Park Ji-yeon drew attention as the main character in episode 5 of the Netflix series ″Punishment.″

In the drama, Park Ji-yeon played the role of ″Woo-jin’s mother,″ a parent who overprotects her son and repeatedly files malicious complaints against teachers. She portrayed various villainous acts such as spying on the teacher’s private life and spreading false information on mom cafes. Scenes that caught viewers’ attention included her sending messages day and night with the line, ″My child’s father is very angry,″ and falsely accusing the homeroom teacher of ″emotional child abuse.″ In the latter part, the tension heightened with an emotional outburst during a confrontation with Supervisor Na Hwa-jin (played by Kim Moo-yeol) from the Teacher’s Rights Protection Bureau.

After the release of the series, various reactions from domestic and international viewers about Park Ji-yeon’s acting flooded SNS and online communities. Comments such as ″I really grabbed the back of my neck watching Woo-jin’s mother,″ and ″The acting is so good it gives me goosebumps″ praised her realistic performance.

Recently, Park Ji-yeon shared behind-the-scenes photos on her SNS, stating, ″I participated as Woo-jin’s mother in episode 5 of ’Punishment’.″ She revealed, ″Since it’s a work dealing with meaningful stories, I approached the project with extra care.″ The posted photos included images of her holding the script and scenes from the filming set. In the comments, Kim Hee-chul wrote, ″Ah, I almost cursed here too... I watched it well while cursing,″ and Lee Mi-do also showed support with a comment saying, ″You’re amazing.″

With support from fellow celebrities, Park Ji-yeon’s acting is becoming a hot topic.