DramaAjumma

Why does it feel that the franchise deteriorates with every new installment? Except Survivor which I liked more than the second one.
I like Gala and i know why he gets picked to do these genius detective roles but can't they do a better job with the script? And why such a hackneyed job with the humour and romance?

I'm not trying to convince you to continuing to watch the show. That's an individual choice. However, what I think is also now under contention here now is how much tragedy is too much. Furthermore, I would also press home the point that even in tragic or gloomy situations there are silver linings. Let's take the recent character death. It's sad for the other members of the family and the audience. But because of that death, the family bands together after being a fairly disconnected unit. They become united in their grief. Even Chang-hee leaving his job turned out to be timely because it meant that he could spend more time thinking about what his family needs post-mortem. For a long time he was introspective of his own issues. They all were and it took that particular event to rethink life as they were living it.

To your point that packaging tragic events in one drama being a bit artificial doesn't really hold up when I think of real life instances. Even if that point were to be true, My Liberation Notes is not that unique among K dramas for portraying some people's lives as one long stream of tragedy. It happens fairly routinely. I'm not bothered by it personally because dramas to me are constructed narratives about aspects of our flawed human condition. Also Koreans have a particular spiritual worldview that they promulgate about the importance of suffering in life.

My former massage therapist used to regale me with stories about his daughter and grandkids all the time. She had a mountain of health problems, three unmanageable children and a string of failed relationships with men. All three of her kids were fathered by different men. After years of being supported by him with weekend babysitting, she turns against her own father, cutting off contact with him. He can't understand why when he's been nothing but supportive. He himself was divorced twice and lost his third wife to cancer, still working full time when most in his age bracket have retired.

I'm sure that when Thoreau said that the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation, it wasn't just hyperbole.

There's all kinds of art isn't there? It runs the entire gamut of emotions. Art is essentially the stories we tell about ourselves and the world we live in, so it follows not all stories are brimming with happy events. Tragedy and gloom are a part of life. For some, a very big part of it. The Greeks certainly believed that tragedy can be cathartic for the audience.

To be honest, I don't think My LIberation Notes is all that gloomy either. It has the right balance of humour, bleakness and hope.

She's said a couple of times previously that she's almost 40.

Perhaps it's my educational background but the teacher here is highly unprofessional and is being romanticized for it like it's no different from any other context where a love triangle might occur. The problem isn't the age gap but egregious infringements of code of conduct. His behaviour has all the hallmarks of grooming. It's one thing for the central character to have a crush on the teacher and it's another for the teacher to act inappropriately with someone under his care, leading her to have ideas that this is "love".

The interesting though is that the high school lad is far more sensible and mature than the teacher. Who would have thought?

The lead actress is good though.

You're welcome. :D

Thank you for your kind words.

My take on Episodes 11 and 12
https://40somethingahjumma.substack.com/p/my-liberation-notes-2022-episodes?s=w

Me too. :D

All in all this was a good drama and I have no regrets picking it up and putting other dramas on hold to see it through to the end. Although it seems on the surface to be a woman's drama or Ning Meng's drama but really I think this show has one of the best growth arcs I've ever seen of a male lead in the last decade of watching modern Asian dramas. I would venture to be so bold as to say that Lu Jiming's arc is actually far more interesting than most CEO dramas because the show doesn't focus on romance. Lu Jiming unlike a lot of jerk CEOs, has to earn his right to take his relationship with his lady love to the next level. Despite the fact that they don't officially become a couple until the last few minutes, everybody knows that they are meant to be. They have always been a good team even when she was his secretary and that's one of my favourite romance tropes: a couple who work as a team to solve problems.

The two main male leads obviously serve as important contrasts because they both handled adversity rather differently. That was certainly one of the more interesting aspects of the show. Although the show tries to skirt around whether or not love saved Lu Jiming, I think it definitely had a part to play in his comeback only because I don't think Ning Meng was purely motivated by friendship or loyalty to support him but I agree that Jiming had to take the first step on his own, get his act together before anyone else could come alongside him. I really have a lot of love for Lin Gengxin who just goes from strength to strength with each new drama.

What I did like about this so-called love triangle was that neither of the guys were perfect but that it was in part about timing and in part about having shared goals. What is the goal? To build something that lasts or is it just to prey on others?

If there's a nitpick I have of this show I think it's the fact that it paints a rather rosy if unrealistic picture of Ning Meng's rise through the ranks. It's a rather idealistic view of what the industry could/should be rather than what it is really is.
(8.8/10)

Whose ex-husband? Do you mean the ex-girlfriend's husband? If so, yes. Her husband is Jason.

Su Weiran always seemed so odd to me. Low energy and creepy. He always looked like he was hiding something.

I honestly didn't think she had much chemistry with Wallace. I found her acting more problematic than his TBH.

Clearly any conversation about chemistry is going to be somewhat subjective. Perhaps the fact that other commenters are "ignoring" that particular factor is possibly because they don't think it's a problem or that there's even a lack of chemistry.
Everyone has their own views on this but personally for me I thought that they had chemistry from Day 1.

Clearly any conversation about chemistry is going to be somewhat subjective. Perhaps the fact that other commenters are "ignoring" that particular factor is possibly because they don't think it's a problem or that there's even a lack of chemistry.
Everyone has their own views on this but personally for me I thought that they had chemistry from Day 1.

Personally I prefer the way romance is done here to the "start dating early and break up and then get back together half an hour before the show ends".

While you can say that about Su Weiran and Ning Meng, I don't think Yimeng was trying to manipulate Jiming at all. Zeng Yuhang had just told her that Jiming has been waiting for her all this time and she was just responding to that. Afterall, (I'm not sure where you're at) she helps Jiming realise later that there's no dwelling on the past and that he had already changed. She was the one that helped set him free.

As far as Ning Meng continuing with Su Weiran despite the red flags, I think it's very consistent with who she is. She's idealistic and optimistic, always willing to give people a chance. And of course she felt sorry for him too for losing his longtime girlfriend.

Good to see Ning Meng dump the schizophrenic senior like a hot potato. DV should not be acceptable under any circumstances. He's been very manipulative and controlling from the start. Ning Meng shouldn't have to walk around her dating partner on eggshells.

The guy is very low energy unless he completely loses it.

I don't see how starting a company with Lu Jiming from scratch is resigning from her dream. The dream to do investment is still at the heart of the new company.

Besides I think we all know that Ning Meng's rapid rise to the top of the corporate ladder is rather unrealistic and this is just the show's way of trying to prove to Lu Jiming that he was wrong about her in the first place.

https://40somethingahjumma.substack.com/p/my-liberation-notes-2022-episode?s=w