In "My Freedom Diary" and "The War in Us", a common point easily noticeable is the way characters are built around small people, feeling lost and always looking for reasons to continue living. This is also the familiar style of Park Hae Young - a famous screenwriter with everyday stories but rich in psychological depth.
In "My Freedom Diary", Yeom Mi Jeong (Kim Ji Won) is a model of a retracted character, carrying many inner wounds. She once shared: "Five minutes each day, just five minutes of relief is worth living". Small moments of happiness - like a few seconds of being thanked by strangers or a feeling of relief when waking up on weekends - become the character's way of holding onto themselves amidst prolonged fatigue.
From this philosophy, Gu Ja Gyeong (Son Seok Gu) also gradually changes when he begins to realize the value of very small joys. Moments that only last a few seconds - such as being helped or accidentally picking up a 500 won coin - are enough to create a feeling of "worth living".
This mindset continues to develop in "War in Us", when Byun Eun Ah (Go Yoon Jung) and Hwang Dong Man (Koo Kyo Hwan) talk about how to face emotions.
As a rational person and always trying to control herself, Eun Ah once believed that she could adjust her mood as she wanted, but gradually realized that emotions are not something that can be forced. Instead, she learned to accept and balance with small actions, such as "picking up a 500 won coin on the road" - a form of "small victory" that helps change her mental state.
The 500 won detail becomes a clear connection point between the two works. If in "My Free Diary", it is a metaphor for small values but enough for people to cling to, then in "War in Us", it is concretized into action - a simple but effective way to heal.
Not only stopping at symbols, Park Hae Young also maintains the way of building characters according to two opposite extremes - reason and emotion - like two sides of the same coin. If Eun Ah tries to control emotions with reason, Dong Man believes in natural reactions. This contrast partly evokes how Mi Jeong finds peace in negative thoughts, instead of trying to change reality.
Notably, the characters in Park Hae Young's films do not "break through" in the usual way. They change very slowly, but that transformation creates empathy with the audience. Without dramatic upheavals, very small moments in life - a thank you, a coin, or a few seconds of relief - become a xuyên suốt emotional support.
This storytelling style helps characters - even small and with many injuries - still clearly reflect the familiar states of people in modern life, thereby creating a unique attraction for the works.
