My Liberation Notes
私の解放日誌
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
"Worship me." Three siblings on the edge of Seoul and a nameless stranger — the drama that made a verb out of longing.
The Yeom siblings live with their parents in Sanpo, a village in Gyeonggi Province, and lose hours every day commuting into Seoul. Ki-jeong, the eldest, works at a research firm and has decided she will love anyone at all this year. Chang-hee, the middle child, works at a convenience-store chain's head office and wants a car and some sign of respect from his father. Mi-jeong, the youngest, a contract designer at a credit card company, is worn out, quietly lonely and still being nice to an ex-boyfriend who owes her money. Working at their father's sink factory is a silent stranger the family calls Mr. Gu, who drinks from morning to night.
Mi-jeong asks Gu to 'worship' her. She means, she explains, to cheer her on and tell her she can do anything, and she offers to do the same for him. At work she and two colleagues start a 'liberation club'. Slowly she and Gu grow close, and they kiss. But Gu once managed clubs for a shady Seoul businessman, Chairman Shin, and that life comes looking for him. He leaves Sanpo.
Three years later he is the chairman's right-hand man, rich and miserable. He goes back to Sanpo and finds another woman in the house: Mi-jeong's mother died in her sleep soon after he left, her father has remarried, and the children have moved to Seoul. Gu and Mi-jeong begin meeting again. He tells her he drinks to silence the voices of people from his past; she admits she has kept her ex as someone to hate, and when they meet by chance he finally apologises. Chang-hee, who found their mother's body, now owns a convenience store, pays off his father's debt and hears his first word of praise; he sits with his friend Hyun-ah's dying ex-boyfriend to the end, then wanders by mistake into a class for funeral directors, and stays. Ki-jeong is still fighting for her relationship with Tae-hoon, a single father from Mi-jeong's club whose family has not accepted her. Gu, still drinking, tries Mi-jeong's advice to welcome the people who wronged him and to notice small moments of happiness. In her notes Mi-jeong writes that her life divides into before and after him, and that she feels lovable now. The series ends on her smile.
Starring
Kim Ji-wonas Yeom Mi-jeong
The youngest sibling, a worn-out contract designer who asks a stranger to 'worship' her and starts a liberation club.
Yeom Mi-jeong’s story
Mi-jeong is lonely and still being nice to an ex-boyfriend who owes her money. She asks the silent stranger at her father's factory, Mr. Gu, to 'worship' her, to cheer her on, and offers to do the same for him. With two colleagues she starts a liberation club. She and Gu grow close and kiss; then he leaves Sanpo. When her mother dies in her sleep, she keeps her grief in and calls Gu's number, knowing it will not connect. Three years later Gu returns, and they meet again. She admits she has kept her ex as someone to hate, and when they meet by chance, he apologises. In her notes she writes that her life divides into before and after Gu, and that she feels lovable now. The series ends on her smile.
Son Suk-kuas Mr. Gu
A silent, hard-drinking stranger working at the family's sink factory, who is hiding a past managing clubs in Seoul.
Mr. Gu’s story
Gu tells no one his name and drinks from morning to night. When Mi-jeong asks him to 'worship' her, he says she knows nothing about him; then he lets her close, and they kiss. He is hiding from Chairman Shin in Seoul, and when the chairman's men find him, he goes back. Three years later, Shin's right-hand man, rich and miserable, he returns to Sanpo to find Mi-jeong's mother dead and the family gone. He and Mi-jeong meet again; he tells her he drinks to silence the voices of people from his past. Still drinking, he tries her advice: he tells the old colleague who has run off with the money that he will welcome him back, and walks on, counting small moments of happiness.
Lee Min-kias Yeom Chang-hee
The talkative middle sibling, an office worker at a convenience-store chain who wants a car and his father's respect.
Yeom Chang-hee’s story
Chang-hee breaks up with his girlfriend before she can decide he is a loser. He befriends the silent Gu whether Gu likes it or not, and drives Gu's borrowed car until his father makes him stop. He quits his job. When their mother dies in her sleep, it is Chang-hee who finds her, and afterwards he looks after his father. Three years on he owns a convenience store, has paid off his father's debt and hears his first word of praise. He and Hyun-ah, by then a couple, split up, but he sits with her dying ex-boyfriend to the end, as he did with his grandparents and his mother. Then he walks into the wrong classroom, a course for funeral directors, and stays.
Lee Elas Yeom Ki-jeong
The eldest sibling, a researcher who decides she will love anyone this year and falls for a single father.
Yeom Ki-jeong’s story
Ki-jeong's blind dates go badly. She apologises to Tae-hoon, a single father from Mi-jeong's club, for something careless she said in front of him, and falls for him. He tells her he will be the 'anyone' she has resolved to love this year, and they start dating, though his sister is against it. After her mother dies, Ki-jeong, impulsive as ever, asks him to marry her, and he says yes. Three years on they have agreed to marry when his daughter, Yu-rim, turns twenty. His sister and Yu-rim have still not accepted her, and the strain shows on both of them, but they keep going.
Why it matters
My Liberation Notes is about a kind of exhaustion that rarely gets a drama of its own: the long commute, the job that demands friendliness, the family that loves without saying so, the sense of a life that is not terrible, only small. Its writer, Park Hae-young, gives her characters a private vocabulary for what they lack, and two of its words, 'worship' and 'liberation', were taken up warmly by its audience, the first meaning to believe in someone and tell them so. Critics praised how it caught the pressures on young adults in Korea. It is frank about grief, which arrives without warning, and, as one recapper objected, lighter than it should be about Gu's alcoholism. In place of a cure it offers attention: small happinesses counted, anger put down, a life divided into before and after being seen. What it leaves open is whether being believed in by one person can be enough to live on.