Kim Ji-won's My Liberation Notes turns three: A 'life-changing' profound K-Drama, say fans

Some dramas are gobbled and devoured in one sitting. Some, need to be chewed carefully and you keep going back to the memory of the taste, and how it made you feel. That’s the power of My Liberation Notes, a deeply profound drama starring the brilliant Kim Ji-won, an actress who is a force of nature when it comes to such nuanced dramas.

The power of the show lay in its ability to weave meaning from the mundane — finding companionship in solitude and the quiet courage to voice thoughts long held within. It’s not meant to be binge-watched at top speed and is very slow-paced and perhaps not everyone’s cup of tea. It’s about being lost in your thoughts, lost in your head, rather, and finding your way.

The story revolves around three siblings, who all live in a fictional village named Sanpo. Any chance of a vibrant social life slips away, lost in the long commute between their village and the city. Chang-Hee ( Lee Min-ki) is the middle child and has no particular ambition. Kim Ji-won is the youngest, who is wearied by her daily life and just wants to be free from this overwhelming sense of exhaustion. Life is simple: They go to work, and return to help their parents, and yet each yearns for something that they don’t know yet.

And then enters Mr Gu (Son Suk-ku), who is hired by their father to help him. Yet, he is trapped too in his own world, and craves liberation. And so begins an unlikely friendship between him and Ji-won’s Mi-Jeong.

As the show marks its third anniversary today, fans took to Twitter to reminisce about its profound depth and the emotional chords it struck, especially in highlighting the feeling of isolation. One fan wrote, “It created something very meaningful out of ordinary. Not something grand, but it's the routine and repetitive places that tell its beautiful tale. The station, the path to their home, the bus, the train, the field that witness their journey to liberation.”

Others recalled the quiet dialogues and the surreal music that accompanied the series—as one would expect during our wistful moments in life.