Netflix K-drama My Liberation Notes: Kim Ji-won, Lee Min-ki and Lee El play siblings in mature series about social pressure
- Korean drama series about the pressures faced by young adults in South Korea follows three siblings who work in Seoul and have a long daily commute
- One of the themes of My Liberation Notes is the pressure South Koreans feel to get married before they reach a certain age
Four years after her rapturously received series My Mister, writer Park Hae-young is back with My Liberation Notes, another grounded, sharp and family-driven drama with a realistic workplace focus.
Leading the cast as three grown-up siblings in the South Korean countryside are Kim Ji-won, Lee Min-ki and Lee El. Their characters struggle with long daily commutes to and from the capital city, Seoul, and dim marriage prospects.
Son Suk-ku plays taciturn alcoholic Mr Gu, who works for their father and lives in a cottage next door.
Mi-jung (Kim Ji-won) and Ki-jung (Lee El) both work in offices, while Chang-hee (Lee Min-ki) zigzags around the city maintaining convenience stores.
At the end of the day they all return home to Sando, a small country village far from Seoul. It’s so distant that on the nights they have to stay out past the last train, they need to share the cab fare home.
Seoul, with its skyrocketing real estate prices, is surrounded by Gyeonggi province. As one of Chang-hee’s exes describes it, Seoul is like the rich yolk surrounded by Gyeonggi’s bland egg white.