When life gets too overwhelming, sometimes it is good to take a step back to heal, and in this week’s k-drama review we are talking about a production that is about healing and seeing the beauty of having a simple and quiet life. Let’s talk about ‘Summer Strike’.
Written and produced by Hong Moon-Pyo and Lee Yoon-Jung, ‘Summer Strike’ is based on the webcomic ‘I Don’t Feel Like Doing Anything’ by Joo Young-hyun.
Lee Yeo-Reum (Kim Seol-Hyun) has been trying to lead an uncomplicated life, she goes to work, follows the instructions of her superiors, goes home and sometimes sees her boyfriend, continuing this cycle non-stop.
However, Yeo-Reum’s life starts to get more and more difficult to live, she soon begins to get stepped on by her superiors at work, notices how unsupportive her boyfriend is, and unfortunately loses her mother.
Her life is hitting rock bottom, and she decides to leave everything behind and face the unknown. After falling in-love with a small town, Yeo-Reum decides to move to this sea-side city, where everything is new to her, but she can finally rest and do nothing.
The Art of Doing Nothing
Soon after moving into this town Yeo-Reum meets An Dae-Beom (Im Si-Wan), a math genius who works as a librarian and has awkward social skills. During the beginning of her new simple life, Yeo-Rum keeps finding herself in awkward situations after having too much to drink. However, these comical situations lead her to become close to Dae-Beom and some of the city locals.
While trying to discover who she really is, Yeo-reum decides to stay in the small town for the summer. She rents out an old billiard center to become her new home, with barely any money left she decides to rest, sleep until late, read in the library and master the art of doing nothing.
Little by little she becomes closer to some of the locals, starting with the high-school student Kim Bom (Shin Eun-soo) and her family. Yeo-reum tries to become a safe place for Bom, and becomes the sister she never had.
As the summer time continues, Yeo-reum starts to meet new sides of the people in this village, and a very special friendship with Dae-Beom starts to develop. Soon, her quiet and simple life takes a big dramatic turn after unfortunate events start to take place around her, making her doubt if moving to the city was a good decision to begin with.
‘I Don’t Feel Like Doing Anything’
‘Summer Strike’ is a drama that brings out serious topics such as burnout, bad parenting, work-place bullying and many more. What makes this drama special is the way it shows the beauty behind carrying a simple life, and how quitting everything might be the solution to finding ourselves once again.
This drama is currently available on Netflix, and you can watch the trailer below.
