What a lovely trip down memory lane reading your newsletter. Watched them all and love them all too! My Liberation Notes and When the Camelia Blooms still stands in my top 10. Especially Camelia. As an adoptee who's story of her birthmother felt so akin to the one portrayed, I was gutted watching that episode of her reveal and backstory. After watching the series a second time, I also found myself realizing how much Dong Baek repeated the narrative of her abandonment, it was the mantra she had in her head and that felt oddly close to many adoptees. The lens through which you see your life will focus in a way that all evidence will point there if that's the way you need to see it....until you don't. I also loved that the story of the birthfather was included, the dialogue between him and his son; his grief and his inner conflict were all really well acted. I don't know if Korea felt this was comic relief, it was a relief he was human to me even if he was a superstar athlete. At the end of the day it's still a drama and yet not impossible. The best way to feel when watching a drama.
Joy, thanks so much for your input, especially your analysis on how Dong-baek's abandonment was handled. Many of us can only extrapolate what it must be/feel like, but it's the voices of adoptees such as yourself that are truly valuable. Thank you for all that you do!
Same. My Liberation Notes handled the topics so well, so much so that some viewers were not happy at the reality of it all. I always say: there's a K-drama for everyone! So if not this, there's something else!
My Liberation Notes stayed with me long after I finished watching/binging. I watched it during a time when I was feeling professionally stuck, so it really resonated with me. I know it was a hard watch for some, but it lingered with me to a point where I want to watch it again.
Thank you for this list. Two of the titles are on my still-to-see list, so now I'll be sure to watch them. The only one I've seen is My Liberation Notes which I found disappointing. I thought Son Seok-Koo was wonderful (he always is) but the siblings seemed so relentlessly self-pitying that I lost patience with them. I had been looking forward to the series because I believe it was written by the same writer as My Mister, which is an absolutely brilliant series, one of my two all-time favorites, which I wrote about extensively at 3 Quarks Daily: https://3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2020/07/the-beauty-of-sorrow-in-the-tv-masterpiece-my-mister.html Do you happen to know if that writer is working on a new series? She's incredibly talented.
Yes, Park Hae-young wrote both of the K-dramas you mentioned. I haven't heard about anything else that she is currently working on, but hopefully she is working on a new project now. "My Liberation Notes" (2022) was her last series.
What a lovely trip down memory lane reading your newsletter. Watched them all and love them all too! My Liberation Notes and When the Camelia Blooms still stands in my top 10. Especially Camelia. As an adoptee who's story of her birthmother felt so akin to the one portrayed, I was gutted watching that episode of her reveal and backstory. After watching the series a second time, I also found myself realizing how much Dong Baek repeated the narrative of her abandonment, it was the mantra she had in her head and that felt oddly close to many adoptees. The lens through which you see your life will focus in a way that all evidence will point there if that's the way you need to see it....until you don't. I also loved that the story of the birthfather was included, the dialogue between him and his son; his grief and his inner conflict were all really well acted. I don't know if Korea felt this was comic relief, it was a relief he was human to me even if he was a superstar athlete. At the end of the day it's still a drama and yet not impossible. The best way to feel when watching a drama.
Joy, thanks so much for your input, especially your analysis on how Dong-baek's abandonment was handled. Many of us can only extrapolate what it must be/feel like, but it's the voices of adoptees such as yourself that are truly valuable. Thank you for all that you do!
i still think about my liberation notes so much. also really enjoyed our blues- more than I thought I would!
Same. My Liberation Notes handled the topics so well, so much so that some viewers were not happy at the reality of it all. I always say: there's a K-drama for everyone! So if not this, there's something else!
My Liberation Notes stayed with me long after I finished watching/binging. I watched it during a time when I was feeling professionally stuck, so it really resonated with me. I know it was a hard watch for some, but it lingered with me to a point where I want to watch it again.
I think you summed it up very well, Cynthia. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
Thank you for this list. Two of the titles are on my still-to-see list, so now I'll be sure to watch them. The only one I've seen is My Liberation Notes which I found disappointing. I thought Son Seok-Koo was wonderful (he always is) but the siblings seemed so relentlessly self-pitying that I lost patience with them. I had been looking forward to the series because I believe it was written by the same writer as My Mister, which is an absolutely brilliant series, one of my two all-time favorites, which I wrote about extensively at 3 Quarks Daily: https://3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2020/07/the-beauty-of-sorrow-in-the-tv-masterpiece-my-mister.html Do you happen to know if that writer is working on a new series? She's incredibly talented.
Yes, Park Hae-young wrote both of the K-dramas you mentioned. I haven't heard about anything else that she is currently working on, but hopefully she is working on a new project now. "My Liberation Notes" (2022) was her last series.