Can't I leave?

The intertwined lives and identities of two women—during World War II and the Korean War—unfold, revealing the harsh realities of class division in the first half of the 20th century. "Can't I Leave?" traces the lives of a Korean noblewoman's daughter and her maid in the early 20th century. When the daughter's fiancé is arrested as a Korean independence activist, and she becomes implicated during the investigation, she is soon forced to marry one of her father's Japanese employees and travels to the United States. Meanwhile, her maid is sent to be a comfort woman for the Imperial Japanese Army. Comfort women were Korean women exploited in the most horrific ways by the Imperial Japanese Army. What follows are years mixed with hardship, survival attempts, and even happiness. In the aftermath of World War II, the two women return home, where they must forget the complex lives they lived, in an attempt to reclaim their identities and find their place in independent Korea. "Can't I Leave?" is an extraordinary historical work full of twists and turns, joys and sorrows, shedding light on the history of a nation—its pains and struggles—but at the same time, it never fails to focus on the lives of its two main characters.