Il diario della mia libertà (2022)

Good Enough

Korean Drama " My Liberation Notes " is a slice of life melodrama.

My main problem with it is the pace. It felt off and the presentation of the story didn't suit well for me, as it was not cohesive.

Other than that, the story is pretty intense, with tragic characters, meaningful moments, simple, and yet, powerful scenes.

The romance, moreover, was original and didn't overshadow the main point of the drama. Rather, it let the characters shine and live their burdersome lives.

The performances, finally, were all great by everyone in the cast.

So, overall, seven out of ten.

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High quality, heavy load

Has this drama high quality? Absolutely yes.
Was acting good? Perfectly. I can give 100 out of 10 to everyone (idk why but maybe except Lee Min Ki)
Was the story interesting and unusual? YES!
Were the dialogues meaningful and thought-provoking? Definitely.
Did I enjoy watching this drama? No. A big no.
Did I finish it no matter what? Yes.
It was a heavy load on my shoulders which I am still feeling. Wasnt enjoyable for me at all except few scenes. Why? Cuz it was so relatable for me. Relatable much as giving pain to me. Some fears mentioned were my own fears that I am afraid to mention. Some frustrations were my own frustrations that I can't find any way out. Some weariness was my own weariness that I am struggling with for many years. This drama didn't do any good to me. At the beginning of the drama, we were all sad. All characters and me. And at the end, at least some of them are happy compared to the beginning, I am still sad. Nor their sadness neither their happiness made me happy.
I can see that why many people like this drama that much. It is in a different league compared to most of the dramas. But I prefer dramas with lower quality and higher pleasing level.
According to me who can enjoy this drama most? Adults who are satisfied with their lifes. They might have problems in their past, but now they should be happy about their life in general. I think for younger people like teenagers, it can be a boring drama with 'pessimistic adults', it can be seen as "unrealistically plaintive" even if it is totally real. And I think for the adults like me, adults who have big problems, who have big disappointments, who have to deal with things that they've never thought they are gonna deal with before, this drama is heavy load. I am happy to finish this drama finally. I would never start it at the beginning if i've known it is something like this.

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Coup de cœur pour ce voyage initiatique rare

J'irai à l'essentiel sur cette critique, les précédentes déjà publiées sont excellentes. Cependant, je ne pouvais pas ignorer ce drama.
Cela fait deux coups de cœur à la suite. "Run On" et maintenant "My Liberation Notes". Deux dramas qui, sur le papier, ne semblent rien avoir en commun, et pourtant. C'est l'histoire d'une vie (ou plusieurs) qui est à un moment de son existence où les choses bougent et changent. Ce point, ils l'ont en commun, quant au reste...

"My Liberation Notes" est volontairement lent. Sa lenteur vient accentuer le quotidien morose des personnages et de leurs situations. Que ce soit par le fait de prendre le bus et le train matin et soir, ou de répéter les mêmes gestes au travail. Cette répétitivité nous immerge plus en profondeur dans leur quotidien. On se sent, au fil des épisodes, appartenir à cette famille et on s'attache profondément à eux. On sourit, on rit et on pleure.
Tout au long du drama, on voit une analyse personnelle et une introspection qui demande du temps, mais est nécessaire pour l'avancement dans leurs vies respectives. A aucun moment la série n'apporte un jugement sur tels ou tels choix. C'est intime, réel et franc. On ne facilite pas la vie des personnages, au contraire ! Ce n'est pas le but.
D'ailleurs, chacun affronte ses démons à sa manière. Mais cela n'est jamais abordé comme un problème, en revanche, on ressent cet étouffement de la part des autres. C'était comme si nous devions vivre "cette" vie. Parce qu'elle est acceptable et parce qu'il s'agit de la "bonne" chose à faire.

Le casting était écrasant de puissance. La réalisation était magnifique, tout comme les prises de vues. Pour être née et avoir grandi à la campagne, j'ai aimé cette plongée et cette alternance entre Sanpo et Seoul. La vie traditionnelle qui se confronte à la vie moderne.
Cependant, tout le monde n'appréciera pas. Certains pourront reprocher un manque d'action ou une absence scénaristique, pourtant, son réalisme en fait un drama aussi unique que "Run On" à mes yeux.

En bref, c'est un drama franc et honnête. Un aperçu de la vie réelle sans superficialité. Une quête de liberté comme peu d’autres.

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Les prisons intérieures sont les pires...

J’ai beaucoup aimé, comme le plus souvent ce que j’appelle (avec humour !) les dramas dépressifs, mon étalon de mesure étant l’excellentissime « My mister ».

My liberation notes souffre un peu, à mes yeux, d’une difficulté de départ à mettre les choses en place, particulièrement concernant la fille aînée dont j’ai eu un peu de mal à comprendre les motivations ! Il est clair que leur vie, à chacun des trois, ne leur convient pas, et qu’ils cherchent chacun à leur façon comment se sortir de ce marasme qui est plus dans leur tête que dans la réalité quotidienne. Il va se passer quelques évènements qui vont cristalliser ce désir de se libérer de ces chaînes invisibles ! 
L’obstination de l’entreprise où travaille Yom Mi Jong, à vouloir lui faire intégrer un club, matérialise ce pouvoir extérieur écrasant ! La rencontre des deux seuls autres personnes dans son cas sera le départ d’une démarche de libération !  En passant, si les entreprises coréennes sont réellement comme ça, obligeant leurs employés à pratiquer un hobby en dehors du travail, mais dans le cadre de clubs gérés par l’entreprise, c’est tout simplement horrible ! Et ce qui l’est plus encore c’est que tout le monde l’accepte comme la normalité, tout le monde, non… sauf trois irréductibles ! 

Le fil rouge de l’histoire est la relation qui va s’instaurer entre M.Gu et Mi Jeong, relation très différente des romances dramaesques  habituelles, et au travers de laquelle on va découvrir qui est réellement cet homme mystérieux ! 
Comme toujours on entrevoit le rôle de la famille, des parents, ou des fratries, souvent tyranniques, mais parfois aussi généreuses et ouvertes (la mère de la famille Yeom…) Le caractère original de la sœur aînée donne lieu à des situations à la fois cocasses et touchantes par leur maladresse… Le fils, son ambition est d’avoir une voiture, et sa joie délirante quand on lui en prête une, luxueuse, et encore une fois très drôle et aussi émouvante ! 

Il faut se laisser prendre par l’ambiance, l’atmosphère du drama, à la fois banale et très spéciale par les personnages très intelligemment écrits qui, dans des situations triviales ont des réactions personnelles particulières et fortes. 
Le drama est soutenu donc par son écriture, sa réalisation classique mais intelligente et précise, mais surtout par un casting génial ! 
J’ai adoré voir Lee Min Ki oublier le héros romantique pour un très beau personnage à contre-emploi, dans lequel il donne toute la mesure de son grand talent ! Celui qui soutient aussi tout le drama, c’est sans conteste Son Suk Ku (M.Gu) qui joue magnifiquement de son mystère et de l’ambiguïté de ce héros souvent négatif, mais fascinant, et dont l’impact sur chacun sera déterminant ! 
Kim Ji Won lui donne parfaitement la réplique et sait, elle aussi, nous faire ressentir ses doutes, ses interrogations et sa recherche d’une liberté intérieure. 
Le reste la distribution est à l’avenant : Lee El, la sœur aînée dont parfois on se dit qu’elle est un peu fêlée, le père, Cheon Ho Jin, qui ne dit pas plus de 10 phrases mais dont la présence soutenue par sa longue expérience est puissante, les amis du fils, les collègues de travail, et particulièrement Li Ki Woo, que je n’avais croisé que dans des personnages fort antipathiques, incarne ici un père veuf aux prises avec une ado en pleine période de puberté avec beaucoup de délicatesse et de finesse. 

Je ne peux pas dire grand chose de l’OST, ce qui signifie que pour moi elle est parfaite du moment que je ne m’en souviens pas !
La fin ? Ouverte et sans une once de guimauve ou de fleur bleue, il n’y a ni résilience miraculeuse ni rédemption mélodramatique, mais la sensation que tous ont enfin trouvé leur place ! 

Je conseille fortement ce drama, à ranger dans la catégorie des « Misaeng », « My mister », « the third charm » ou « Reply 88 » ! 

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Must watch drama

There are things in this drama that could have been different but I still give it a 10. It is a drama that really touched my heart and I could relate to the main character, it is a beautiful drama.
To be honest the first episode bored me but I'm glad I gave it a second chance, the plot is simple but I couldn't stop watching it.
The last episodes were very sad but I liked how the characters dealt with it. I'm really going to miss this drama. In the future I am sure that I will see it again, now it has a deep meaning for me.
Obviously there were things that I didn't like like, for example, that Gu didn't overcome his alcoholism problem, I would really have liked his character to change like the others.

I really have to say its not a drama for everyone.

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Missing my Worship couple and Yeom Siblings <3

I will not pretend I'm happy.
I will not pretend  to be unhappy.
I will be honest.
I hoped every man who ever left me would be unhappy.
As if I wanted all the people who saw how small I was to disappear from this world, I hoped they die.
For you, I'm going to hope that you never even catch cold.
I'm going to hope that you don't suffer a single day of being hungover.


- Mi Jung to Mr. Gu


I love, love this drama! When I saw the trailer and found out that Lee Min Ki, Kim Ji Won and Lee El will be there, I was excited. So I was bidding my time to watch it, as I want to binge watch it or have it at 14 episodes, but then Gong Yoo recommended it and it added to more excitement. So I decided to watch it and there's no return. I discover this wonderful and amazing actor: Son Sukku and his amazing interpretation of Mr. Gu. I love the problematic siblings and the worship couple. How rich, raw, realistic, believable, and just relatable characters they're playing. The cinematography, OST, rich dialogues, some funny antics, their struggles, and concerns in life were all surprisingly relatable! I can easily imagine myself experiencing and relate with their concerns, frustrations, doubts, fears and struggles in life. Funny how, whenever I see the worship couple, even though they lack skinship, and yet they make me giddy, excited and have butterflies in my stomach. I already prepared myself to cry like there's no tomorrow, when I watched the last episode. As I feel like Mr. Gu will end up dead, or already dead and that it's Mi Jeong's memory that were reminiscing. It's a good thing that I was wrong and that the ending is imperfectly imperfect for me. They were all liberated with all their concerns, frustrations, fears and doubts in life.

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If you keep leaving will you continue living?

You never hated your hometown, but you also never had any special attachment to it. You've always wanted to be somewhere else. You wanted to leave. There's this suffocating feeling with the realization that you will keep growing or existing in the same place where you were born. It's like being seventeen and still wearing the same shoes you were wearing when you were seven.

If you keep leaving will you continue living? As if the only way you can keep surviving is if you keep changing. You kept changing, but you never evolved. The desire for leaving turned into a fascination for death. Suddenly, from being an innocent child drowning in ambitions and hope, you're an angsty, jaded pubescent. You changed your mind a million times each day. You were convinced you stopped growing a long time ago and you're just growing old now. Foolish. You were not precocious, you were just mentally ill.

You were young and your brutal, or perhaps innocent, honesty never concerned itself with the consequences. You grew a little older and you suddenly don't want to talk anymore. You buried your honesty to die. Silent, passive, and stuttering. You felt everything and you felt nothing. Your thoughts ran rapidly, but they never made sense.

Helpless. Incapable. The days are dull and unchanging. You wanted to be liberated from all of these. You wanted death, but you also envy the future. The darkness was exhausting, but it was obscurity that gave you home. Then, it occurred to you once again. You don't need a home. You were not supposed to be attached to places. You have to keep leaving in order to continue living. You realized that you might not have a strong attachment with your hometown, but it is a place that will always bring you comfort. Indeed, it is a comfortable home, but you also have to grow, discover, and learn.

Time has passed. You are uncertain how long has it been, but you are certain how much you wanted to live now. Death is only a reality to you now, not a desire nor a fascination. You no longer envy the future, but you hope and strive for it. The childhood that you have forgotten, you don't try to recall it anymore, but you are living it. Just like the innocent assertiveness of a child, you are convinced that you are capable of being everything. You laugh more these days. You have joy and immeasurable dreams. You have faith in spite of all the uncertainties.

Are you liberated? Perhaps, not completely. Perhaps, you are just Mr. Gu, who has decided today to throw away his bottle of liquor instead of drinking it; who has given himself and others the chance to receive mercy instead of constant rough punishment. You might just be Mi-jeong who has chosen grace instead of hostility, who has finally understood now her own capability. You are Gi-jeong who has more love now than judgement; she never hid her honesty, but she speaks more of life now than mere brutality.

Or you are just Chang-hee. He was not able to acquire the riches and power he wanted, but he was enriched with the wisdom of life. He did not have to climb a thousand won mountain, the mountain he was searching for was inside him already. It was somewhat ridiculous that his life was continuously fulfilled by the deaths that he encountered. Through the leaving of others, he lived a meaningful epiphany.

Trudging on step-by-step; five seconds, seven seconds, until at least, five minutes of joy each day. Liberation is not solely a one process. Though, surely, we will entirely grasp it one day.

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Beautiful but with confusing last few episodes!!!!

The only reason I gave it a 8.5 and not lower than that is because I was really enjoying this drama until ep 14 came. I feel like after the time skip, the story became very chaotic and rushed with too much emphasis on the main couple (mi jeong and gu). Chang hee's story was so sudden like, when did he and heon a fall in love and why they separate again, what is this connection between him and that ex bf of hyeon a and so on... Also as the other reviewers wrote, his friendship with mr gu could have been more focussed, as it looked like the friendship was only from Chang hee's side.
The character I related the most was with yeom gi jeong. I really enjoyed her romance story more than mi jeong's to be honest. I felt like her story should have gotten equal coverage like the other two sibling's stories got.
Overall, for me the story was beautiful until the mother's death after which it went downhill (of course you would want to continue watching it in order to find out what happens at the end). But I would still recommend you all to watch it.

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It’s a no.

This was one of the most boring and dullest dramas I’ve ever watched. I understand it’s genre and that it was intentionally projected this way. idk if the English subs were just bad but even the dialogue wasn’t that great to me. it didn’t make much sense too. The dialogues were so random and irrelevant. Even though it’s completely relatable stuff I’m also just at a loss for words at how mundane and overly dull their lifestyle was. They need vitamin D in their lives, it might help with the depressive lifestyle they have. Their outlook on life is just so very uninspiring and hopeless. I did not gain anything valuable. I did cry and the acting was superb. But definitely not my genre.

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Like Reading A Collection of Diaries

I don't like the categories for rating on here. My 4 categories are Acting/Cast, Writing, Direction/SFX/Music, Entertainment Value.

I picked up this drama because I had a headache and wanted to watch something calm. I had it on while doing other things; I didn't think I would pay too much attention to it. However, it drew me in and I found myself completely focused on this drama.

Acting/Cast: I wasn't sure about the cast at first, but they all really grew on me. I may not have necessarily personally liked certain characters, but they all felt very believable and well-acted. I really related to the younger sister, Mi Jeong, a nice, soft-spoken girl with some talent who repeatedly gets taken advantage of. I also felt empathetic towards the older sister, Gi Jeong, watching her try so hard to make a change and take risks, only to keep getting knocked down and publicly humiliated. I would say the brother, Chang Hui, and his storyline was probably the most annoying, but even that storyline, I didn't feel as though I wanted to skip over it. 5.5/10

Writing: I knew this drama was written by the same person that wrote My Ahjusshi, Park Hae Young (which I really enjoyed), so of course I was comparing the two dramas the entire time. This drama is dialogue heavy, especially compared with My Ahjusshi, which is something I typically don't like. However, I felt the dialogue was purposeful and listening to the characters expressing their thoughts was like reading a diary. Also, this drama is not dramatic at all, whereas My Ahjusshi had some intense scenes. It's very "slice-of-life"; very relatable. However, I think that those who have never struggled with depression may not relate to or enjoy this drama. In addition, this drama is very open-ended, more so than My Ahjusshi. Nothing is truly resolved in My Liberation Notes for any of the characters and this is completely intentional. Do I understand why? Yes. Do I like it? No, but I usually don't like open endings. While watching My Ahjusshi (it's been a while but...), I remember wishing I could just skip over the side stories; the main story was way more interesting to me. However, with My Liberation Notes, I had no desire to skip over any of the storylines. There's a time jump towards the end of the drama that was a bit jarring. I think it's because things drastically changed without preparing the viewers for it. Also, the story wasn't linear anymore and kept jumping back and forth between past and present. I liked the Mr. Gu character, but he wasn't nearly developed as much as the other main characters. In consequence, his character felt sort of hollow towards the end of the drama. I thought we would get more back story on him but unfortunately, we never do. In any case, this drama seems like it's based on a true story, but to my knowledge, it isn't...it just feels very realistic. So in that sense, the writing is well done. 8/10

Direction/SFX/Music: The vibe of this drama actually reminded me of Something In the Rain rather than My Ahjusshi. My Ajhusshi felt much darker. Maybe also similar to One Spring Night or Twelve Nights, except with a ton of dialogue. The OST is not my cup of tea but its fine. It has some variation to it. Listening to the OST on its own seems like the drama would be a lot happier than it actually is though. 5/10

Entertainment Value: This drama put me into a weird state of mind. There have been times when watching certain dramas would trigger depression in me. However, what I felt while watching this drama wasn't exactly depression or sadness and it wasn't quite calmness or hopefulness either. It was a strange in-between. Maybe melancholy? I found myself slowing down my movements, even my breathing. It was to the point where I was holding my breath in a lot...sort of like when you're sick or injured and you're trying to avoid exacerbating the pain. I never experienced an effect from a drama like this before. I didn't know if I liked this feeling or not, but I must have to some degree because I kept wanting to jump back into their world. Now that it's over, I'm not missing that feeling...I think. Anyway, I found myself hanging onto every word Mi Jeong spoke. I saw myself in her, but with one major difference - she seemed to have discovered the answer to her problems. I was looking to her for a revelation, but I'm still unsure of the hidden answer that she seems to have found. But then again, maybe she didn't actually find it...maybe she's just on the right path. I still don't understand how though. So, the drama left me feeling unfulfilled. 6/10

Overall, I gave this drama a 6/10. This is largely due to how incredibly open the ending itself is (as I personally tend to dislike open endings) and the change in the progression of the drama towards the end. A rating of 6 and above is in the "would recommend" zone, and yes I would recommend this drama if you like the slice-of-life genre. However, I think someone who hasn't struggled with depression may not like this drama and may find the characters annoying. I was able to relate a lot to them though.

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