• The outsider: Son Seok-koo

The question of liberation

The liberation of the title is not a grand revolution but something closer to a small wish to break free from one's daily life. The characters feel stifled without even being able to say clearly what binds them. When a few people who keep being urged to join company clubs end up forming a group of their own for those who fit in nowhere, it is their way of grappling with that question. Viewers naturally start asking what they themselves would like to be freed from, and that is a big part of why the show is still talked about. The word often lands harder when a character simply stares out of a window in silence than when it is spoken aloud.

Slow rhythm and silence

This drama is generous with the pauses between lines. Rides home on buses and trains, fields at dusk and glasses emptied in silence stretch out at length. It may feel slow at first, but that slowness is how the characters' fatigue is carried over into the viewer's own body. The changing seasons also play an important role, so it is worth watching how the weather and light on screen line up with what the characters are feeling.

Things to watch for

The show builds through small changes rather than plot, and keeping the points below in mind lets you watch it far more deeply.

• How differently each of the three siblings is worn out
• The shifting mood each time the commute scenes repeat
• The distance in scenes where the outsider and the family work together in silence
• Moments where the change of seasons overlaps with a character's feelings

Park Hae-young's world

Anyone who has seen My Mister will quickly sense a shared texture. People with nothing much to show for themselves socially, relationships in which no one pries into another's wounds yet they end up recognising each other, and comfort tucked into understated lines connect the two works. This one, though, gives more room to family and village, so it carries a stronger feel of everyday life. Watching the two back to back makes the questions the writer keeps returning to come into sharp focus.

Worth knowing before you start

The first few episodes spend their time introducing the characters, so if you expect events you may find them dull. Drinking scenes come up often, and a heavy mood of listlessness and loneliness runs throughout, which can weigh on you when you are already tired. On the other hand, many people say it comforted them in exactly such times, so set the pace to suit your own state. Watching one or two episodes a day fits its rhythm better than bingeing.

Who it suits

It resonates especially with office workers who have been worn down by repetitive commutes and relationships. If you prefer dramas that slowly follow a character's inner life over dramatic twists, you are likely to be satisfied. If you liked shows such as My Mister or When the Camellia Blooms that capture the warmth of ordinary people, it is well worth your time. By the end, you may find the scenery of your own daily life looks a little different. Rather than jumping straight to the next episode, pausing to let it linger and thinking back over the characters' day is a good way to watch.